'Excellent meat with gimmicks': Flat Iron, Deansgate, reviewed

“May I have a knife rather than this?” my friend asked holding up her mini-cleaver and waving it about to emphasise her request. 

“No, we don’t have knives,” said the waitress with an air of never having heard of such a ridiculous item. 

“This is a restaurant, surely you have knives?” 

“We only have these for customers,” said the waitress pointing at the cleaver. It was clear there would be no knife forthcoming, the cleaver was to be cleaved to, it was Flat Iron's thing, one of their identifiers. 

The value for money is undeniable, the buzz of the place is entertaining and the food generally is excellent

Flat Iron can be a bit gimmicky. It’s a well-oiled machine of hyper efficiency with toys which sometimes feels as though it’s rushing you, fortunately it's good at what it does.

There are sixteen Flat Irons in the country, thirteen in London and then Leeds, Cambridge and now Manchester with its 150-covers. The interior design is all wood and exposed girders. The aim is clear, to look toughly attractive; meat is the name of the game and that demands a no-nonsense dining environment.

The Manchester restaurant sits in the former Blacks unit, the outdoor clothes and equipment store at the junction of Deansgate and Quay Street. The big Baroque 1904 host building is from one of Manchester’s hero-architects, Charles Heathcote, who designed so much across the city centre, including, over the road, the charming Onward House (his strange son was very different and involved in a key moment in Irish history). 

I'm not sure what the location was like in 1904 but I bet on a Saturday there were fewer inflatable penises knocking about. Flat Iron sits at one of the busiest lets-get-pissed cross roads in the country, possibly Europe. Weekend nights are a carnival of flesh, muscles and tattoos, it's the apogee of a twenty-first century night on the tiles in Britain. The eyes of alarmed overseas guests pop out of their head.

Flat Iron Manchester is taking advantage of the popular location with its incredibly reasonable pricing. The place is rammed nearly every night despite only being open a couple or so weeks. 

There’s no pre-booking but, if full, you can reserve a table face to face at the door for later in the evening. We were sent packing for an hour or so, at which point a pushy app called Dojo buzzed us: ‘Time to head back, your table will be ready soon. Your spot will be held for 10 mins’. Jeez, calm down Dojo, stop shouting. 

Our table was next to a man on fire who turned out to be a chef. He was juggling steaks like a carnivorous circus act. It was entertaining. 

The menu is limited but you get some free, if needless, beef fat salted popcorn to start, a prawn cracker-like gesture from a restaurant group which knows all the tricks. 

We had the standard £14 Flat Iron steak and the Wagyu Denver special at £22. We ordered peppercorn (£1) and wild mushroom (£1.50) sauces. As sides we had the crispy bone marrow garlic mash (£4) and the roast aubergine, tomato, basil and mozzarella (£4.5). 

Let’s start with the sides. 

The sickly, greasy aubergine offering was a mess, it looked like a fight in an abattoir. The whole thing provided an unedifying confusion of flavours and was simply unpleasant. I took a rubbish photograph of the thing (it was dark at the back of the restaurant). The picture may be unfair, but if nothing else sums up my feelings for this nonsense.  

Meanwhile the bone marrow mash was spectacular, a perfect and smooth mash with chives, garlic butter and the distinctively rich kick of bone marrow. A sprinkling of crispy bits of batter added texture and crunch. A head-turner of a dish that one.

The meat was a head-turner too. 

Our writer Harley Young visited the North Yorkshire farm at Thirsk which supplies the Flat Iron flesh and wrote about the care being shown with the generous animals donating themselves to our earthly pleasures. 

My Wagyu Denver (a cut from the 'chuck' on the shoulder) was everything you wanted in this most expensive of beef. The one difference was the price, it wasn't expensive, it was almost cheap as these things go. Of course, this is Tyke Wagyu not Japanese, which will alarm the purist, but who cares because this steak was so delicate and so rich. It was moist, marbled, lush and a pure joy to eat. 

Both the peppercorn and wild mushroom sauces worked with the steak but it almost seemed a shame to use them as the meat was so good. The sauces also worked well with the standard Flat Iron steak which was always going to be a little more robust than the Wagyu but that’s not a criticism because again it was a delight to eat, both easy on the eye and easy on the palate. 

Flat iron, by the way, is the US term for what we could call a feather blade and is another shoulder cut. The steaks were aided and abetted by a lovely full-on bottle of Rioja Reserva (£39). 

With the bill every customer receives a tidsy, tiny cleaver. The cute little thing might suit the keyring of an axe murderer but can also be exchanged at any time for a free vanilla ice cream. 

On the way out everybody gets a 'free' dessert as there are none on the menu. The dessert comes in the form of the afore-mentioned ice cream. We didn’t seem to get ours, perhaps we rushed out too quickly, so back to Harley who liked hers a lot and wrote this for me. ‘The ice-cream is made with Tahitian vanilla and French butter in small cones, it’s a rich, salty-sweet dessert’. There you go. 

Flat Iron Manchester is good despite the gimmicks such as the cleavers and even smaller cleavers and pointless popcorn; honestly steak knives would be better and, let’s admit it, popcorn is always - always - just cheap rubbish.  

Yet, this is a chain getting most things right. They have a simple formula that works for them and is proving exceptionally popular. If you like an indie restaurant's individuality then this is not for you but if you want a quickish quality meal at a very reasonable price then Flat Iron will suit. 

If you add that value for money to efficient service, the entertaining buzz, and, aside from the aubergine horror, excellent food, you can see why this place is thriving. I'll go back if I crave a good steak at an easy price, and if you do too then get in there, you'll like Flat Iron. 

Flat Iron Manchester, 200 Deansgate, Manchester M3 3NN

Flat Iron Manchester is on Confidential Guides