Impending climate breakdown, rising meat prices, veganism and Ozempic have done little to dull the UK’s appetite for large hunks of seared red meat. Indeed, steaks are seemingly more popular than ever in restaurants, with large cuts of beef a mainstay of the menus of a new breed of high-end restaurants such as Fallow, Brat and Dorian.
This might not be great news for steakhouse brands that have already had to contend with pubs moving in on their territory, but is largely a London-centric issue. In the regions, the market is dominated by two players that have one foot in the pub world and one foot in the restaurant world and offer steaks at a relatively low price point. Owned by Mitchells & Butler and Whitbread respectively, Miller & Carter and Beefeater have more sites between them than the rest of the branded steak sector combined but tend to trade from less glamorous locations.
More premium steakhouse brands are limited in terms of site numbers because they are only viable in very prime locations. Hawksmoor is a case in point. While most would consider it the brand to beat in the space - its restaurants do numbers most groups can only dream of - it only has 10 UK sites and is now focused on international growth having launched successful outposts in the US and Dublin.
One way around this barrier to significant growth in the regions is to reposition steak as something that is more affordable and everyday. Enter Charlie Carroll’s Flat Iron, which has - in its own words - democratised the category by offering steaks from £15. Backed by private equity house Piper, the group has ramped up its expansion rate in recent years but still only has a handful of regional sites.
The biggest appeal of steak restaurants from an operator perspective remains that they attract a much larger spend per head than most other restaurant formats. People are willing to pay for good meat, there are strong opportunities for incremental sales thanks to sides and sauces and the genre is also associated with celebrations and special occasions.
The rewards are certainly there for those that get it right but the format’s reliance on high rolling diners appears to be holding back a lot of steakhouse groups from significant growth outside the capital and in other major cities.
The UK steakhouse key players
Miller & Carter
Founded: 2006
Sites: 123
Part of the Mitchells & Butlers (M&B) stable, Miller & Carter is the UK’s biggest steakhouse group and operates an extensive nationwide estate that covers England, Wales and Scotland. The growth of the brand in the past decade or so marks it out as one of M&B’s biggest success stories, with chief executive Phil Urban previously saying he sees potential for the brand to eventually grow to around the 150-site mark. The menu at Miller & Carter specialises in prime British and Irish steaks with 30- and 50-day aged options available. Since 2019 the group has held a ‘Masters of Steak’ accreditation, awarded by the Craft Guild of Chefs, which ensures the group adheres to 10 dedicated claims of excellence regarding its steaks that relate to the way the cattle are reared, and how the steaks are butchered, aged and cooked.
Beefeater
Founded: 1974
Sites: 115
The family focused steakhouse brand has been under the aegis of parent company Whitbread for the past 50 years. The brand expanded quickly in its first 20 years before a period of consolidation in the 1990s and 2000s that saw many of its sites sold to rival Mitchells & Butlers. About a decade ago the brand introduced a new look and has since begun to expand again. In May 2023 Whitbread said it was exploring the potential sale of part of its £700m pub and restaurant arm, including its Beefeater, Bar + Block and Brewers Fayre brands, to focus on its Premier Inn hotel chain but the brands currently remain under its ownership. The group has steadily reduced its numbers over the past 12 months.
Black & White Hospitality
Founded: 2013
Sites: 19
Roughly half the 40 or so restaurants nominally fronted by chef Marco Pierre White are steak focused. The group’s key brand is Marco Pierre White’s Steakhouse Bar & Grill but there are also one-offs including The City’s London Steakhouse Co., which was actually founded in 2008 well before the one-time enfant terrible of the UK restaurant scene teamed up with Nick Taplin to launch Black & White Hospitality. As with the rest of the franchise operator’s estate, nearly all of Marco Pierre White’s Steakhouse Bar & Grill are located within hotels. The concept offers a wide-ranging but largely traditional steakhouse menu.
