Swiss Butter started in Beirut, where Eddy Massaad opened the first restaurant in 2017 with a menu that leaves very little room for indecision: beef fillet, chicken or salmon, all served with fries or a baked potato, salad, baguette and that all-important Swiss Butter sauce. Made with a closely guarded blend of 33 herbs and spices, the sauce is the one constant – and, unsurprisingly, the magic ingredient everyone talks about.

From Beirut, Swiss Butter spread across the Gulf, opening restaurants in the UAE and Saudi Arabia before landing in London in 2023. Its first UK home is on Southampton Row in Holborn, bringing the same deliberately stripped-back formula to a city hardly short of steakhouses.

London clearly passed the butter test and, almost three years on, plans have been announced that the Holborn outpost will get two siblings in the city.

We visited the OG Swiss Butter in London – here’s all about our experience and recommendations.

What’s the vibe like?

Firstly, don’t be intimidated by Swiss Butter’s infamous queue – it’s a baptism by fire, but thankfully, it moves along pretty quickly.

Swiss Butter is a casual affair – crowded and conspicuously unfussy – less grand steakhouse, more place to pile in with friends, order what everyone else is having and get stuck into it. There’s little of the hushed, polished atmosphere you might expect from a steakhouse; instead, it feels closer to a lively neighbourhood spot, with groups of friends crammed around tables and plates landing quickly. Nobody is here to linger over a three-hour dinner – this is sociable and refreshingly unceremonious.

And what’s on the menu?

There isn’t much opportunity for dithering, given how compact the menu is. Mains boil down to (vegetarians, close your eyes) beef fillet or ribeye, chicken breast or salmon filet.

Each protein arrives with fries or a baked potato, a salad, white or brown baguette, and chili flakes. The sauce is the whole operation, really – a creamy, herby, peppery concoction. Two desserts follow, and that’s about the extent of the decision-making required. We had:

Salmon filet – What an imposing piece of salmon this is. A substantial slab of fish, soft and flaky beneath a beautifully burnished exterior, with those caramelised edges that make for the most perfect bite. It hardly needs the blanket of sauce, but we’ve never been ones to turn it down.

We had it with the baked potato, which was roughly the size of someone’s head. Predictably a little dry in the middle, but nothing that a liberal dousing of sauce couldn’t remedy. Get an extra side of sauce if you’re feeling feral.

The ribeye steak was every bit as succulent and yielding as you’d hope, with a richness that stood up beautifully to the sauce. With steak, it had to be fries – some culinary marriages simply don’t need fixing. The result is a sizeable, deeply comforting plate of food. The lettuce is largely ornamental, but does at least punctuate the brown-and-gold colour scheme with a little greenery.

And so to the sauce. We’d pictured something thick, glossy and almost cheesy; but it’s actually the complete opposite: runny, herby, umami-rich and piquantly mustardy. Did we identify the 33 ingredients in it? Absolutely not. But the alchemy works, it comforts your belly and soul, and that’s all we care about. Definitely the star of the show even if unassuming on the plate.

And for dessert?

If you’re contemplating dessert after the feast you’ve just demolished, first of all: respect. We ordered both options because opportunities like this are not to be squandered. Besides, takeaway boxes are available.

Molten cake – A hulking pudding, with a deeply chocolatey exterior giving way to a soft, molten centre. It’s drenched in sauce and unapologetically rich but surprisingly not sickly sweet.

Pain perdu – Equally outsized and gloriously over the top. Thick and pillowy like the most successful Japanese pancake ever created, drenched in sauce with a beautifully caramelised exterior. So deeply indulgent and addictive.

Both are so big they’re bordering on cartoonish but the scale isn’t the only thing that’s been turned up to eleven. These are unabashedly rich and obscenely good.

And for drinks?

Wine and beer, my friend, because the magic is in the simplicity. You can choose from house, Italian or French wine, ordering by the carafe, bottle or single glass. Beers come by the pint, half pint or bottle.

We’ve yet to visit a restaurant where we didn’t have to peruse a puzzling wine menu with question marks on our faces but this is as straightforward as it gets, and just what you need to accompany your mains. The protein and sauce are the stars of the show – that’s what you queue for – so Swiss Butter is smart not to let anything else outshine them.

Verdict

Swiss Butter keeps things brutally and admirably simple – just revel in that addictive sauce and prepare to be very full. The portions are huge and unapologetically indulgent, so if what you want is a big plate of succulent meat and luxurious sauce that’ll feed your belly and soul, this hits the spot. Absolutely worth waiting in line for and experiencing at least once in your life (though the wallet-friendly prices will tempt you to go back).

Key details

Address: 114-118 Southampton Row, London WC1B 5AA

Website: swissbutter.com

Socials: @swissbutter

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