MY AVERSION to Greggs is no secret amongst my Confidential colleagues. They know that a Greggs’ sausage roll is one of the top three things I would never put in my mouth. They know this because I tell them regularly. They can also feel my disapproving stare on the back of their heads whenever they tuck in to various mass-produced pastry things. Because of this, they wanted to get me back and have long been hoping for an opportunity to send me over to join the long, miserable, inexplicable queue outside the Spinningfields branch.
No one would have guessed that opportunity would come thanks to a tweet from upmarket steak restaurant Hawksmoor. As part of their bar snack menu, Hawksmoor have introduced a ‘Steak Slice’, and who else but me would be chosen to see how it compares to a Steak Bake, one of the most popular items Greggs sells to its five million customers each week.
Obviously, I only agreed in the name of serious journalism and in-depth investigation, along with the caveat that no one took a photo of me in the queue.
All is lost...Description – What do they say?
Greggs Steak Bake: “Packed with diced cuts of prime beef in a rich and tasty gravy, this golden puff pastry parcel has been a firm favourite for years.”
Hawksmoor Steak Slice: “200g 35-day-aged rare-breed ribeye, slow-braised with red wine and bone marrow, wrapped inside puff pastry with a little Colsten Bassett Stilton. - inspired by the 24-hour service station"
Price Comparison
Greggs: £1.30
Hawksmoor: £20... 'ow much?
So in terms of cost, as opposed to value, you could buy fifteen Steak Bakes for the price of one Hawksmoor Steak Slice. Or eat a fifteenth of the Hawksmoor Slice for £1.30 – though I don’t think they’d let you do that...
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Greggs Steak Bake - £1.20Preparation Time
Greggs: We stood in the sorry queue for seven minutes and ordered it straight from the beige-filled hot counter.
Hawksmoor: Apparently it takes twenty minutes to cook, so we advise you to book ahead.
Size and Appearance
Greggs: Smaller in size. Uniform golden pastry with signature striped effect. On the inside the meat was chopped into small chunks, very small chunks, bound in a decent amount of gravy.
Hawksmoor: Golden pastry, larger in size, sprinkled with fresh thyme. The inside was solid steak, braised until tender with a melting layer of cheese on top.
As you’d expect, it wasn’t practical to bring some scales and weigh each item for comparison. Greggs’ website puts the Steak Bake at 136g. We’re guessing that if the meat in the Steak Slice is 200g alone; after cooking, the whole thing probably comes in at 250g.
Smell
Greggs: Not much depth coming from this one to be honest, probably due to the homogenised fat and palm oil used in the mass produced pastry. Faint whiff of desperation.
Hawksmoor: There’s an obvious whiff of proper butter emanating from the warm, handmade puff pastry.
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Hawksmoor Steak Slice - £20Taste
Greggs: It’s kind of functional, like school dinners. I managed to find one chewable piece of meat in there, but most of the inside was meat-threaded gravy. I left most of the pastry as there seemed to be a lot of it in proportion to the meat. I wasn’t feeling a lot of love in there.
Hawksmoor: This was very rich, which is usually a good thing. I struggled to see what the cheese added. Colsten Bassett is an award winning Stilton of the highest quality, but it dominated the steak and made the whole thing a bit hefty.
In Conclusion
After working my way through these, I was full, but not satisfied. My face felt strangely greasy afterwards and I had an insatiable thirst. I haven’t changed my opinion of Greggs and I think the Hawksmoor version needs reworking a little... and 10 bob dropping from the price tag.
Next week: The French vs Burger King - Whose Whopper Is Biggest?
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