The Pride of Paddington is a pub and hostel in London. Its right across the road from Paddington Train Station, so its quite handy if you live in Oxford, Reading or Bristol and fancy a Steak Challenge.
The challenge is as follows. Eat a 40oz steak with all the sides in 20 minutes and you get the meal for free. Originally, it was 40 minutes and if you look at menu on the website it still says 40 minutes buts its definitely just 20 minutes now. I am guessing its because too many people completed it or they couldn’t be bothered to watch over challengers for 40 minutes to ensure no cheating. The meal costs £40 so there is a big incentive to complete it.
Old advertisement stating a 40 minute time limit.
As this was a ‘eat it all and get it free challenge’, I fully expected it to be the hardest one to date. As usual, I prepared by eating a large evening meal and then as many cucumbers as possible until full. This is to stretch the stomach. I use cucumbers because they are low calorie. I don’t know whether its any good just 1 days worth of training but its something I read about on Randy Santel’s site. I didn’t eat anything at all until the challenge which was about 7.30pm, so I’d gone without food for about 20 hours.
So this is what the meal looked like. The steak wasn’t actually that bad. It was the chips, onions rings, peas, tomatoes and mushrooms which were off putting.
40oz steak challenge
With hindsight, I should have just given up straight away. It was just too much for me to do in 20 minutes. Even with 40 minutes I still think I would have failed. I managed the steak in just over 5 minutes and still had plenty of stomach capacity. At 10 minutes in, I’d done the onion rings and was munching through the chips and tomatoes. It was getting tough at this point though and I’d not even touched the mushrooms or peas yet. I foolishly poured them over my chips. It was hard to eat peas and button mushrooms with a knife and fork. I managed to get a spoon and started spooning in mix of tomatoes, chips, mushrooms and peas.
By them, it was futile. I pretty much threw in the towel at 15 minutes. I mentally compressed what was left on the plate and decided it was impossible to fit in my stomach full stop, never mind 5 minutes. I carried on but as a broken man. Its not like, I even could say it was close. I was well and truly beaten. It was a relief when the bell went for 20 minutes. I possibly could have tried going on and seeing if I could have done it in 40 minutes but I didn’t see the point in making myself ill and failing at the same time.
What was left.
What I’d left was almost a full meal in itself. What made it even harder was the plate wasn’t flat. It had a big bowl at the bottom so it held double the amount of food as a normal plate. I am sure just the chips could have fed a family of 4.
Plate from the side.
I don’t think I’ll be trying this challenge again any time soon. If I did, I’d train all week and dispense with the knife and fork eating the sides. Its much more efficient ramming food down your throat using your hands. It may be messier but I can’t see anyone doing that challenge using a knife and fork.
If you fancy giving it a try, here are the details
The Pride of Paddington, 1-3 Craven Rd, Paddington, London W2 3BP. Nearest Tube, Paddington.
They also do a Terry Tucker Burger Challenge. That’s a burger challenge in 20 minutes. I asked the bar staff about how many people had done the steak challenge in 20 minutes and they said they weren’t sure if anyone had ever done it in 20 minutes but had seen some people do the burger challenge.
