21 June 2007
BB & I went to the new restaurant Skylon, refurbed in honour of the Festival of Britain attraction, for BB's birthday lunch. At the same time, we had a look at the whole Festival Hall development at the Southbank. BB went around muttering, 'bad finishes', 'poor detailing', 'it's not even finished' and things to that effect.
I just thought it was weird that the entrance outside the building looked like a fire escape and you kind of enter through some side door and have to walk around the edge of the restaurant to get to the reception.
Still, the view is spectacular and they're probably hoping that it'll distract you from the fact that one of the walls has 3 different shades of white on it in patches. Altogether, it is a very airy and pleasant space on a Sunday sunny afternoon.
The very large room is divided in two by the bar, into the Grill and the Restaurant. The Restaurant is supposed to be more formal, but the Grill was pretty formal enough for us. The menu is also larger and has brunch items on it too. I was torn between the Sunday roast or the crab risotto and went for the latter. We both started with the pea and mint soup with a ham tartine. 'What's that?' BB asked. Minced ham on toast apparently. It was pretty tasty though, although BB found a small ball of polystyrene in his bowl.
For the main, the crab risotto was nice enough. I kind of think crab is wasted all shredded up, instead of having it in nice big meaty chunks. BB had lamb chops and they were big and meaty. I thought they were done just right, but they were a tad overdone for BB. They were very tender though.
Dessert was sticky toffee pudding for me (tasty, but too much for me) and BB had chocolate mousse with creme fraiche - pretty good, but we didn't think it was dark chocolate as advertised.
Overall impression - pleasant, staff were good (although they wouldn't give us a window seat) and we left overstuffed. Space is nice (but they seem to have a bit of a dust problem), food good but not spectacular. It's great for brunch, but as you have to book to get a table, it's a bit hard work for what should be a leisurely experience.
Oh - they had a model of the original Skylon by the reception, and that was pretty cool.
I just thought it was weird that the entrance outside the building looked like a fire escape and you kind of enter through some side door and have to walk around the edge of the restaurant to get to the reception.
Still, the view is spectacular and they're probably hoping that it'll distract you from the fact that one of the walls has 3 different shades of white on it in patches. Altogether, it is a very airy and pleasant space on a Sunday sunny afternoon.
The very large room is divided in two by the bar, into the Grill and the Restaurant. The Restaurant is supposed to be more formal, but the Grill was pretty formal enough for us. The menu is also larger and has brunch items on it too. I was torn between the Sunday roast or the crab risotto and went for the latter. We both started with the pea and mint soup with a ham tartine. 'What's that?' BB asked. Minced ham on toast apparently. It was pretty tasty though, although BB found a small ball of polystyrene in his bowl.
For the main, the crab risotto was nice enough. I kind of think crab is wasted all shredded up, instead of having it in nice big meaty chunks. BB had lamb chops and they were big and meaty. I thought they were done just right, but they were a tad overdone for BB. They were very tender though.
Dessert was sticky toffee pudding for me (tasty, but too much for me) and BB had chocolate mousse with creme fraiche - pretty good, but we didn't think it was dark chocolate as advertised.
Overall impression - pleasant, staff were good (although they wouldn't give us a window seat) and we left overstuffed. Space is nice (but they seem to have a bit of a dust problem), food good but not spectacular. It's great for brunch, but as you have to book to get a table, it's a bit hard work for what should be a leisurely experience.
Oh - they had a model of the original Skylon by the reception, and that was pretty cool.
# posted by gilamonster : 22:23
