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St. Mark's Steak House is the centerpiece
of St. Mark's Bar Street, a just-completed commercial
complex behind the Friendship Store that takes the the
Sanlitun-style strip development to new, pre-fab heights.
Backed by "art" money from Taiwan (though I'm hard-pressed
to think of any art that makes a penny on the renegade
island province), St. Mark's Bar Street consists of
15 brand new bars and restaurants, housed within the
same colonnaded, neon-adorned building.
While the bars are all empty--despite
inviting names like Kung Fu, West Sunshine, Red Wooden
Shoes, Cool Bar and Pop--St. Mark's Steak House is already
attracting a trickle of customers. This is perhaps due
less to its lukewarm draught beer and lousy lighting
than to St. Mark's specialty, beefsteak, presented with
the zeal of the converted carnivore. The menu, printed
on the paper table mats, reads like a manifesto on the
virtues of beef-eating:
"Beef is the kind of meat good for human health. It
tastes smoothly sweet. It does not lead to thirst and
hiccups. It is agreeable for the smooth function of
the stomach. Beef is rich with iron element, protein
and various kinds of vitamin and it helps to build up
muscles and the production of blood cells and is most
helpful for the weak and growing children. And the zinc
element the beef contains takes care of healthy skin
and good eye-sight."
St. Mark's has a lip-smacking selection of steaks to
choose from, including fillets, sirloins, T-bones, as
well as pork and lamb chops, all of which come with
vegetables and pasta. If you don't want red meat, there
are also fish steaks, a chicken chop, king prawn and
something called 'cheese lobster.' The 'St. Mark's Steak
(for man)' consists of hefty whole medallions of beef
wrapped in bacon, although if you're not quite up to
that and don't mind losing a bit of face, there is always
the 'St. Mark's Steak (for lady).' We order both, along
with the T-bone and fillet. The menu points out that
all meals come with 'complimentary soup, salad, 'needle'
(work it out) and tea or coffee.
Our salads and soups come within five minutes of our
order. The salad is a little small but consists of an
appetizing mix of romaine and iceberg lettuce, tomato,
beans and celery, served with either vinaigrette or
mayonnaise-based dressing. The onion soup is black,
and there is something hard floating in it which we
decide is a microwaved Kraft cheese slice. The minestrone
tastes a little like Chinese-style hot and sour soup,
and the 'consomme' has no discernible flavor at all.
But you shouldn't go to St. Mark's for the soups, anyway.
You should go for a good old-fashioned flesh feast,
and when our steaks arrive our faith is restored. Arriving
Asian-style on an iron skillet (tieban in Chinese, teppanyaki
in Japanese) and surrounded by a heart-warming portion
of vegetables and macaroni, the meat does not come 'just
like raw meat' as the menu suggests rare steak should
be, nor is it 'crispy yellow' as the house suggests
a well done piece of meat should be. The St. Mark's
Steak (for lady) does however look alarmingly like a
Scottish haggis and is in fact wrapped in cow stomach
lining, but the meat inside is tasty and the portion
generous. The fillet, served medium rare, is tender
with the just the right juiciness. The man's steak and
the T-bone really do make you feel like a man.
All in all, a meal at St Mark's leaves you feeling like
you've had a decent meal without being subjected to
anything too heavy. All that is left as we finish the
main course is to sample the house coffee. Unfortunately,
just as we are about to remark how refreshing it is
to have a nice filter coffee in a steak house, the DJ
starts mixing airport lounge music with supermarket
schmaltz and we decide to leave, declining the offer
to stay for the disco later on.
If it's style and sophistication you're looking for--go
somewhere else. If you want really, really good steak--go
to Buenos Aires or Kobe. But if all you require from
a good night out is some decent food and entertainment
at the expense of your surroundings, St Mark's steak
house is the place for you.
To get to St Mark's Bar Street, walk north from the
Friendship Store Starbucks. Take the first road on the
left.
St Mark's
Square
17 Jianguomenwai Dajie, Xiushui South Street, Friendship
Store North Tower,
Chaoyang District
Tel: 6507-9966
Food: *** Ambience:** Service:
*** Cost: ¥¥
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