Lanes Restaurant

Food

The bread was quite nice, but they served it with some rock hard butter. That always annoy me as it shows that not enough attention has been paid to the details. We decided to skip the entrees in favour of dessert. Well, it turns out we didn’t need to conserve as the servings were so tiny that we could’ve eaten everything twice and we still won’t be full.

Anyway, we had the Roast Rump of Veal with Spiced Lentils and Lemon Grass Emulsion (£25.50), which had succulent slices of veal. I wasn’t so sure on the lemon grass emulsion though, it tasted more like a mustard dressing to me. Still, there was plenty of liquid to coat the meat. The Ribeye of Scottish Beef, Jimmy's Chips & Peppercorn Sauce (£19.95) had been on their menu a long time and is one of their so-called signature dish. It was indeed very good. Nice and juicy, medium steak. I was looking forward to the much-hyped chips with their own name, and while it was good, I didn’t see anything extraordinary about it…and the fact that they only have you about 5, meant you really couldn’t try very much, especially after you’ve shared it around the table.

We went for the Glazed Lemon Tart (£5.50). I’m all for small portions, but this was seriously about the smallest portion I’ve seen. A very thin sliver arrived, which had the right balance of sour and sweet and a nice burnt sugar topping. The Banana Creme Brulee with Passion and Vanilla Syrup (£5.50) wasn’t as banana like or passionfruit tangy as I expected, but more restrained, which worked quite well together.

Rating - 7

Atmosphere

The whole place felt a bit crowded even though it was a large space. This could be due to the fact that we were squashed up right next to the coffee machine, even though the restaurant was only half filled. Every time they used the machine, we couldn’t carry on any conversations and had to wait for them to stop.

Rating - 1.5

Service

The restaurant was relatively full on this Wednesday evening, but they only had 2 waiters serving everyone, which meant service was extremely slow and it took a long time to get anything. I don’t think it’s the fault of the waiters, they were nice and efficient, but obviously can’t handle the volume of people. We had to ask to get more water, to order, to get menus and for more bread. By the looks of things, they probably only had one person working in the kitchen too

Rating - 2

C-factor

The portions were really small for the price. If we didn’t have 50% off I would feel really ripped off. The wine and water reflected the expensive city prices, with a bottle of still costing £3.75. The wine had such a mark-up that we didn’t even want to drink any. All in all, it didn’t leave a nice taste in the mouth, and no, I won’t be back.

Rating - 0

Brownie Points - 10.5

Info

East India House
109 - 117 Middlesex Street
London
E1 7JF
Phone +44 (0) 20 7247 5050
Website