Cristina’s

Finally made time to try Cristina’s the casual steak house. First thought, didn’t expect to find any mid range to fine dining resturant in Barking, let alone a steak house. Although it is surrounded by butchers and the area is super busy, it does not really shout out wealth. There is no trendy bars, or cafes, not even a Costa or a Starbucks. So I applaud for such a business bucking the trend, and bringing something much needed which is a bit of charm and quality.
The venue it self is surprisingly larger than the shop front suggest, plenty of space to move around, wide tables and fat apart. Nicely decorated with a mixture of being rustic and a bit of art décor charm. Good job keeping it simple and casual, after it is just a rectangular room.
The food — quite decent, but can be improved. First the starters was excellent, well presented, full of flavour, but not over powering, and with such a variety. Four of us, had four different starters. — and cooked quite well.
The mains — I asked for a medium rare, but was serve a medium, but nvm. The mains comes with two sides. And size of the steaks was decent. The steaks them selves wasn’t bad, there was plenty of seasoning, but the meat itself was on the average side. I would not call it prime, then for the cost, I would not complain.
Deserts — a nice variety and tasted very fresh and home made, they certainly made an effort with putting together a desert menu.
There is good selection of wine and drinks.
The service was really good, friendly and efficient.
Overall for the price and location and the service, quite value for money and decent food.
I would definitely come back to try again

With all my love to Barking, I can’t believe it’s home to such an incredible steakhouse! They used to have a gorgeous warm goats cheese starter (it’s probably for the best that its now off the menu, because otherwise who knows if I would have tried anything else, I was a little hooked) and have a really simple, customisable, tasty steak menu, with well-​priced, gorgeous steaks, cooked to perfection, We’ve never had room for dessert but they sound great — as does the Sunday roast, which I can’t wait to try on our next visit!
The décor is fresh and casual, and the staff and clientele are relaxed and friendly. The restaurant is large and airy and so can be very quiet at lunch (we haven’t tried a dinner) which can make it a little hard to relax and freely enjoy conversation at the table without worries of being overheard or annoying other guests with our mindless chat… but, we go for the food more than the ambiance.