Mac and Wild

Scottish

9A Devonshire Square, Spitalfields, EC2M 4YN

££

Mac and Wild is a highland haunt located in the heart of the city, just a few minutes’ walk from Liverpool Street station. They have a large, open, slightly industrial-feeling interior (typical of many Spitalfields restaurants), as well as a heated terrace and a bar downstairs that you can hire for private events. The staff were all young, jovial looking blokes, not so Scottish, whilst I couldn’t work out of the interior was slick and glam or like the inside of a spoons, with its bad acoustics and gold brass finish.

The menu is quite obviously meat heavy, with Venison acting as the star of the show for many dishes. You can either go for the venimoo burger – a vension and beef patty combo (£12), a venison topside (£16), or healthier fish options like the salmon bowl (£14.5) from the main menu. If you’re here for the real deal, however, you’ll go for one of their prized cuts of rib-eye, chateaubriand, or tomahawk – all between £12-£14 per 100g. They have the different cut sizes on a blackboard, which are crossed out when purchased, and the meat is on display in a glass butcher-style fridge to tempt you even more (and give your pescatarian friends nightmares).

No, this is not a place for veggies or vegans alike. You’re here to indulge, you’re here for the cow, the deer, and all the trimmings. For drinks, we opted for two of the Black Isle Blonde’s (£5.25), which came on draught, but not as a full or half pint – instead some weird size in the middle. They took a while to come and serve us the drinks, and we had to ask for water twice - by the time they came to take our drinks order we knew we needed to get in there quickly with the food too. To eat we went for the venimoo burger and the venison topside. We got a side of chips with the venison and ordered an additional side of truffled mushroom mac and cheese (£5.75).

The burger was delicious and came with cheese, pickles and bearnaise sauce, the venison patty was quite obviously superior to the mere beef, but they complemented each other well and the flavours that went with them were rich without being overpowering. The venison topside was also a great choice: a decent price for 4 large chunks of rare meat which was cooked very well, with chips included as a side here. The truffled mushroom mac and cheese was every bit as indulgent as you’d think, if anything, it was too truffley. There was an excess of mushrooms and I think it could have gone heavier on the cheese, easier on the truffle.

We arrived at 18:30, but by the time we’d finished our food the restaurant was almost full. It didn’t take them long to take out plates, but we weren’t asked for a dessert menu, so after a 20-minute wait we asked for one ourselves. We opted for the sticky toffee pudding (£7) and the deep-fried mars bar sundae (£6.25). Both of these were underwhelming – the sticky toffee sponge tasted like fridge and the deep-fried mars bar chunks had gone soggy in the ice cream. Mac and Wild is a place for indulgence, sure, but is it the right side of rich?

Mac and Wild isn’t quite slap-dash casual dripping meat-burger Scottish vibes, neither is it upmarket quality cut fine dining. The meat here is good, but I think the overall vibe is pretty confused with what it’s supposed to be. We got 50% off our bill with Tastecard – taking it to just over £20 each. For drinks, mains, sides and dessert, this was obviously worth it. However, if I had paid full whack for the food, coupled with the shoddy service I wouldn’t be that impressed. Will I return? More likely that Mac and Wild will be a one hit wonder for me. Next time I’ll go to Byron.

(No images are my own)

OVERALL RATING: ***

https://www.macandwild.com/mac-wild-devonshire-square/menus

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