Dinner at the Hawksmoor Seven Dials, 19th May

I've been a longstanding fan of the Hawksmoor restaurant in Spitalfields, which is London's answer to a New York steakhouse. So I was very keen to try the new opening in Covent Garden, and finally enticed a steak-loving friend to come with me.

On this particular Thursday evening I'd had a stressful day involving a trip to Newbury, but it was the last time I'll have to do that so I was feeling very relieved and happy it was all over. We were supposed to meet at 6.30 but my friend was running late. I'd anticipated this eventuality and had some reading material to hand, so I sat at the bar to wait for her and guzzled the most welcome French 75 of my life (sparking a new French 75 project) feeling very cosmopolitan and girl-about-town.

When my friend arrived, we went through to the restaurant which is much bigger than the Spitalfields one. The decor is wood and the odd industrial-looking steel appendage here and there. There aren't any soft furnishings so it's quite noisy.

We decided to skip starters and crack on with the steak. The only problem was that they have a blackboard listing what's available and the smallest thing was 600g, whereas my friend only wanted a 200g steak. I eventually persuaded her that there was nothing for it, we'd just have to share the 600g one.

We had a bit of a wait, but fortunately there was bread and butter to keep us going in the meantime. Clearly they expect you to have a starter. When the steak arrived, my friend's fears quietly vanished and she had no trouble putting away her half. (Do I sound slightly disappointed about that?) We had some chips cooked in beef dripping to go with it, and lettuce and peas, and bearnaise sauce. It was all delicious.

For pudding, I went for the salted caramel ice cream which was divine and a snip for just £3. My share of the bill including my cocktail, which originally they left off the bill, but I'm a good citizen so I owned up, and a glass of perfectly adequate red was £50. I've had a number of meals that have come in around this level lately, and this was the best of the lot. If we'd had a bottle of wine or starters it would have been more, but given the size of the main courses, starters aren't really necessary. I shall certainly be back, because although I can do the steak myself (they get them from the Ginger Pig), it's worth it for the chips alone. They also do corkage for £5 on Monday nights, which is something that definitely has to be tried!