Prepping meat in butchers

So why are Darwins so famous for our steaks?

Having found the perfect premises in 80 Aungier we found that the building at the back of Darwin’s crossed onto Stephen’s street, ironically the location of Michael Smith’s late father Sean Smith ‘s butchers for 25years. The connections of these two buildings allowed us the space to build a state of the art kitchen alongside an in house butchers where all our meats are specially prepared.

Our kitchen staff, alongside our in house butcher Michael Smith, prepare and cut all of the meat on our menu in the butchers attached to the rear of the restaurant. All of our fillet steaks are rolled in cling film and shaped to perfect circular cuts. Through a very careful rotation process our chefs and Michael only allow steaks which are perfectly aged and matured to be served in the restaurant.

The secret to the perfect steak

• The meat must be hung for at least 21 days. Longer if possible. 
• The meat should be left at room temperature for a period before cooking. Putting a cold steak straight from the fridge onto a hot pan will cause the meat to become tough. 
• Sear on a very hot pan or grill until each side has a nice brown colour. 
• Season a metal oven flat dish and cook the steak to just below the temperature you want in an oven. 
• Take the steak out of the oven and rest for at least 5 minutes. Longer for more well done meats. 
• Finally finish the steak on a pan/grill and serve immediately.

How to cook a blue steak

Despite the common conception that a blue steak is very quick and easy to cook it can in fact take as long, or longer, to cook than even a well done steak and requires skillful cooking and preparation.

A blue steak is almost completely raw on the inside and is only lightly seared on the outside. The reason it takes so long to prepare is that the steak has to be brought very slowly up to a core temperature of 60C. This is often done under hot lights at the kitchen pass or in a very low oven. It can take 20 or 30 minutes to achieve this temperature especially for very thick cuts of meat, such as our 12oz fillet steak. The steak is then seasoned and cooked for a matter of seconds on a hot pan or flame grill.

Halal Meats
Halal meats are available on request so please be sure to mention when you are booking.
Book well in advance to avoid disappointment as it may not always be possible to have halal
meats on short notice.