Review: Cooper’s Cut
Review: Cooper’s Cut
When a restaurant offers you a choice of knives with which to eat your steak, you know it takes its carnivorous leanings seriously. Japanese, Spanish or British are your options – each blade offering its own credentials. But Cooper’s Cut, a new restaurant at the Four Seasons Hotel, need not have worried. Our A5 Hokkaido Wagyu was so tender it could have been cut with a butter knife.
But first things first. To find the restaurant you enter the very grand Port of London Authority Building. Dating back to 1922, it was designed by renowned architect Sir Edwin Cooper and built in the Beaux-Arts style. In 2017, it was transformed into a hotel by the Four Seasons, and an opulent setting it is indeed.
The restaurant is found off the large Rotunda Bar, an impressive space in itself with an elaborate glass-domed ceiling, and has taken over the space previously occupied by the two-Michelin-starred La Dame de Pic London, which closed last year.
It’s a tricky space, with pillars dividing up the room; most of the tables are set beside vast windows, while others are tucked away in corners. There are mirrors, plush banquette seating and a dramatically lit bar as the backdrop. So while Cooper’s Cut is billed simply as a ‘modern steakhouse’, it’s certainly a glamorous one.
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The cocktails here are a big deal, so it would have been rude not to. It’s a fine and intriguing list. My delicious twist on a Gimlet was made with curry leaves, white port, Vetiver Gris and verjus. My dining companion tried The Savoury – vodka, sherry, plum eau de vie, shio koji – with a blue cheese–stuffed olive. It was so good he claimed he would have been happy enough with those all evening. The cocktails are brought in a deeply chilled flask, keeping your drink ice-cold to the last drop.
The menu runs through all the usual premium cuts, sourced from either the Lake District or Japan. Pescatarians are also well catered for, with Dover sole meunière or a Billingsgate seafood bouillabaisse.
We opted for the £165 tasting menu, which meant we got to try three starters and the A5 Wagyu.
The Belted Galloway steak tartare was beautifully flavoured and perfectly textured; Crapaudine beetroot (apparently the oldest beetroot variety in existence) was lifted by English mustard and a sharp hit of Merlot vinegar; then Scottish langoustine – plump, with a divine saffron and orange beurre blanc.
Then on to the steak. It wasn’t the largest cut, but it was meltingly rich – sweet yet deeply savoury all at once – with a decadent topping of caviar. I wouldn’t have minded a few fries, but perhaps that’s just me (you can take the girl out of the north…). Here, the steak takes centre stage and there’s little room for a supporting cast, save for some Pomerol sauce to go alongside.
A Granny Smith apple tarte tatin to finish was a deftly executed treat, and we were more than happy to continue with the pastry theme via delightful mini Bakewell tarts as petit fours.
Service was excellent and attentive throughout; a request for fresh mint for my tea was swiftly accommodated.
Prices are what you’d expect for a restaurant in a five-star hotel in central London, and the setting is as grand as it is historic. Cooper’s Cut delivers a thoroughly luxurious steakhouse experience, perfectly in tune with its location next to the City and the well-heeled Four Seasons crowd.
Main courses, from £32 – £79
Four Seasons at Tower Bridge
10 Trinity Square, London, EC3N 4AJ
