Bournemouth Steak House is a small steakhouse run by one family on Holdenhurst Road in East Cliff. It has fed the same neighbourhood without fuss since the 1980s, more than 40 years under the same ownership, and it makes no attempt to be fashionable: this is an old-school steak restaurant through and through, which is precisely why people like it.
On the menu
The cooking sticks to the classics: rump, sirloin and fillet steaks of British beef, cooked to order and generally accompanied by the sides you would expect of a traditional grill. The house speciality is a sirloin fried in butter with chopped onions, mushrooms and Worcester sauce, finished by flaming it in brandy at the table. Vegetarians and those avoiding gluten are looked after too, although, as with any small independent, it pays to check the current menu beforehand. When inspected in June 2025, the kitchen's food handling and safety management were rated "very good."
The room
The dining room is snug rather than spacious: a few well-spaced tables, friendly service and the sort of welcome that grows out of decades of regular custom. Review after review names the owners as part of the attraction, and the family atmosphere is the genuine article, something few places keep intact after so long under one roof.
Good to know
Dinner is served Tuesday to Sunday between 6pm and 11pm; on Mondays the restaurant is closed. With so few tables, it makes sense to book ahead, especially at the weekend. It is a comfortable walk from the Lansdowne roundabout and Bournemouth town centre, so it fits neatly at the end of a day spent around East Cliff. Our food & drink guide lists more places to eat nearby, and our things to do guide covers the rest of East Cliff and the town centre.