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Please note, Forest Restaurant and Bar has a winter menu and an alpine forest look for autumn and winter 2016. The below review is for its summer incarnation. Time Out Food & Drink Editors, Oct 2016.
As first impressions go, this rooftop restaurant takes some beating. Take the express lift (near the Chanel perfume counter) to the top of Selfridges and you’ll arrive at the entrance of a whimsical, fairies-at-the-bottom-of-the-garden style tunnel. Dark and atmospheric, it’s lit only by twinkling lights and is decked out with fake grass, shimmering tree trunks and pretty silk flowers.Oh, and birds tweeting overhead. What else?
This eventually leads into a plainer area with a retractable roof and clear canvas sides. For real wow factor, you’ll need sunshine, because that’s when the roof and sides open. On my visit, it was cold and wet. Good old British weather, eh?
Cooking is a mixed bag. There was a pleasant ‘crumpet Benedict’ and an exceptional chocolate mousse which even – a nod to the theme – came with a teeny toadstool-shaped meringue. But the meat in two dishes between – a smoked wood pigeon salad; Josper-grilled chicken with tabbouleh – was overcooked and dry. A pity.
That said, cocktails are quirky (garnished with sprigs of foliage and the like) and, regardless of the weather, at the end, you’ll get to go through the tunnel all over again.