The Larder Restaurant

It sounded so promising, in store bakery and dessert, casual, food you want to eat, but I was disappointed.

Food

There were several deals going on, either £19.50 for 2 courses plus half bottle of wine, or 50% off entrées and mains. After some misunderstanding from the waiter, we decided to just order the £19.50 deal to save fuss.

For a place that keeps singing its virtues of baking their own bread, our bread rolls were nice, but not really spectacular. We never got offered any more than the one tiny roll we got given either. The entrees read like a mix of homely dishes and restaurant fare, so we chose a mixture of both. The Black pudding with scallops and apple were the best presented black pudding I’ve ever eaten. The pudding was tasty, the scallops a bit dry (probably from sitting under the warmer for so long before it got delivered) but retained their scallop taste. The
Seared tuna with sesame and ginger dressing suffered because the tuna was not of high enough quality to carry this off. I needed quite a bit of the dressing to add taste, instead of enjoying the natural taste of the salmon.

For mains, there are your restaurant dishes and homely pub dishes like pie and mash and fish and chips, but we stuck with the restaurant offerings, as you get more value for money. My first choice of the swordfish was unavailable, so I decided to go for the Duck confit with pui lentils and root vegetables. You get a generous helping of duck, but the meat was dry. The root vegetables were nice, but just root vegetables, with the beetroot providing the most flavour. Nothing else on the plate to comment on. The Lamb with couscous and roast vegetables was much better, the lamb was soft and succulent, the vegetables and couscous and olives providing an excellent base. There was also rocket salad which I didn’t try, and chips, which were really good!!

I probably would’ve said no to dessert, but they did say all desserts were made on the premises, and their glass display did look very enticing. So I ordered the Chocolate pudding with custard, and wasn’t disappointed. The molten chocolate against the still warm chocolate sponge. The custard wasn’t even worth mentioning. The Black forest gateau was disappointing. The sponge was dry, the cherries were tasteless, only the cream covering the outside was any good.

Rating - 6

Atmosphere

The Larder looks good. It’s like your high class canteen, with big square wooden tables scattered across a huge space. There’s a bar on one side of the room, the restaurant proper, and a semi-open kitchen. There’s mood lighting, flowers and wine on shelves. Not one for romantic dinner, but a great gathering place for close friends.

Rating - 2

Service

Really really slow. We had been there for ages before they came to take our orders. After we ordered, bread roll was not delivered for ages, so we found ourselves drinking on an empty stomach. I know it’s casual and all, but no one poured our wines for us. The place settings were not done properly, we were missing a bread plate but had extra cutlery and wine glasses. We asked the waiter to explain the confusing deals they have, but they didn’t do a very good job, so we just ended up getting the £19.50 deal. We waited so long for our dishes that we didn’t leave until 11pm, when the wait staff were cleaning up all around us.

The waiters though were very friendly, even joking around with us, so I applaud them for that, but the restaurant wasn’t even that busy tonight and they were so slow, I’d hate to see what it’s like when it’s full.

Rating - 2

C-factor

Even with the top table deal, it worked out to be £29p.p for 3 courses and wine. I have eaten better for the price.

Rating - 0

Brownie Points - 10

Info

91-93 St John Street
London
EC1M 4NU
Phone+44 (0) 20 7608 1558
Website