I’ve often written for the Arbuturian about restaurants that offer superb value, where you can go and have a really excellent meal for £100 or less for two people, and where their previously little-known qualities should be extolled more widely. I must be frank at the outset. Cut is not one of these places, although I would argue that for the excellence of everything that you eat and drink here, you are not paying a king’s ransom unfairly.
But let me be honest; I may have had one of the most satisfying and enjoyable meals I’ve had all year at Wolfgang Puck’s British outpost of his much-loved brand (there are six others in locations from Bahrain to New York) but it is proper Park Lane spare-no-expense extravagance, not the kind of place that you’ll pop into for a casual supper. Got that? Good. Then let me praise its considerable virtues as it deserves.
You are not paying to go somewhere like Cut because it’s ‘just’ a steakhouse, very very good though it is. You are paying for a whole experience of comfort, style and sophistication. As soon as you walk in here, to be greeted with warmth and genuine sincerity by the brilliant (and superbly trained) staff, there is a comforting, soothing feel to the place. Holly Golightly famously claimed to adore Tiffany’s because nothing bad could ever happen in there. Much the same can be said of Cut, a place where the whole atmosphere is that of moneyed, tasteful luxury.
Everything here in terms of the food and wine is exemplary. An opening glass of Ruinart champagne is offered and welcome, followed by a selection of genuinely thought-out canapes and nibbles to begin; a selection of cheese gougeres and mini pretzels first, then mini cones of tuna tartare (a Puck speciality), followed by tiny burgers with Wagyu beef.
If this was all we had all evening, then it would have been a pleasant and enjoyable experience, but this is an exercise in luxurious abandonment, and so we start with seared Orkney scallops in their shells and yellowfine tuna tartare, accompanied by a couple of glasses of 2023 Bolgheri di Vermentino. Five-star quality? Oh yes. “This is going to be very good”, my chum Boothby tells me, and he’s not wrong.
However, the pescetarian bent of what we’ve eaten so far is knocked for a cocked hat by the mains. London steakhouses excel at doing well-cooked, splendidly seasoned cuts of meat, and have done for a couple of decades now (let’s take ground zero as the first opening of Hawksmoor in 2006). However, Cut raises things to a completely new level. The ‘Taste of Cut’ allows diners to try three separate cuts of steak as taster portions, including a British sirloin steak, an Australian Wagyu and – best of all – a Japanese Wagyu. Our waiter notes our order and then asks, straight-faced, if we’d like another Japanese ribeye to accompany it.
Well, it would be rude not to. An assortment of pitch-perfect sides arrive – most notably a creamed spinach with an egg beaten into it, and roasted bone marrow – but it’s almost impossible to take any notice of them, so perfect are the steaks, the wagyu in particular; the words ‘melt in the mouth’ are used so often as to be meaningless, but on this occasion they do actually live up to their billing. A glass apiece of Pauillac makes for the perfect accompaniment.
There is nowhere for the meal to go to improve, but puddings of apple crumble and Valrhona chocolate bars are both utterly impeccable, proving that the pastry chef is every bit as fine as the executive chef (Elliott Grover, I learn). A couple of splendid espresso martinis send Boothby and I off into the night, as the dear man breathes, with only a soupcon of regret, “that was very good”. Reader, he was not wrong. Take out a second credit card and a deep breath, and you too will be delighted by the excellence of everything on offer here.
Cut, 45 Park Lane, London W1K 1PN. For more information, and for bookings, please visit www.dorchestercollection.com.
