Review of Turner & George
I’m on a mission to find out which London butcher has the best T-Bone steak. This week I check out Turner & George in Angel.
Turner & George
Located a short stroll from Angel station and founded by the forces behind Hawksmoor and Blacklock, Turner & George is not your typical butcher. This is a modern butcher that focuses on rare and exotic meat . It also has a higher price point than other butchers.
The T-bone Steaks at Turner & George
Entering Turner & George is like stepping foot into an art gallery for meat. There’s old cow steak from Spain, rare British breeds and even crossbred Wagyu.
My eyes were drawn to two cuts of T-Bone. One was an enormous Wagyu T-Bone (or Porterhouse) while the other was a much smaller Dexter T-Bone. I hadn’t planned on buying Wagyu steak but I had eyes for no other steak.
The Wagyu was going for a hefty £38.50 per kilo while the Dexter was going for £30 per kilo.
What the Wagyu?
Wagyu means Japanese beef. Japanese beef is from one of four cow breeds: The Japanese black, brown, shorthorn or polled cows (most Wagyu is from the Japanese black).
The original Wagyu cows arrived in Japan about 2000 years ago. Under Shinto (Japanese religion) eating meat was forbidden so cows were used as working animals. In the 19th Century, beef was on the menu and these native breeds were mixed with European and British breeds like the short horn cow.
Wagyu beef is known for its intense marbling. This is achieved through a diet of soy beans and grains that make the cows put on an enormous amount of weight (some farmers may also feed their cows beer or sake and give them massages, but the practice isn’t standard).
The Wagyu steak from Turner and George was crossed with Aberdeen Angus (a British breed famed for its size and its ability to produce marbled meat).
Cooking the steak
This steak is the widest and longest steak I’ve bought so far (but a similar thickness as the other steaks). It was a bit of a challenge to cook in my modest kitchen. I had to trim the fat just to fit the T-Bone in a pan.
I cooked the steak for 2 1/2 minutes each side and the steak just oozed fat. It smelt incredible.
Eating the steak
I started with a slice from the fillet section of the T-Bone. The fillet was tender, succulent and tasty. It melted in your mouth but unlike normal fillets had an awesome rich taste. This was the best fillet I’ve had in my life.
However, the sirloin was not the best I’ve had in my life. While it was tender to bite into it carried quite a chew. At times it was a bit like eating some really good steak-flavoured bubble-gum. However, it was stubbornly tasty especially when I hit veins of marbled fat.
The Verdict
This was a fantastic T-bone. The fillet was to die for while the sirloin was imperfect but super tasty. The steak does burn a hole in your wallet though. At £38.50 its almost twice as much as the brilliant Belted Galloway steak I had at W H Wellbeloved. Is it worth it? Yes, especially for the novelty. Is it on balance the best steak so far? No, but a very close second best (check out the leaderboard below for more details).
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The leader board
Deptford Bridge DLR
Angel
London Fields
Greenwich DLR
Baker St
Bermondsey
Wapping
Clapham Common
