Review of Drings

I’m on a quest to find out which London butcher has the best T-Bone steak. This week I check out Drings, a traditional butcher in Greenwich, South East London.

An unintended visit to Drings

The plan was to raid G.G. Sparkes, a butcher in Blackheath Standard just south of Greenwich, for a great T-bone. But it was not to be, with the butcher completely out of T-Bone and the next set going through dry ageing and a few weeks from being ready. So, I got out my butcher map and walked down to Drings in Greenwich.

Drings is located just out of the heart of Greenwich, between a cheese shop and a flower shop. It’s a traditional, independent butcher that has been serving the great folks of Greenwich for over 50 years.  These guys source their beef from Suffolk as well as Scotland and make most of their own cured meats and sausages on site.

When I got to Drings there was a huge line out the shop and down the street so I decided to walk the block and come back later. Getting a photo of the front of Drings was really hard because if there wasn’t some twat with a van parked out front then there would be a twat with a pram blocking the view.

Drings’ T-Bone Steak

After a walk around the block, Drings was a bit quieter. I went in and spotted a rack of T-bone steaks sitting on the shelf. I started eyeing them up and down and I felt the meat hunger.

I asked the butcher for a large chunk of T-Bone steak, about two fingers thick. I noticed that the steak was well marbled, however the Fillet section of the T-Bone was a bit smaller than the one at Hussey Butchers (this means that the T-Bone was cut from the front of the short-loin where the Fillet section is smaller). As he carved into the bone I quizzed the butcher on the steak. This steak was from a grass fed Scottish Shorthorn cow, about two years old. The beef had been aged for 3-4 weeks. I paid £19.60 for 800gm of T-Bone.

The butcher mentioned that the Scottish Shorthorn was the beef on offer this week but they would have tasty Dexter-angus crossbreeds coming up soon.

The Shorthorn Cow

The short horn cow is great British cow breed. The breed is from the North East England and  was the a result of a breeding programme in the 18th century.  Since then the Beef Shorthorn breed has been developed specifically to produce high quality beef with a good degree of marbling. 

Short horn cows are typically coloured red, white or roan (as pictured). Oddly though, a lot of shorthorn cows won’t have horns. If you would like to know more about the beef Shorthorn you can find out more here.

Cooking the T-bone

Cooking the T-Bone steak can be tough as you’ve got two very different cuts of steak (The Sirloin and Fillet) at two different sizes.

I cooked the steak for about 2 minutes 30 seconds a side and rested it for 4-5 minutes before eating. The result was a great medium-rare steak.

Eating the T-bone

This T-Bone was thicker, but with less fillet than the one from Hussey’s. The Fillet was tricky to cut (as it was so tender) and it just melted in my mouth. It had a strange taste to it, not in a bad way, but almost game like. I think this is down to the dry ageing process, but it’s hard to know for sure.

The sirloin section was brilliant. It was pretty tender, juicy and one of the tastiest sirloins I have ever had. It was a pleasure to eat. Strangely though the top of the sirloin had the same gamy taste to it as the fillet which gives me further ground to think it was a taste associated with dry ageing.

The Verdict

This was overall a great T-Bone steak. It was slightly cheaper (pound per pound) than the steak from Husseys and was a tastier steak overall.

This puts Drings at the top of my leader board (only two entries so far). For the most up to date version of the leader board you can click here.

T-bone tour of London Leaderboard

Greenwich DLR

Drings

A tender and tasty T-bone steak at a good price

Cost per kg: £24.50 per kg Beefiness:

Tenderness:

Breed: Short Horn Aged: 3 weeks Marbling: Good

Wapping

Hussey Butchers

A tender T-bone steak with an enormous Fillet section and moderate beefiness.

Cost per kg: £27.50 per kg Beefiness:

Tenderness:

Breed: Hereford Aged: 3 weeks Marbling: Some

What’s next?

You can see me my hit-list of butchers here. But do you know a great butcher in London? I’d love to hear your recommendations so I can try them out for myself. Just comment below.