The Meatles steaks? You’ll love them, yeah, yeah, yeah!
FOOD TRUCK’S WINNING FAB FOUR
IT’S such a letdown when you’re craving a steak and that first forkful is so tough it’s like leather. Not only is it disappointing, it’s an infuriating waste of money.
Even some of the dedicated steakhouses can get it wrong, when you’ve asked for medium rare and you’re presented with an overcooked offering.
When it’s so expensive, about £30 or more, you want it to be spot-on and an experience to remember for all the right reasons.
I must admit I was a little dubious when I discovered a new food truck, called The Meatles, on social media. It has been doing the rounds outside pubs that don’t serve food across Derbyshire and Leicestershire and has recently branched out across the border into Nottinghamshire.
As luck would have it, it was just down the road from me, in the car park of the Jolly Anglers, in Meadow Road, Beeston Rylands, last weekend. It was easy enough to spot the truck, which is painted red, white and blue.
Four different steaks are on offer the Fab Four, hence the play on The Beatles name. Rump, ribeye and sirloin are £11 and fillet £13, served with skin on fries, sauce and coleslaw. Okay, so you don’t have the restaurant surroundings and service, but the price is tempting.
Ahead of me in the queue was Julia Head, a food blogger who goes by the name of the Nottingham Food Guide on Instagram, so I was clearly in good company.
I opted for a fillet with a blue cheese sauce and my husband had rump with peppercorn sauce - or rather, another Beatles pun, Sgt Peppercorn sauce. It didn’t take long for the steaks to be cooked on the van’s grill and presented in a cardboard tray with wooden cutlery.
We ate them in the pub with a glass of Shiraz and a pint. I noticed the fillet, already sliced, was caramelised on the outside and that perfect shade of pink inside, indicating it was medium rare as requested.
One bite in and I knew this was going to be a winner. The fillet was as tender as any I’ve had at the most expensive steakhouses. It melted in my mouth and the blue cheese sauce provided a tasty tang.
The skin-on chips were just as delicious, cooked in beef dripping.
When your menu is steak, you don’t have to take into consideration vegetarians and vegans. A pot of coleslaw, made with red cabbage, added crunch and freshness.
The quality blew me away - especially when cooked from a grill in such a small space. I’ve had street food pizzas, burgers, Yorkshire pudding wraps, fried chicken, noodles and virtually everything there is to be had from trucks but it’s the first time I’ve had steak.
As an added bonus, it drew us to a pub we don’t normally visit, and we put money into their till, so it’s a win all-round.
Afterwards I talked to owner James Dainty, who has done all kinds of jobs in the past, from a market trader selling perfume to groundwork. He told me how he began delivering steaks during lockdown and it went from there. He’s got the patter and is the one serving customers at the truck while chef Lee Elllis, who has 30 years of experience, cooks the steaks to perfection.
James, who lives in Breaston, Derbyshire, was a storeman when he decided to get a trailer. “From the get-go I knew it was going to be a winner because I knew the quality of the meat,” he said. “I’m used to being with the public because of working on markets all my life.
“It was Lee’s idea to use beef dripping oil. He said, ‘you wait to see the change in what people think.’ The first week was, ‘OMG, those chips’ because you just don’t get beef-dripping chips any more. People talk about the chips as much as the steak.
“Everything is made on the day fresh. There never seems to be anything left. Every week up until this week it’s always been the fillet that’s been the most popular but this weekend we sold about four fillets, the best was rump, ribeye and sirloin - we sold out of them.”
Before launching the business James spent an hour on the internet Googling ‘steak van’ to check out the competition - and found there was none locally.
He said: “Where you find them all is Borough Market and places like that and they don’t have to leave London because they’ve got all the footfall, all the tourists. That was the other pull for me, knowing there was nobody else doing it. There was one I saw in the West Midlands but they just do the bavette steak.”
James, 43, wants to branch out into areas such as Ruddington, West Bridgford and other parts of Nottingham. Previously the van has been to the Bell, in Sawley, the White Lion, in Sandiacre, and Sportsman, in Long Eaton.
The Meatles will be at the Crown Inn, in Beeston, today, from 5pm until 8pm.