When I received a press release late last year announcing the imminent opening of Cooper’s Cut, I’ll admit, I was sceptical. Firstly, it would be taking over a space once occupied by Anne-Sophie Pic’s lauded La Dame de Pic at the Four Seasons Hotel London at Tower Bridge — one of the few restaurants in the capital to hold two Michelin stars.

Secondly, it was to be a steakhouse. Those were big shoes to fill for any eatery, but one that lives and dies by the quality of a single ingredient? Surely it didn’t stand a chance. Plus, did London really need yet another upscale (read: eye-wateringly expensive) steak place? Especially this part of London, within close enough proximity to the expense accounts of The City that a quick search on OpenTable throws up at least 20 other venues in the neighbourhood looking to part you with upwards of £40 for a piece of sirloin. Facing competition from all the heavy hitters – including Hawksmoor, Blacklock, Gaucho, Temper, and Goodman – as well as a slew of independents, I once again had to conclude that, surely, it didn’t stand a chance.

Only one thing for it then: do the responsibly journalistic thing and try it out for myself. We visit on a sunny Saturday evening in early May and find the dining room largely populated by what I suspect are hotel guests (par for the course in this area of the capital, where restaurants tend to cater to lunchtime business crowds rather than evening leisure diners). The mood is casual, the staff chatty and the vibe unhurried – a rare blessing in a hospitality industry notorious for chasing you off your table the moment your 90-minute slot is up.

As we are led from the hotel lobby, through the Grade-II* listed building’s magnificent rotunda, and given our first glimpse of the restaurant’s soaring triple-height ceilings, we are offered a little background. The eponymous Cooper is not, as I had originally assumed, the head chef (that, it turns out, is Luke Armstrong – more on him later). The Cooper in question is, in fact, Sir Edwin Cooper, the British architect behind that magnificent rotunda and those soaring triple-height ceilings, all of which were once part of the Port of London Authority building that now houses the Four Seasons. Suffice to say, they really don’t make offices like they used to.

Cooper’s Cut itself is one large room cleverly divided via banquette seating and mirrored columns so as to feel like a series of cosy, intimate spaces, including a private dining room and, just off the entrance, a tiny four-seater cocktail bar. We’re deposited here for dark chocolate Old Fashioneds, ice-cold gin martinis (served, laudably, as 1.5 measures), and my personal favourite, a mango and chilli marg featuring Don Julio 1942, Chinola mango, Ancho Reyes Verde and chilli tincture distilled down, in a piece of masterful mixology trickery, to a clear honey-coloured liquid topped with a cloud of frothy egg white. Imagine a margarita consomme and you’ve got the idea.

In fact, so tiny is the bar that avoiding conversation with the bartender would feel actively rude and, before long, we’re quizzing him about the impressive floor-to-ceiling spirits shelf behind him. Being a steakhouse, he says, whisky-based cocktails remain the best sellers but, in a sign of changed times, non-alcoholic serves beyond a Diet Coke or ginger ale are now obligatory (he’s a fan of Lyre’s zero proof spirits). Cooper’s Cut has also devised a modern spin on the three martini lunch using Quarter Proof’s low ABV spirits.

For £39 a head, have your starter paired with a gin and elderflower martini, your main with a grain spirit, brine and blue cheese olive martini, and your dessert with an agave, coffee and salted caramel martini, all at a potency that means returning to the office afterwards won’t land you in hot water with HR. Genius.

Cocktails drained, we are shown to a spacious corner table tucked away beneath expansive picture windows. A quick peruse of the a la carte menu shows all the classics are present and correct: Maldon oysters and beef tartare to start, Wagyu fillet, ribeye, sirloin, striploin and flat iron for mains, cote be boeuf and chateaubriand to share, and options of chicken, hake and asparagus for those not going heavy on the red meat.

We, however, are steered in the direction of the Chef’s Menu: a five-course tasting menu designed to let Armstrong flex his culinary muscles beyond the flame grill. Proceedings kick off with a light, vibrant salad of beetroot with Dijon mustard and creme fraiche – a pretty and well-balanced plate of pickled root veg and pastel-hued dots of creamy accompaniments – followed by a single small but masterfully chargrilled langoustine swimming in a lake of saffron and citrus beurre blanc.

A classic dish of well-cooked Loire Valley asparagus doused in a herb sabayon precedes what is, perhaps surprisingly, the only beef on the menu: a precisely trimmed cut of A4 Wagyu with red wine jus and morel mushrooms. The Wagyu comes pink and glistening, as it should, and in a playful flourish is accompanied by a bump of Kristal caviar served directly to the thumb pad. A house signature to finish – Granny Smith apple tarte tatin – is all sharp apple flavours, flaky pastry and unctuous caramel.

At £165 per person, it’s punchily priced, even for this quality of cooking, and won't take home any awards for value. A look at the current menus on the website shows the offering appears to have been refined to three starters (including the aforementioned oysters and beef tartare), a choice of three full-size steak cuts, sides of spinach, mash and salad for the table, and the tarte tatin to finish. The cost has also been cut to £125 per person – a fair price for a menu more representative of the modern steak house experience Cooper’s Cut excels at.

So, does Cooper’s Cut stand a chance? Happy to be proved wrong, I think it might. The service is top-notch (this is the Four Seasons after all), the cocktails truly some of the best I’ve had in the capital, and the food classic, sophisticated and, most importantly, making the most of that single ingredient it relies on. Are tweaks needed? Yes – but the restaurant had only been open for two months when I visited, and teething problems are inevitable. Changes seem to be being made in the right direction and I certainly wouldn’t say no to a return visit.

There's plenty of competition in this part of town. But Cooper’s Cut can go toe-to-toe with any of them – and, thanks to Sir Edwin, promises a setting you won't forget in a hurry.

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