Bar + Block
Founded: 2016
Sites: 21
Bar + Block is billed by owner Whitbread as a more ‘evolved and contemporary’ version of its venerable Beefeater brand (see above). Crucially, the concept has been conceived as a high street restaurant brand. This is in marked contrast to its much older and bigger sibling, which is typically found in less central areas (and nearly always attached to a Premier Inn). The look of the sites is more contemporary and less pub-y than Beefeater, with design features including butcher’s block welcome desks and open kitchens. As the name suggests, Bar + Block’s British and Irish Angus steaks are cut by hand and can be requested in a range of sizes. “We’ve taken the very best of Beefeater’s values and reinterpreted them to appeal to a younger crowd, right in the heart of a busy city centre location,” a spokesperson said when the brand’s debut site in Birmingham launched.
Gaucho
Founded: 1976 (arrived in London in 1993)
Sites 20
Founded in Amsterdam by Zeev Godik, Gaucho was a breath of fresh air when it arrived in London in the early 90s with its stylish interiors and focus on premium wet-aged steak shipped in from Argentina. While the beef remains, the brand has moved away from its steakhouse roots in recent years to offer a more wide-ranging menu. Gaucho has a complex financial history having floated in 1999 and become a private company again in 2002. It has had a number of private equity owners over the years, but its holding company Rare Restaurants is currently owned by Investec and SC Lowy. Earlier this month, it announced Baton Berisha as its new CEO replacing Martin Williams who left the group late last year.
Flat Iron
Founded: 2012
Sites: 17
Steakhouse group Flat Iron has blazed a trail with its affordable and stripped back menu that puts the lesser-used cut it takes its name from centre stage. The group, which was founded by Charlie Carroll on Soho’s Beak Street, stepped up its expansion across the UK in 2023 with its first non-London site in Cambridge followed by another in Leeds. Last year it expanded further outside the capital with a location in Manchester and this spring it will open its 18th site on London’s Southbank, which will have space for 220 covers.
Toro’s Steakhouse
Founded: 2008
Sites: 14
Having opened its first site in Leicester city centre back in 2008, Toro’s describes itself as ‘the UK’s original halal steakhouse’. The menu features a range of 48 day dry-aged steaks, with porterhouse, rib eye and sirloin cuts available, alongside a wider offer of burgers and sandwiches, fish dishes and chicken. While the conventional steak and chips pairing is offered, the group also places a lot of emphasis on its sizzler dishes, with steak served with vegetables and either rice or pasta. Expansion has seen the group reach 14 restaurants to date with a target of growing its estate to 20 sites in the coming years. To that end, the group is currently seeking franchisees who are searching for active operational partnership opportunities.
Hawksmoor
Founded: 2006
Sites: 10 (plus three international)
School friends Will Beckett and Huw Gott’s steakhouse brand is regularly ranked among the best UK restaurant groups thanks to the pair’s laser focus on sustainability and its teams (it is certified B Corp) as well as its excellent food and creative eye for detail that has seen it take on historic sites and fashion impressive dining rooms. With 10 sites, it has extended its reach beyond its London heartland and operates restaurants in Edinburgh, Manchester and Liverpool as well as in Dublin. The group has also led the current charge in crossing the pond and has sites in New York and Chicago and has earmarked the US as a place for further expansion. In July 2024 the group explored a potential sale that valued the business at a cool £100m.
Middletons Steakhouse & Grill
Founded: 2011
Sites: 7
Billed as ‘a modern British steakhouse’ brand, Middletons first opened its doors in Middleton, Norfolk, in July 2011. The original restaurant was sited in a 17th century coaching inn previously known as The Crown Inn, which is just outside King’s Lynn (the Middletons logo features a crown as a signifier of its heritage). The group’s estate has subsequently expanded and retracted, and currently sits at seven sites. Middletons positions itself as both a steakhouse and grill restaurant, and its menu includes a range of steaks, burgers and seafood options. In a bid to further broaden its appeal, the group is also preparing to introduce a pizza menu, which is expected to launch in early 2025.
