Smith’s of Smithfield

Wood fire at the market edge

Tim Dela Cruz brings wood-fire cooking to his Head Chef role at Smith’s of Smithfield in Farringdon, London, setting heat against British beef. Tim Dela Cruz arrived here by way of Manila, London, Cebu and Cockfosters, with Sous Chef work at Jason Atherton’s The Social Company before Head Chef posts at the Pig & Palm and Skewd Kitchen. At this station, his cooking draws on seasonal British ingredients, classic French technique and Southeast Asian flavours connected to his heritage. The place asks for that range. Smith’s of Smithfield is not a single room with one mood, but a four-floor restaurant opposite Smithfield Market, built around meat, seafood, drink and movement through the day. John Torode opened the original house in 2000, when Farringdon still held closer to market trade than dining polish. John Torode had come through Melbourne kitchens, Conran Group restaurants from 1992, books and later television, but his founding idea here stayed plain: British meat, rare breeds, breakfast, lunch, dinner and late rooms for people who worked nearby or stayed late.

A grill built around ageing and cuts

The method at Smith’s is direct rather than decorative. The Grill works with prime cuts, day-boat fish, seasonal specials and a language of ageing, fire and sharing. A 16oz 28-day-aged Scottish bone-in ribeye sits in the register of the house, as does 28-day-aged scotch beef Wellington, Dorset crab, roasted halibut and slow-roasted Hampshire lamb shoulder. The cooking does not need disguise. It needs heat, rest, seasoning and timing on the pass. Dela Cruz’s profile adds another line to that structure, bringing Southeast Asian memory into a kitchen still framed by British produce and French technique. The wine program keeps pace with the meat, with more than 150 wines named for The Grill, alongside beers and spirits on the lower floor and historical cocktails in Death + Victory. Ultan Cooke also passed through this kitchen as Head Chef before his Galway work at Aniar and later Ballynahinch Castle. Ultan Cooke carried the pressure of London service back west, where producer, landscape and restraint became central to his cooking.

Brick, whiteboards and the pass

The room keeps the warehouse grain of Charterhouse Street: exposed brick, raw concrete, timber, an open staircase and the kind of bustle that belongs beside a working meat market. After the Young’s refurbishment, the industrial bones remained, but the palette became brighter and softer. On the ground floor, the bar takes the first rush and later noise. Upstairs, The Grill gives the craft its closer frame, with meat displays, crossed-off specials and views into kitchen work from the chef’s table. No.3 Rooftop changes the register again, bringing seafood and City views into the house without losing the market below. The building is Grade II-listed, and its four floors let the place shift without pretending to be quiet.

The house keeps its cut

Smith’s has changed hands and been refreshed, yet its centre is still the market-side grammar Torode set down: beef, breakfast, late energy, and enough room for different cooks to leave marks without erasing the first cut. Dela Cruz now holds the Head Chef line with wood fire, seasonal British produce and the Manila-to-London route folded into ribeye steak and cote de boeuf.