Maze Grill

Jason Atherton is a chef possessed of rare brilliance; his witty tapas-sized dishes at the next-door Maze restaurant are among the best you'll find in London. So what he's doing with this overpriced steak joint is anyone's guess. Perhaps Maze restaurant's new moniker - 'Maze Gordon Ramsay' - might be the answer, as Gordon Ramsay Holdings (which owns chef Atherton's restaurant) is in expansive mode and wants lebensraum. It has annexed even more space in the adjoining Marriott hotel, and (rather misleadingly) put a huge Gordon Ramsay photo on the Maze Grill website homepage.

'I can recommend the day's special, the Wagyu beef,' said our waiter. I bet you can, matey, at £120 per head (not including £15 service charge per steak). The pattern of cheeky pricing runs right through the menu. It's £4 for a bottle of Evian water; a side order of carrots, £3.50; a wine list with unflinching mark-ups. A bottle of Los Alamos bonarda costs £25 here, when you can buy it online for less than £7; Cedro do Noval costs £33 here, but only a tenner in off-licences.

You might expect another Gordon Ramsay Holdings joint in Mayfair to be expensive. But crucially, is it any good? The service is charming, when you eventually bag a table. And the room's pleasant enough, with a chef's table at the kitchen end for the big-spenders. But our food was surprisingly hit-and-miss.

A grilled rib-eye steak was tender and had all the barbecued flavours, but an aged Aberdeen Angus sirloin steak was curiously tough; our table of four barely touched it. A tiny stack of tuna tartare on avocado was the only dish that looked as if Atherton had a hand in it (good, but £14.50 for a morsel), while another tiny starter of seared octopus had a sauce that tasted as if the salt cellar had been tipped into it. The best dishes were the desserts of Eton mess and sorbet, though the portions' sizes were parsimonious for the prices charged (£7 and £5 respectively).

In New York a steak house this expensive and disappointing would have any Brooklyn cab driver choking on his New York strip. This being London, you need to book weeks ahead.
Guy Dimond. Photography Ben Anders

Time Out Issue 1968: May 8-14 2008

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