Restaurants

We went here on a difficult night in the brasserie, when a huge party had arrived late and caused a serious service-jam. The front-of-house crew coped admirably, and couldn’t have been nicer, but the other problems we encountered can’t be explained away by temporary glitches. For one thing, there was the music. Skylon’s huge riverside space in the Royal Festival Hall has unforgiving acoustics, and a totally inappropriate disco thump made shouting a necessity. We asked staff to turn down the volume, which they did happily, but it crept back up. This would have been endurable were it not for the food. Flavoursome lamb shanks with risotto, and eggs ‘Skylon’ (spinach, crab meat, poached eggs and hollandaise), were both well-executed, but much was slipshod. Two soups were tiny in portion and tinier in flavour. A hamburger – ordered rare, delivered just short of well-done – came with pallid, flabby lukewarm chips. The wine list is good and reasonably priced, and served with care. On the evidence of our visit, however, this lovely room is not doing justice to its awesome view of the Thames. One of our party thought the highlight of the meal was the free packet of toothpicks provided at the end.

Time Out Eating & Drinking Guide 2009