The Blurb
Famed London steakhouse, Hawksmoor, brings the classic restaurant experience into the home with its impressive range of easy-to-prepare meal kits. Delivered anywhere in mainland Great Britain, Hawksmoor’s meal kits contain everything you need for a full restaurant experience including their famous dry-aged “dictionary thick” steaks; starters; sides; dessert; as well as plenty of options for cocktails and wine. There are nearly 20 meal kits to choose from and all feature the same high-quality ingredients used in the restaurant. Each kit comes with easy-to-follow instructions from Hawksmoor’s best chefs and there are even videos available from Executive Chef Matt Brown. Many items only require reheating; however, the 35-day, dry-aged steak arrives raw (though there’s a dedicated guide included to make sure you get it just right). Kits also come with a QR code for a Spotify playlist.
The Experience & The Food
With so many mouthwatering kits to choose from, you may find it hard to choose just one. I opted for the Three-Course Rib-eye box which comes with belly ribs and slaw as a starter; two, 350-gram, dry-aged rib-eyes (with peppercorn sauce); sides of oven chips, creamed spinach, and garlic mushrooms; and finally, sticky toffee pudding and clotted cream for dessert. The kit also comes fully stocked with booze with a bottle of Rioja Real Agrado 2017 and two sour cherry Negronis, which comes packaged in a very chic little glass bottle. I loved that they also included a nice generous box of Maldon sea salt, with which you will generously season your steak right before searing.
The instruction guide is very easy to follow and is imbued with personality and flair. Most items take around 20 to 30 minutes to “cook” (most of the time you’re simply reheating); though it’s worth noting that the sticky toffee pudding can take about an hour to cook if you don’t take the cheat’s way and microwave it, (which is exactly what I did and it came out perfectly). The meat should be taken out of the sealed plastic about 12 hours before cooking, but if you—like me—plan for your box to arrive the same day as you plan on cooking, it’s not an issue at all. Just be sure you take your steak out of the fridge an hour beforehand.
The steak really was nothing short of amazing, and if you follow the instructions, I can practically guarantee a proper steakhouse experience—especially when paired with the jammy, peppery Rioja. The exquisite, ultra-rich belly ribs starter just needed heating up in the oven and was almost equally delicious as the steak, plus the fresh and tangy slaw with caraway seeds was the ideal accompaniment to cut through the fat. The creamy, well-seasoned peppercorn sauce was also noteworthy and works well on the fluffy, oven-cooked chips, as well as on the steak. All in all, a faultless, generously portioned, restaurant-worthy meal—not to mention a killer cocktail experience. Those premixed bittersweet sour cherry Negronis? Just perfection.
The Details
Deliveries are nationwide to mainland UK on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays (£5 surcharge for Saturday deliveries). Everything should be consumed within two to three days of receiving.
