Review of The Jones Family Project
The Jones Family Project delivers where it matters.
I had only just heard of the Jones Family project. I was sent a list of best steaks in London which contrasts with my own article on the best steaks in London. The Jones Family project immediately stood out to me as it was one of the few steakhouses that didn’t focus on USDA steaks. Instead it was offering some pretty choice steaks supplied by the Ginger Pig (a quality London butcher focusing on British beef). I had to check it out.
I made my way out to Shoreditch on a freezing November evening and was warmly greeted by the distinctive whiff of charred steak. Never has a savoury whiff smelt so sweet. Our host navigated us through a labyrinth of small and semi-private seating areas, while I levitated on the excellent smell. We were seated in the middle of a smaller dining area, but it felt intimate anyway. As we were seated we were handed large menus (why do steakhouses always have impractically large menus?). The menu was a meat lover’s dream featuring six cuts of beef and pork, lamb, chicken and a burger all cooked in the restaurants Josper oven grill.
We ordered a rare 910gm Prime Rib Steak with Bearnaise sauce and sides of sweet potato wedges and Potato Dauphinoise. The steak was Longhorn beef and aged for 28 days. The wine menu had few mid-range options, with most wines requiring a fairly large deposit. We decided on beers and cocktails (as we are casual wine drinkers).
The Steak was presented beautifully. It came out on a wooden chopping board, sliced along its width with the bone placed over top of the steak. The steak was delicious. It had a strong beefy flavour and was tender. The Bearnaise sauce, although good in its own right, did a disservice to the taste of the steak so we used it as a dip for the fries. After finishing the steak I needed more: I picked up the bone and gnawed as much meat of the bone as I could. The sweet potato wedges were very good. The portion was large and the chips were enormous (the sweet potato must have been huge). The potato dauphinoise tasted strongly of truffles.
Dessert needs a mention because it was both humorous and disappointing. We ordered two brownies and a glass of Muscat (the dessert wine). We ended up with two brownies and a mousse cake. There was confusion at the appearance of the mousse cake until the penny dropped and everyone laughed. The dessert, like much of the food at Jones Family project was generously portioned, but the brownies were too dry. The ice-cream made the dryness of the brownie palatable, but it wasn’t the moist, chocolate brownie expected. However, as this is Steak Society and not Dessert Society, I’m not rating the Jones Family project on their desserts.
The Steak at Jones Family project was great. The management credit their supplier the Ginger pig for providing quality steak. They say this is because of the butcher’s ethos in raising and slaughtering their cattle. The prices weren’t bad either. The prime rib was selling at £7.50 per 100gm which meant that ours came in at just under £70. This is cheaper than the prices at steakhouses like Hawksmoor or Goodman.
The Jones Family project delivered excellent steak at good value.
