The Spur Steak and Grill concept is well-known in its native South Africa although the chain has been flying under the radar since its arrival in the capital. Despite this, the Cheyenne Spur branch has gradually been garnering a faithful following of families who stop off whenever they’re visiting the O2.

The Venue
As you’d expect at a venue aimed squarely at families, you won’t find luxe styling but it is nevertheless very comfortable with lots of gleaming wood, double height ceilings and plenty of photos of beaming customers hanging on the walls when you head to the loos upstairs. There’s ample standard table seating to accommodate even the O2’s busiest periods but the booths close to the open kitchen are the most popular with families who squidge up before getting stuck into a steak or sticky ribs.

Trusting parents can also let children get down from the table and play in the small, specially designated room at the back of the restaurant which has a window facing into the restaurant, walls decorated with children’s colouring efforts and plenty of toys and activities to keep everyone from toddlers to teens occupied. There’s no staff member to watch them when they’re in the room though so if you’d rather keep them under your beady eye they can still have fun colouring in and solving puzzles on the sheets specially provided at the tables – all whilst wearing their Spurs’ paper headdress. Don’t be surprised if you end up eating your meal to a backdrop of ‘wah, wah, wah, wah, wah’ hand-to-open-mouth battle cries as the kids get into character.

The Atmosphere
Cheyenne Spur is a fun, family-friendly environment and restaurants like this are quite frankly a relief when you’re looking for places to eat in the O2 that will keep children of all ages smiling from start to finish. The entire family will be able to find something on the menu that suits and even the most fractious of children will be kept entertained long enough for parents to be able to eat their food before it gets cold and even, rather novelly, carry on a conversation too. It’s not just happy families, however. Their two for one, all you can eat and steak challenges are popular with students and hungry professionals too. For the latter challenge, you’d better be ravenous. Give them 24 hours’ notice and if you can work your way through a 1.8 kg rump steak accompanied by fries and onion rings you’ll get it for free along with a T-shirt and certificate. Fail, and you’ll be coughing up £59.95.

The Food
Challenges and walls of fame aside, the rest of the menu is full of family-friendly fare. Whilst it’s certainly not cordon bleu (the steaks are brushed with sauce to ‘add flavour’ and the desserts are supremely sugary), the food certainly doesn’t masquerade as anything other than it is – decent quality, reasonably priced food served up in ginormous portions.

Go easy on the starters – large enough to share, if you want to have enough room left for main courses and desserts you’re probably best off doing so. The calamari (£5.25) are nice and tender and dipped in crispy batter that manages to avoid being too greasy and they’re served with a large lemon wedge and tartare sauce. If you’d rather something lighter, the soup of the day (£3.45) is a good alternative and is served with a crispy baguette and plenty of butter.

The 7oz Spur Fillet is the leanest, most tender cut on the menu (£18.95) and whilst it is certainly expensive and not the finest steak you’ll have eaten in the capital it’s not too bad given the kiddie appeal of the restaurant especially if it’s eaten without the gloopy mushroom sauce accompaniment that certainly doesn’t do it any favours.

When all is said and done, what you’re really paying for is the surroundings and whilst the steaks certainly aren’t on a par with Gaucho (located at the beginning of the Disney-esque ‘Entertainment Avenue’) they don’t profess to or need to be. It’s a decent enough steak and let’s face it, children wouldn’t appreciate the aesthetics of Gaucho whilst at Cheyenne Spur, kids are treated like kings. The half rack of spare ribs slathered with a sweet, sticky sauce (£10.95) offer better value and arrive on a large oval plate alongside a mountain of crispy chips and onion rings (although you can opt for a baked potato and side salad instead if that all sounds too daunting).

Watch out if the children opt for puddings. Laden with sugar, they have a pre-made quality that won’t make them any less appealing to small hands eagerly clutching large spoons. As with all of the other dishes on the menu, one portion could easily feed a family but they’ll happily oblige with a doggie bag if you over-order. The Banoffee Pie (£3.95) served with pouring cream or ice cream has an exceptionally sweet toffee layer but thanks to the crunchy biscuit base, bananas and generous topping of whipped cream, even if you’re really full when you start, chances are that you’ll scrape the plate clean. The simpler desserts are just as good, the apple pie (again £3.95 and served with cream or ice cream) is served warm on request and the buttery pastry and the just-tart-enough apples work well together. Similarly, the baked cheesecake (£4.45) is a good option and although the biscuit base is a little soggy, the topping of vanilla cheesecake is ample enough to make this just a small quibble.

The Drink
If children are smiling after the food, the bottomless soft drinks (£2.15 and refilled as many times as you like) will keep the smiles in place. As for adults, there’s plenty of opportunity to take a stroll down memory lane with ice cream milk shakes (£2.75) and double thick malted shakes (£3.45).

The Last Word
The prices at Cheyenne Spur are certainly steep especially when it comes to the steaks. However, it’s unlikely that grateful parents will balk at the prices given the emphasis that’s firmly placed on making families feel welcome. The popular restaurant chain has certainly gained its spurs in South Africa and although Cheyenne Spur in the O2 Arena needs a little fine tuning, with those winning smiles it’s likely to earn its stripes in the capital too.

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