Blueprint Café

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Restaurants and cafés

South London

Mid-range

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Time Out says

Thu Oct 18 2012

The Blueprint Café has a lot going for it – fantastic river views, handsome design and great service. The food, however, fell short of the promise of the chic surroundings and under-delivered for the ambitious prices (mains hover around £20).

New head chef Mark Jarvis, formerly of haute cuisine restaurant Texture, was settling in on our visit with artily plated dishes that were good rather than outstanding. Cromer crab in mayonnaise on a slick of avocado purée was overly rich, as was an unctuous risotto that arrived with sliced courgette rather than courgette flowers as listed on the menu, although strands of luminous saffron did brighten the mascarpone-heavy dish. Gloucester Old Spot pork loin featured flavourful but far from crispy crackling and waxy mash.

Despite this, the overall experience at this smart venue is more than agreeable, thanks to the pleasant, polished staff and elevated riverside location, complete with mini binoculars on each table. Organic and biodynamic wines are featured on the wine list. The spruce design is in keeping with a restaurant on top of the Design Museum; clientele ranges from gallery-goers to ladies who lunch. Part of the D&D London group.

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Special Offers

Lunch: 2 courses with a glass of prosecco £15

Get 2 course set menu for £15, 3 courses £20. Offer applies to Set Menu. Maximum of 8 diners. Includes VAT, excludes service.

Offer valid until May 31 2013
2 courses & prosecco for £18

from a set menu (3 courses £23). Both options include a glass of prosecco. Includes VAT, excludes service.

Offer valid until May 31 2013

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Address:
Blueprint Café Design Museum, 28 Shad Thames
Tower Bridge
London
SE1 2YD

Phone:
020 7378 7031
Website:
www.blueprintcafe.co.uk
Opening hours:
Lunch served noon-2.45pm daily. Dinner served 6-10.45pm Mon-Sat
Transport:
Tube: Tower Hill tube or Tower Gateway DLR or London Bridge tube/rail or bus 47, 78
Price:
Main courses £12.50-£21. Set lunch £15 2 courses, £20 3 courses. Set dinner £18 2 courses, £23 3 courses
Map
1. Blueprint Café
  - Design Museum, 28 Shad Thames
    Tower Bridge
    London
    SE1 2YD
  - 020 7378 7031
  - www.blueprintcafe.co.uk
  - 51.503896,-0.074722

Facilities:
Eating and drinking facilities. Restaurant. Restaurant and bar facilities. Reservations required. Accessible facilities. General facilities. Available for hire. Outdoor facilities. Tables outdoors
Occasions:
Wow factor. Drinks. Wine buffs. Great views. Hip factor. Eating out. Celebrated chefs. Creative cooking. Romantic
Type of event:
Parties

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Comments & ratings

(6 ratings)

Don't know, called me out of the blue and canceled my reservation (birthday meal, just me and the wife) "sorry we have a private booking" how about one of our sister restaurants, how about honouring commitments? Well guess what? We won't be coming back so you better pray you get plenty of private bookings - disgusting way to treat customers

Paul Fri Aug 17 2012
Rated as: 1/5
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Awful. Should have listened to the user ratings rather than the official review. Avoid. When we arrived we were told that "the kitchen is busy, you may have to wait some time to eat" this despite it being a Friday evening and the restaurant only being half full. It's a restaurant, the kitchen is supposed to be busy. We were then taken to our table and asked if we'd like to order drinks while we waited. 20 minutes later someone came back to take our drink order (a Manhattan, a martini and one of their own creations. 20 minutes later, the Manhattan and their house cocktail arrived along with a tumbler of vermouth with ice. This was sent back with the explanation of what a Martini was. 10 minutes later a martini glass with vermouth arrived, no garnish & most importantly, no gin. When the Maitre d' was called over and had the problem explained he said "if we're having trouble making your drink the way you like it perhaps you should order something else". I pointed out that people were drinking them on other tables and that a dry gin martini really shouldn't be that tough to make. 15 minutes later a martini glass with slightly more gin but mostly vermouth and some shredded lemon peel arrived. I gave up. It was around this point, one hour into our time at the Blueprint that somebody thought to ask for our order and to offer us a piece each of bread. The starters came about half an hour later and then main courses about a further half hour after we finished the starters. This is altogether too long to wait for food in a restaurant with plenty of empty tables (too long to wait at a restaurant with full tables....). For what it's worth the food was pleasant (crab & avocado /chicken liver parfait for starters, salmon with potatoes/ barley risotto for main) but fairly uninspired and certainly *not* worth waiting two hours for a main course. The risotto had clearly been finished well ahead of the salmon as the sauce had a skin from sitting under a heater at the pass for too long. We skipped pudding. When the bill arrived we'd been overcharged by 40% with dishes that we hadn't ordered on the bill. It didn't seem to cross the mind of any of the staff to apologise for any of the flawed aspects of the evening. You couldn't pay me to go back.

Matt Sat Apr 21 2012
Rated as: 1/5
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disaster

dan Thu Mar 8 2012
Rated as: 1/5
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Little bit disappointing! Great location and great view of Tower Bridge (where we sat in the corner at least). But the food wasn't hot enough, or tasty enough to deserve its price tag. One of our party had her meal delivered 20 minutes late (a simple goats cheese and polenta salad...), and while we were offered free desserts, we did have to push for them, and keep asking when her dinner was going to arrive. Waiting staff were unwilling / unable to advise on the size of the side orders, and so we ordered too little, and the extra we ordered arrived at the end of our meal half an hour later. Luckily, the company and the ambience made it a very pleasant evening, but there are definately better places to eat in this area.

Jo Sat Jan 7 2012
Rated as: 2/5
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Blueprint Café

Time Out rating:

User ratings:

Time Out says

Special Offers

Lunch: 2 courses with a glass of prosecco £15

2 courses & prosecco for £18

Book now

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