St. John: a Michelin starred cutting room

St. John is located very close to the Smithfield market (London's meat market) and consists of two parts: one is the restaurant itself, very simply decorated, with long tables and white cloths, and the other is a bakery where it is possible to buy bread, doughnuts and bottles of wine.

St. John is the meat lover hub in London.

Be careful: I said meat lover, not steak lover! Here we are not talking about a regular restaurant with tender and juicy steaks...

At St. John, pork and game are the stars of the menu, and in particular their less noble parts.

Do not be surprised to see listed dishes such as ox hearth or goat's curd... the restaurant fully embraces the Italian say 'del porco non si butta via nulla' (no piece of the pork should be thrown away) and extend it to the other fauna species.

You cannot leave St John without trying their bone marrow: scoop out the marrow and spread it on the fragrant slices of grilled bread - prepared in the bakery of the restaurant -, add a pinch of Normandy salt and few leaves of parsley... an absolute delicacy in its simplicity!

When it comes to taste, this is probably the 'milder' dish of the menu... As the meat selection is quite peculiar, the ingredient combinations are usually very flavorful and rich in taste (and served in generous portions) - like the grilled ox heart served with beetroot and horseradish.

Chef Fergus Henderson is the mind behind the menu, while Trevor Gulliver is the responsible for the wine list (that hosts only French wines).

The restaurant was awarded with the Michelin star in September 2012.