Let them eat steak
Nothing says ‘man food’ like a plate of red meat. Here are four of our favourite feasting grounds.
MPW: For the carefree maverick
Marco Pierre White is an all-huntin’, all-shootin’ man’s man. His kitchen antics are legendary – he famously seduced a female customer between courses – and the food his restaurants turn out is just as robust. This here is fare from a time when British gentlemen thought nothing of a heart-attack before breakfast. Have your steak served rare, and your cream-ladened mashed potato soaked in truffle cream sauce. Your arteries may regret it, but your sense of real manly occasion certainly won’t.
Marco Pierre White’s Steakhouse and Grill, Fairmont Bab Al Bahr (02 654 3333). Open daily 7pm-1am.
Chamas: For the insatiable wolf
The setting may be fine dining, but the concept is as manly as it gets. Settle in with your man-friends and allow the waiters to bring on the meat. Start with the extremely edible pao de queijo (cheese bread), then move onto the flesh. They serve it from large metal stakes, slicing tenderly cooked beef rump, lamb chops, duck breast, and plenty more, onto your plate for you to ravage like a hungry living thing. The salad bar is as basic as it comes – but which man-beast heads out for a meatfest with the boys and orders greens?
Chamas, InternContinental Abu Dhabi (02 666 6888). Open daily 6pm-11.30pm; Fridays 12.30pm-3pm.
The Meat Co: For the football fanatic
Thankfully, the vuvuzelas are locked firmly away at this laidback South African outlet, but national pride is there from the kickoff. Our waiter was as comfortable talking Messi as he was meat, and gave us a quick lesson in Zulu so that we could make our World Cup viewing a more interactive experience. Meat-wise, this is one of the best restaurants in town. The cow flesh arrives, tender, precarious; hanging tantalisingly from a veritable sword of Damocles; a kebab skewer suspended above a bed of rice or mashed potato, with the sizzling juices dripping and permeating as if that’s what the beast they came from was born to provide. It’s all we could do to keep from drowning in our own watery mouthes. The boerewors sausage and its accompanying side vegetables offers about the only truly African fare on the menu, meaning that you can have meat for starters, mains and…well, that’s enough for any man, surely.
The Meat Company, Souk Qaryat Al Beri (02 558 1713). Open daily 1pm-4pm, 6.30pm-midnight; Thu-Fri 11am-midnight.
Rodeo Grill: For the stately gentleman
Perhaps for the less rabid gentleman about town, in some ways Rodeo Grill resembles a sedate smoking lounge – the kind of place you might retire to for after-dinner drinks as you set the crooked world to rights. But from the moment you settle back into one of the comfortable green leather armchairs until the time you reluctantly move on some two hours later, it is all time very well spent. Everything on the menu sounds promising. Beginning with the appetisers, the brown onion soup in a layer of golden puff pastry is wonderful and the lobster bisque is rich and thick, with an intense explosion of seafood. But it’s the steaks that people come here for: while the Angus steaks are outstanding, the wagyu steaks are the most divine carnivorous experience. Man food for presidents.
Rodeo Grill, Beach Rotana (02 697 9000). Open daily 12.30pm-3.30pm, 7pm-midnight.
