Rhodes 24

This is supposed to be the flagship of Gary Rhode’s empire, if you can find the entrance and can drag yourself away from the view to look at the food.

Food

We went for the set lunch menu, which, like Lindsay House had 2 choices for each. We had:

• Salmon Terrine. A bit unfortunate – or is that fortunate that we got exactly that at Lindsay House as well. In this case, the Lindsay House version wins, no question. This one was very plain and boring, nothing to wow you to say that this is a Michelin star rated terrine.
• Celeriac Soup – very creamy and nice, with the subtle nuttiness of the celeriac. I expected a bit more though.
• Black chicken - nice, just suffers from chicken blandness.
• Baked Cod – I love this dish. The cod was cooked perfectly, silky smooth
• Iced tangerine mousse, warm chocolate doughnuts - sounds better than it actually tastes, but nicely balanced flavours.
• Bramley apple pie, blackberry, apple and macadamia nut crumble, apple ice cream - Very homely, with the fruit cooked very well. I thought the filling could have done with a bit more thought and the ice cream was very ordinary.

We ended with some Petit Fours of caramel fudge, fruit cake, which was well done but boring.

Rating - 6.5

Atmosphere

Well, so much for the credit crunch. This place was filled to the brim with suits on a Monday lunch. What’s more, they were going the whole hog, with wine to match as well. We actually felt quite out of place even though I had come straight from work…since my suit wasn’t black. It was noisy and busy, and people actually seem like they were regulars…except for a few out of towners, who were dressed in jeans, and actually bought a copy of Gary Rhodes’ cookbook.

And of course there is the view, we were lucky to be there on a sunny afternoon, so we can see the city, except for all the bits blocked by the gherkin, with Canary Wharf in the background. The only thing that let the side down – the security. The fact that the restaurant was inside an office block was already difficult enough, they don’t even display the name of the restaurant outside. Luckily I looked it up beforehand so I knew where to go. Then you have to go through a whole security process, where you have to sign in, take a pass, and take all these different lifts, confusing…especially when you are running late.

Rating - 2.5

Service

Service was a little slow for lunch – but I guess this is more a lingering sort of place. Otherwise, things were great except one thing which kept annoying me – our waiter kept taking away our bottle of water when there was a good 2cm left at the bottom. Seems like a cheap way to make a buck if you ask me…especially considering the number of clients they have.

Rating - 3

C-factor

I prefer Lindsay House, but this is definitely a nice place to take visitors.

Rating - 1

Brownie Points - 13

Info

Tower 42
25 Old Broad Street
London
EC2N 1HQ
Phone +44 (0) 20 7877 7703
Website