Carnicero Steak House - Review


When I think of steakhouse, I always imagine some dark place with the smell of meat and lots of sweaty men tackling huge plates of food. But when I was invited down to Carnicero in Oxford Street, that was thankfully not what I was welcomed with. I had only been here once with a friend for a glass of wine, but didn't pay any attention to the food menu, so now was my chance to really be proven wrong about my 'Steakhouse' assumptions. On their website, the restaurant description is as follows:

"Carnicero is a Galician Steakhouse based in Oxford Street, Southampton. We offer a wide range of fresh, contemporary cuisine."

And when they say fresh and contemporary, they aren't fibbing! We were welcomed into a warm and inviting restaurant with a beautiful bar and setting, and a wall design to die for! (By Lee Murray). We then welcomed a nice bottle of Malbec, my all time favourite red wine and perused the menu to see what they had on offer. We started with some bread and fancy butter and delicious olives to get the palette started.

The waitress told us about the special starters and I had made my choice immediately. I went for the Grilled fig wrapped in parma ham, filled with brie and finished with rocket salad and balsamic glaze. What. A. Starter. I have genuinely not tasted anything like it before and wouldn't normally mix sweet and savoury at all, but this just worked. The saltiness of the ham, with the creamy cheese and the sweet fig, it just blended so well and was a good portion size too. Not too big, not too small.





My mum decided to have the Peppered Goats cheese with beetroot and artichoke, and of course I stole some to taste. Again, a perfectly sized portion with all of the different flavours that blended together. I love treating my mum to dinners and she loved that starter!

We then moved onto mains, and as we looked around in the dim light shining with candles, there were alternatives to steak being delivered on the busy Friday night so we knew that we were still in good non-steak-eating hands. I am a big fish lover and would choose that over most dishes to be honest, so to me the Salmon Superfood salad was the definite choice. It had orange in it too! With so many different ingredients, the flavours just popped and the salmon was cooked just right. Not too dry and cooked so it was a little crispy on the edges. Perfect. 

Mum had the Grilled chicken burger with added Chorizo and it didn't disappoint! It was a huge chunk of chicken and tasted so so good. There was a lot of meat and it could have done with a little more sauce, but I guess thats personal preference whether you like sauce or not, so maybe ask for your favourite if you order it! 








The portions were fairly big but I think it was a good amount, and I always think if you have eaten until you are stuffed and physically cannot eat anymore, then you've done good. I only left a little of my salad but I made sure I ate all of the salmon! Plus I'm really loving the use of artichokes in their dishes as I've had a jar of them in my fridge for so long and didn't know they could be used in salads or with just cheese!

The desserts definitely finished us! My mum had her favourite, Eton Mess, and it was spectacular. The strawberry had such a great prominent taste and it wasn't too sickly. I went for the Chocolate Brownie with salted caramel ice cream. It was definitely more sickly than the Eton Mess but tasted amazing. The ice cream went with it really well and I loved the bits of fruit to go with it, great as a little refresher.




We had such a lovely meal, the staff were very attentive but not too pushy and the food was great! We also heard the Steak was super good as well, so if you are a steak lover I highly recommend that you pay it a visit! The decor and atmosphere is fairly buzzing but not too loud, especially if you go in the week although this place is pretty popular! It's not massively on the pricey side and you can also get sharing platters if you wanted to try a bit of everything! 

Thank you to Carnicero for having us and I'll definitely come back to enjoy some more, and I might even try a steak!

See their menu and website here: www.carnicero.co.uk
Find their Instagram here: www.instagram.com/thecarnicero/
See their TripAdvisor Reviews: Carnicero Steakhouse

SEE MY YOUTUBE VIDEO OF THE MEAL HERE: www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsP2Eixxqmo

This meal was sponsored by Carnicero for the purpose of the review but all views/images and opinions are my own.

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