Son of Steak opened its doors a couple of weeks ago, and I headed down for the blogger event on behalf of my friend Gastronomic Gorman. You will find my review of the launch on her blog soon.

Son of Steak is located in Trinity Square, where the old Harvester pub was. Owned by the same company, it describes itself as ‘the next generation of steak. Forget all the fuss… focus on the flavour.’

I really enjoyed the event and wanted to pop back to check out if it was a one off for the bloggers, or whether this was going to be a serious contender for my top 10 restaurants in Nottingham.

I have been on a couple of dates with a lovely guy from Southwell, and so for date 3 we decided to head here. I may as well introduce him to the ‘take pics of everything I eat’ part of me as soon as possible, he can then decide if he doesn’t mind waiting for a few seconds (or minutes) before eating while I snap away with my phone.

We were seated in one of the booths as soon as we entered, and after deciding what to order we headed to the bar area. There was a little wait while the staff served the person in front, and then we were greeted with a smile and a warm hello.

We ordered two mojitos (they are on tap) and olives and chilli puffs to start. Then a Picanha for me and a Lomito for the guy. Both medium rare. We also went for the raw salad to share alongside the steak.

I am not sure what was so hard about this but it took AGES. We must have been standing around for 7 or 8 minutes to complete our order, grab our drinks and snacks and go back to our seats. It would have been better to take the order and then bring it over to us. I get the Nando’s set up, but unless you are super fast at serving drinks and snacks it’s a little annoying.

The olives were on the turn and I went back for a refund, but the drinks were lovely and strong and the chilli puffs had great flavour.

The steaks came out really quickly, and were delicious. Tender and perfectly cooked with a little sea salt to enhance the flavour. I wasn’t a fan of steak before my first visit here. I think this is because every single one I have tried has always been medium to well. Son of Steak bought out medium-rare for the event, and I can happily say I am a convert. What a difference the two are. I realise that the less cooked, the better, for me at least.

The Picanha is apparently really popular in Brazil but I hadn’t heard of it before now.

The raw salad went so well with the steak. Neither of us fancied chips, and this was light and tasty with peppers, greens, carrots and seeds. It also had some sneaky chilli in it! All topped off with a ginger and pineapple dressing. Perfect for spring.

I genuinely really like this place. The staff are friendly and are probably just finding their feet, which is why the initial service was slow. The food is brilliant and such great value. It really shows that you don’t have to pay too much for really tasty food. It was also really nice to see the chef through the open kitchen prepping the food. I will definitely be back!