Blacklock
Founded: 2013
Sites: 6
Arguably one of the UK’s best value restaurant brands – it was named Best Value Restaurant Group award at the 2023 Restaurant R200 Awards – Blacklock isn’t a conventional steakhouse, instead it is better described as a modern interpretation of the traditional chophouse concept. Sourcing its meat from Philip Warren Butchers, the menu includes a range of dry-aged steaks and chops and is best known for its signature ‘all in’ offer that features a mix of beef, pork and lamb chops piled high on charcoal-grilled flatbreads with a choice of sides. Having spent its first decade focused on building its profile in the capital, the group, which is led by founder Gordon Ker, is now focused on regional growth with a site in Manchester having launched in 2024 and an outpost in Birmingham set to open later this year.
Fazenda
Founded: 2010
Sites: 6
The Leeds-founded rodizio restaurant brand made its London debut in 2023 with a huge restaurant on the eastern edge of The City in Bishopsgate. While its sites in Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Edinburgh and Birmingham are premium, its London restaurant is the most upmarket take on a rodizio - a restaurant that offers a succession of grilled meats carved at table for an all-in price - that has ever been seen on these shores. Fazenda’s owner Southern Wind Group says it wants to beef up its presence in the capital following strong Christmas trading last year.
Preto
Founded: 2008
Sites: 6
A Brazilian steakhouse chain known for its rodizio-style dining, Preto is primarily based in the capital – it opened its first site in London Victoria in 2008 – where it has five sites, with a single regional outpost established in Colchester. Like other rodizio-style restaurants (see Fazenda), Preto offers an all-you-can-eat dining experience that offers unlimited servings of spit-roasted meats including beef, pork, chicken and lamb, which are presented on skewers alongside a range of traditional Brazilian dishes.
Angus Steak House
Founded: 1963
Sites: 5
Formerly known as Aberdeen Steak Houses, Angus Steak House had more than 20 sites at its pomp but now has just four in its West End heartland and a further one near Paddington Station. It is notorious for catering to tourists but its owner Noble Hospitality Group - which is also behind international Nikkei restaurant group Chotto Matte and Alley Cats Pizza - is attempting to challenge that perception through a range of initiatives including selling beef from one of the world’s steak producers.
Steak and Company
Founded: 2010
Sites: 4
Formally known as Steak & Co, Steak and Company has built up an estate in London’s West End with sites in Leicester Square, Covent Garden, Piccadilly Circus, and South Kensington. The menu centres on house steaks from grass-fed New Zealand cattle that’s aged for 28-days and features a ‘steak stone experience’, a long-time cornerstone of the brand that allows diners to cook slices of steak to their own personal preference tableside using a hot stone.
Prime Steakhouse & Grill
Founded: 2014
Sites: 4
With restaurants in St Albans, Chandlers Cross, Beaconsfield and Berkhamsted, Prime Steakhouse & Grill has targeted affluent towns in Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire for its upmarket steak offer. The group was founded by Terry Greenhill and Ferdi Pacelli, who also launched Italian restaurant brand Zaza, which operates seven sites in the same part of the country.
Goodman
Founded: 2008
Sites: 3
Known for its high-quality steaks and California-heavy wine lists, Goodman has three London restaurants in Mayfair, home of its debut site, as well as the City and Canary Wharf. The group is led by Ilya Demichev and George Bukhov-Weinstein, who also operate super premium steak and king crab restaurant Beast in the capital.
Macellaio RC
Founded: 2012
Sites: 3
Roberto Costa’s quirky Italy-styled steak group was close to hitting double figures not so long ago but now operates only a handful of sites having quietly shuttered the majority of its London estate over the past few years. Focused on big hunks of Focused on Fassona beef imported from Northern Italy, the group butchers its steak in house (macellaio is the Italian for butcher) and offers them alongside an eclectic menu of Italy-inspired dishes.
Temper
Founded: 2016
Sites: 3
While Temper’s original concept was predicated on each restaurants having a specific focus, the group now serves an identical food menu across its portfolio that majors in steaks, tacos and barbecued meats, with an emphasis on high-quality beef sourced from Charles Ashbridge in north Yorkshire that’s dry-aged and butchered in-house. Following a period of growth, the group has faced trouble in recent months with its expansion in the capital and the launch of a new offshoot brand (Temper Burger) undone by a collapse into administration in late 2024 that saw its estate return to its pre-pandemic size of three sites.
