Knife

When you sit down for a meal and instantly admire the cutlery, it’s a good start. This small neighbourhood steakhouse on a neglected strip of Clapham Park Road certainly looks the part; all rustic interiors, smart linen napkins and – you guessed it – really great steak knives.

The cooking is, at times, brilliant, but could use more attention to detail. A starter of moist, fatty pork jowl was nicely offset by sweet cooked grapes, but came served over a bed of over-seasoned cavolo nero. The burger’s flavour was first-rate, but its consistency wasn’t: the patty fell to pieces in my hand. And so it went on. Terrific rib-eye steak, claggy béarnaise sauce. Exceptional creamed corn (complete with sugary ‘brûlée’ topping and a sprinkling of popcorn), but bland, starchy ‘fries’. Happily the light, cakey sticky toffee pud, with its poured-at-the-table sauce, had absolutely nothing rain on its parade.

The friendly, well-meaning staff also need to learn to say no. On my visit, the bistro-sized space was packed (partly with walk-ins, none of whom were turned away). Service became crushingly slow.

That said, Knife has the makings of an excellent local eatery, if they can just sharpen up a little.