Review of Black & Blue, Borough Market - April 2010

Where: Black and Blue, Borough
With whom: The Vole
How much?: £40 for the Cote de Boeuf to share, a drink and service



We were feeling all cultured (innit) after a beautiful couple of hours spent at Southwark Cathedral's Good Friday concert (a collection of Lenten motets followed by Fauvre's Requiem). I'm not a huge one for choral concerts but Vole wanted to hear the choir do a collection of Thomas Tallis 'hits'. Beautiful, wonderful and absorbing. 


We'd started the evening with a thoroughly nice, but pricey, pair of ales at The Rake in Borough Market, and had been hotly debating (as always) our food plans for the evening. We toyed with the Swan at the Globe, Feng Sushi and Brindisa before settling on Black and Blue. It's not the most obvious of the four, but we were really yearning (well I was..) for a big steak and both tapas and sushi have been consumed recently.


Not having been in before, it's immediately obvious that it is a chain. I've got nothing against Gaucho, Masala Zone or Tas and when on the West Coast would walk a long way for an In 'n' Out burger, but if you are a chain restaurant, you've got to really go some to stick out, particularly if surrounded by a massive food market!

Bare brick walls domed under the railway arches, glass and steel abound. Slimmed down menu focussing on the expected staples. We skipped the starter and headed straight for the Cote De Boeuf. There was much to recommend the meal; the house Shiraz was a perfectly balanced South African with a good spice and berry kick, the (free and unadvertised) house salad was a welcome addition (albeit served with an incongruous grated cheddar) and the service was warm and friendly.


Sadly though, the chips seemed very much pre-prepared and the disc of foie served (for a £3 supplement) alongside came fridge cold. Worse still, the steak was flavourless. Well marbled and well prepared, a good Cote de Boeuf should be really packing, but this one packed up early and didn't give us anything. 

I don't know whether it was a one off, and bearing everything else in mind, I'd give them another go. It was an assured, if pedestrian, performance overall and had the steak been a bit more flavoursome, I'd be giving them a higher score. Of course it's not The Hawksmoor, but it's a good safe option if you're in the area.