What elevates Hawksmoor’s just-opened Boston location from just another chain steakhouse on the waterfront to a very-likely special destination? For one, the London-based restaurant group is British in an undeniable way we don’t see much around here. Take the Sunday roast, a shared weekly feast of roast beef with all the trimmings, heralded as “a true British institution.” But also, the opening menu of Hawkmoor’s third U.S. location pays homage to its newest city in ways that don’t feel like an international group just arbitrarily plunked down a cookie-cutter location in Boston. For example, there’s plenty of sustainable, local sourcing involved, especially when it comes to seafood—and some menu items playfully wink at our regional dining eccentricities, like the Fluffernutter sundae or a North End-inspired espresso-and-pistachio martini.

Being privy to a conversation among employees in late August, as the restaurant prepared to open, also hinted at shared British-Bostonian camaraderie: Several staffers hailing from different parts of England discussed their regional nomenclatures for a sandwich of crispy fish fingers. There’s the straightforward fish finger sandwich, for one, or the fish butty (as it’s called at Hawksmoor), bap, sarnie—the list goes on. It all felt very British—although very Boston, too, as we could imagine hearing a similar conversation about, say, grinders, subs, and spuckies.

Here’s a closer look at what to eat and drink at Hawksmoor.

A concise selection of chilled seafood dishes join raw and cooked oysters at the start of the menu. Subject to change with the seasons: gulf shrimp cocktail with chili crunch cocktail sauce; steelhead carpaccio with citrus, ginger, chili, and cilantro; and New Bedford crab on toast with cucumber salad. 

Natural, Vietnamese (ginger, chili, soy, crispy shallots), and Scotch bonnet mignonette

“We’ll come [to Boston] and show you how to do oysters,” joked Hawksmoor co-owner Will Beckett back in March. No, seafood is one of the areas where the restaurant really respects Boston’s prowess, because how could you not?—wisely leaning hard on local sourcing. Hawksmoor Boston’s executive chef Thomas Park previously worked extensively with seafood at one of Boston’s favorite fish spots, Saltie Girl.

You will find oysters in seasonal East Coast varieties (such as Edgewater Petites and South Bay Blondes, both from Wareham) with a couple optional dressings, or charcoal-roasted with bone marrow if you prefer cooked.

From potted beef and bacon with Yorkshire puddings to a lobster roll-inspired lobster crumpet with drawn Vermont butter created especially for this location, Hawksmoor’s apps dial into the local-meets-London thread that weaves through the menu.  

With white port and garlic

Forgive us if our first thought was “baked scrod” when we saw these beauties with their buttery crumb topping; it’s hard not to think of classic New England when the view out the window and from the spacious patio is the Boston skyline and Fort Point channel. The team sources local scallops—often U10, a.k.a. jumbo—via century-old local purveyor Wulf’s Fish, says Park. “They’re a little sweet, with a nice balance of brine,” he adds. “Fantastic in this application with the garlic butter.”

Burgers, steak sandwiches, steak salads, and steak frites—unless you’re feeling a midday chateaubriand or roasted Dover sole.

With American cheese and jalapeño tartar sauce

Available at lunch and at the bar, the fish butty—fried local haddock on a squishy bun with cheese, slaw, and tartar—rings familiar on both sides of the pond.

Hawksmoor is an ode to Britain’s “really proud tradition of beef cattle,” as Beckett said previously, recalling the chain’s early days: “It was a restaurant in a rundown part of East London, and you got steak on a white plate, but it was the best steak we could possibly find—local, ethical, and all that.” That ethos continues today as the restaurant group sources from small, family-run farms that emphasize sustainability, such as Châtel Farms in Georgia. The steaks are dry-aged and simply grilled with Maldon sea salt over charcoal from Virginia, then served with charcoal-roasted bone marrow. Sides, available à la carte, include twists on steakhouse classics, like mashed potatoes topped with melty Tunworth cheese or beef fat hash browns with malt vinegar mayo.

Pictured with beef fat fries (sea salt and malt vinegar), creamed spinach (rosemary, cayenne, nutmeg), and macaroni and cheese (five Vermont cheeses)

“The Hawksmoor Eight” refers to the restaurant’s eight main cuts. The porterhouse is a “great sharing steak,” best served medium rare. Other cuts include the tender fillet (or filet mignon), the luxurious chateaubriand, and the beefy rump.

British and local threads run through executive pastry chef Carla Henriques’ desserts, too, from warm beef dripping doughnuts with maple bacon and custard (created for the Boston menu) to seasonal treats (spiced pineapple and mango pavlova, for instance, on the late-summer opening menu) to a Hawksmoor favorite across the restaurant group, an indulgent peanut butter spin on the signature dessert of chef Alain Ducasse’s Monte Carlo restaurant Louis XV. 

With milk ice cream

Sticky toffee pudding is “super classic British,” as Beckett told us previously, and that “for a lot of British people, that would have been the foundation pudding dessert of your school years. There’s something Proustian; it sends you back home.” It also scored an unusually high rating from “STP Guy,” who ranks UK sticky toffee puddings on social media. He gave it a 9.5/10 and gushed, “Truly the Rolls-Royce of STPs.”. Hawksmoor also serves an ice cream sundae version.

With peanut butter ice cream, marshmallow Fluff, graham crackers, peanut sauce, and whipped cream

Speaking of ice cream sundaes, this one was created for Boston—an ode to the sticky-sweet, Somerville-born marshmallow spread and the local-favorite sandwich built around it.

Beckett hyped up Hawksmoor’s bar scene when he previously spoke with Boston: “You want people to come in and have a really good time.” Hawksmoor classics like a sour cherry Negroni and Shaky Pete’s Ginger Brew are popular picks. 

Grey Goose vodka, Chardonnay, olive brine, green peppercorn

The team is very proud of its “small and unbelievably cold” martinis, as Beckett described them—small enough to finish before they get warm. An ultrasonic jewelry cleaner homogenizes batches of the drink before freezing, adding a smooth viscosity. The steakhouse martini is one of several options alongside the “ultimate” martini (Fords gin, Dolin dry vermouth, Filicudi lemon oil) and more.

Ketel One vodka, hazelnut, pistachio butter, espresso

As Liam Davy, beverage director for the whole Hawksmoor group, got to know Boston, he kept coming across pistachio martinis in the North End and planned to make “the most incredible” version, as Beckett previously told us. However, Hawksmoor’s Boston cocktail tribute on the opening menu mixes two ubiquitous North End drinks, adding pistachio butter and a crumbled pistachio garnish to an espresso martini.

15 Necco St., Fort Point, Boston, thehawksmoor.com/us.