Bonds Restaurant

All the restaurants are running specials now for the credit crunch. Our Aussie friends wanted somewhere close to the city to eat, and what better way to show off City life than dining right in the heart of Bank?

Food

Things didn’t start off too well. We were left with nothing but water for a long time. When the Bread Basket finally arrived, it was very dull, with a selection of either white rolls or brown rolls. The bread itself, although warmed, was dry and tasteless.

Starters were very nice though. The Pumpkin Soup with Pesto was one of the sweetest pumpkin soups I’ve had for ages. I actually don’t mind the sweetness. The Venison Terrine with Berry Compote was definitely my favourite. The terrine was rich and gamey, yet smooth and melt in the mouth, and paired very well with the slightly tart berry compote.

There was a choice of 3 for mains. We went for the Butter Roasted Scottish Salmon was very nice. The salmon had a nice charred skin, the flesh lightly poached with a slight too strong broth of vegetables. The Slow Cooked Bavette of Beef, Beetroot Marmalade, Vichy Carrots, Red Wine Sauce was the most disappointing. The beef was cooked to medium rare, and was tender enough. The red wine sauce was too salty and over-powering, even for beef. I loved the carrots, which were sweet and buttery and tender.

Desserts were very ordinary. The Treacle Tart, Vanilla Ice Cream was standard, with an ok crust, well executed tart, very supermarket like vanilla ice cream. The Baked Apple Crumble, Calvados Ice Cream was nothing to get excited about. The crumble mixture I have made better before, the ice cream was pretty terrible. It’s not that it was bad, but I could have made them better myself.

Rating - 6

Atmosphere

This reminded me a lot of 1 Lombard Street, in that it is situated in a heritage building with very high ceiling. As soon as you walk in, there is a huge bar area with people drinking and snacking. Like Lombard, you have to work your way through the crowd to reach the dining area, situated at the back. The dining area itself was small, with some comfy but very low chairs. The feeling is corporate opulence, with browns being dominant. The clientele seems to be corporate as well.

Rating - 1.5

Service

Pretty terrible. When we wanted attention, we didn’t get any. It took us so long before we got someone to order and to get the bill. Our meals took a long time to arrive, and they actually got the order the wrong way around, so even though I had a spoon on my place setting, I was given the venison instead as a starter!

They kept coming to serve us when we didn’t need it though, topping up our water every 2 or so minute, and coming around often to ask if the food was ok, and folding our napkin when we got up to leave, and pushing our chairs in when we sat down. I would rather they focus on serving us when we needed than to add all these extra touches that doesn’t really work. Maybe they are used to high flyers here with loads of cash and plenty of time to spend, but for me, I would rather a more personal but efficient service, without all the extra fluff.

Rating - 1.5

C-factor

From the fact that they kept pouring us water, and then charging £4 for a bottle, meant our meal ended up being over £23 per person all up. It’s about on par for what we can get nowadays for a dinner in the city, but usually we can eat from a less restricted menu for the same price.

Rating - 0

Brownie Points - 9

Info

5 Threadneedle Street
London
EC2R 8AY
Phone +44 (0) 20 7403 8403
Website