Pasture
Founded: 2018
Sites: 3
Chef-owner Sam Elliot launched Pasture in Bristol some seven years ago and followed it up with a second site in Cardiff and more recently opened a 6,500sq ft restaurant in Birmingham on the site of a former Barclays Bank. The brand puts a lot of emphasis on supporting local suppliers and following ethical and sustainable working practices and is part of a group that also includes restaurants Radius and Parallel in Bristol and Cardiff respectively and speakeasy bar Nightshade.
Fogo do Chao
Founded: 1979 (arrived in the UK in 2017)
Sites: 3
The Brazilian steakhouse brand has a large footprint across the US, Brazil, Mexico and the Middle East but only operates three restaurants in the UK, in Soho, Clapham, and Brighton. Its churrasco restaurants see freshly grilled meats carved tableside and served with a variety of sides and accompaniments.
Sophie’s Steakhouse
Founded: 2002
Sites: 2
Rupert Power and Sophie Bathgate opened Sophie’s Steakhouse on London’s Fulham Road in 2002 and since 2017 have operated a second restaurant on Soho’s Great Windmill Street. The group specialises in native breed West Country British beef, which is dry aged and butchered in-house.
STK
Founded: 2006 (launched in the UK in 2011)
Sites: 2
Founded by Jonathan Segal, US-based STK has four European venues, two of which are located in London in Stratford and the Strand (the others are in Milan and Ibiza). On entering the UK, STK was billed as a modern female-friendly steakhouse in the mould of the ‘clubstaurant’ and the brand also created spin-off brand STK Rebel, which had a site in Edinburgh (now closed), under owner The ONE Group.
The Cut & Craft
Founded: 2019
Sites: 2
Founded by Oscar Akgul and Osman Doganozu in York in 2019 as a premium steak restaurant with an in-house master butcher, The Cut & Craft specialises in 60-day aged Aberdeen Angus steaks including a ‘signature’ 10oz flat iron cut. The group expanded to a second site in Leeds in 2022 and this year will add a third restaurant to its tally this spring within Manchester’s historic Bond building.
Black & Blue
Founded: 1999
Sites: 2
Founded in Notting Hill by Nick Hill and Alan Bacon, Black & Blue was one of London’s first US-inspired steakhouses. It currently operates sites in Borough Market and Waterloo. In addition to its core business Black & Blue also has the Archduke jazz bar in Waterloo, which also majors on steak.
The Coal Shed
Founded: 2011
Sites: 2
Originally located just off Brighton’s notorious West Street, The Coal Shed was restaurateur Raz Helalat’s debut (he is now also behind Brighton’s The Salt Room, Burnt Orange and Tutto). It was among the first restaurants in the UK to have a Josper grill and specialise in top quality dry-aged beef joining the likes of Hawksmoor and Goodman. A site near London’s Tower Bridge launched in 2017. Last year, Helalat moved The Coal Shed Brighton to a much bigger site on Brighton’s North Street.
Steak & Lobster
Founded: 2011
Sites: 2
Part of hotel-focused operator Radisson Blu London, Steak & Lobster is perhaps most notable for having an eerily-similar name, branding and menu to a certain restaurant chain that majors in lobsters and burgers. Steak & Lobster’s duo of sites are in Marble Arch and Euston and - as you’d expect given its owner - are found within hotels.
KöD
Founded: 2014 (arrived in UK in 2023)
Sites: 2
With a name that translates to mean ‘meat’ in Danish (and is pronounced similarly to ‘cool’), KöD arrived in London in 2023 with a restaurant in the City and has since expanded to a second site in Soho. Behind the brand is London-based founding partner Morten P Ortwed who, along with five friends, launched KöD in Denmark in 2014 before expanding into Norway. Both of KöD’s London restaurants offer a range of grass-fed, minimum 35 day-aged steaks that are all served, distinctively, on a bed of carrot purée.
Boisdale
Founded: 1988
Sites: 2
Though not billed as a steakhouse Boisdale is famed for its high-quality Scottish beef. With sites in Belgravia and Canary Wharf, Ranald Macdonald’s brand has many strings to its bow fusing a Scottish themed restaurant experience with fine wines, cigars and a music programme curated by Jools Holland.