Everything about Wolfgang Puck is way over the top, from his Mozart-meets-Shakespeare name to the size of his Porterhouse steaks. His handsome Austrian features and camp-Schwarzenegger voice are constantly seen and heard on American TV. You can't click on
wolfgangpuck.com/restaurants without finding the great man gesticulating at you in his chef's whites. His diffusion range of Bistros and Expresses can be found in umpteen American shopping malls and airports. His fine-dining empire stretches from Beverly Hills to Washington DC to Singapore – and now London, where the fourth incarnation of CUT, his upmarket steak franchise, has just opened, his first venture in Europe.
It's very faux-elegant Mayfair: the frontage, opposite the Dorchester, is all gleaming gilt, streaming light and fawning doormen. Walk in and inspect the dining area – the swags of parachute-silk curtains, dark mahogany, cream marble flooring, cream and tan leather chairs, ceiling lights that resemble fat wire hedges fretted with fireflies, upper-level slatted louvres and glowing table lamps – and words like "glamour" and "opulence" spring to mind; though frankly, if it were 10 per cent more glamorous and opulent, it could be the dining-room of a soon-to-be-deposed Arab autocrat.
It all yells "Money!" and so does the menu. If the prices of starters make you gulp – tomato salad with anchovies, £12? Foie gras on rye with chutney, £17? – the mains could give you an aneurysm. The cheapest steak here is a petit cut 6oz filet mignon for £29. A substantial 14oz English rib-eye steak is £36, the American version £42 and the 8oz pure breed Wagyu from Chile is a mildly ludicrous £85. Your eye slides down the menu looking for alternatives – the pan-roasted poulet noire, the grilled pork chop (both £24), the lamb chops (£29) and tuna steak (£26) – but you know you've had it. The point of CUT is to eat Wolfgang's steak and pay a fortune, so you embrace your fate.
Read more at http://www.independent.co.uk/
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