Tramshed Restaurant Review: British Chicken and Steak Brunch in Shoreditch

Back in the years when exciting and daring new restaurant openings were just starting out and the blogging world was a lot smaller than it is today, the news of a restaurant opening with a piece of work by Damian Hurst artwork at the centre of its dining room in the form of a Hereford cow and cockerel preserved formaldehyde – this was pretty exciting news.

A daring concept if you will, as guests eating either steak or chicken could look at their food in full form right in front of their eyes. Tramshed was a place I always wanted to visit and now 5 years later I’ve finally gotten round to it and it still feels shiny and new, with an oddly American basement feel about it which I love. Industrial, but still feeling warm and cosy inside despite the large space.

The brainchild of Tramshed is chef and restaurateur Mark Hix whose had a rather colourful life in the world of restaurants. Before opening up his first venture back in 2008 (Hix Oyster & Chop House), Mark was head chef of the Caprice group but has since gone on to create his own successful empire and in my opinion Tramshed was probably the most riskiest of them all focusing on just chicken & steak. We came here one weekend for brunch, in awe for a moment at that chicken/cow and settled in with an excellent (and rather spicy) Bloody Mary. The latter can be served bottomless during brunch alongside Prosecco for an extra £25pp.

About to eat an entire chicken practically to myself, we went straight into the main brunch dishes. For those not wanting to consume their weight in food, there’s some really lovely other dishes on the menu such as the black cow breakfast yorkie, smashed avocado on toast, Cock ‘n’ Bull hash and Eggs Benedict. I had the whole Swainson House Farm barn-reared Indian Rock chicken. Juicy, packed with flavour, crispy golden skin and served legs up in the air.

The whole chicken comes served with chips which were nicely seasoned and balls of sage & onion stuffing. The latter of which were pretty terrible, but saved by a heavenly pot of rich gravy. Someone needs to really try these balls and have a rethink because when stuffing is good – it can make a meal. If that wasn’t enough we ordered a side of delicious garlic mushrooms and salt ‘n’ vinegar onion rings, both washed down with a carafe of quality house white wine.

If chicken isn’t your guilty brunch pleasure, then perhaps the steak might well be. A succulent 250g of Glenarm mighty-marbled rib eye steak, which again was served with chips. All of the beef here is aged in a Himalayan salt chamber and comes from Shorthorn, Hereford and Aberdeen Angus breeds. The age really comes across in the flavour and the kitchen got our medium-rare requested steak absolutely spot on.

We had little room left for dessert, having consumed what was a whole chicken for one – but in the name of research (well that’s my excuse) we did our best and ordered two of their most popular. A raspberry and white chocolate cheesecake which was a fine example of one of my favourite desserts, but better still was the Bramley apple pie. Golden, crispy pastry, rich apple filling and a good dusting of fine sugar. The custard flavour wise great, but as you can probably tell from the photo it was a little curdled.

We had a lovely time at Tramshed and I’m so glad I finally got round to visit what is now a Shoreditch dining institution. The Damian Hurst installation, the chicken with its feet in the air and the bottomless Bloody Mary’s. Tramshed isn’t perfect and there are a couple of things I mentioned which need improvement, but there are so many positives to bring me back and why I highly recommend – especially to any meat lovers.