OXO Tower Restaurant

Hey loves, a very quick post today!

I had a food filled day yesterday and needed to recover from it, hence the late post!

The bestie and I braved the sales at Harrods but only after gaining fuel for some brunch at Riding House Cafe. I had the Avocado Benedict which as always was amazing, and gave us enough energy to battle the tourists in Knightsbridge.

Just a quick pic before I get to the real point at hand…

Bank holidays are all about eating, shopping and eating again! So in true bank holiday tradition, that’s exactly what I did. Later, I met another friend for dinner at OXO Tower Restaurant. As always I was early and as always she was late. However, I was so taken aback by the beautiful view of London from the restaurant that I didn’t mind much. I kept thinking how pretty it would look during the summers. The wall to wall glass structure made London look all the more breath-taking.

Now I knew this before I went there but I thought I’d ask the waiter whether the food was halal or not. He got the head waiter for me who stated to me that it was not, but was kind enough to point out that there were some delicious fish and seafood dishes and recommended a few. He came back and replaced my menu with a different one which, as he explained, was an allergy menu and stated whether the foods had alcohol in them.

Our usual waiter was a different story altogether though, he was a young 20-something year old and was either new to his job or really uninterested. I like to converse with the waiters/waitresses as its nice to get a rapport going at times, the fact that I will talk to absolutely anyone who will listen helps! Although our waiter wasn’t having any of it, he was also waiting on the table next to us – a lovely man who, according to my eavesdropping skills had obviously brought his girlfriend there for her birthday. The waiter brought out the birthday cake and just put it down on the table without even saying a word of birthday wishes! The man was a little disappointed to say the least. I gave her a little cheer to make up for it though – after all what’s a birthday without an embarrassing cheer from a stranger!

Anyways, so I got the Seared Smoked Salmon with Sweet Potato cake and Warm Dorset Crab on Toasted Brioche for starters and Seared Orkney Scallops for main.

We were really hungry so just wanted a few starters to get started while we decided on our mains, however, I found it a little strange that the waiter advised us that we had to order all the courses together. Our waiter being a bore with little to no customer service skills wasn’t so nice about it either! So that took another 15 minutes based on the fact that we couldn’t decide between the two of us what we wanted to eat.

The Seared Salmon came on a pancake of sweet potato which wasn’t too strongly flavoured. The salmon itself was really well cooked but was rather bland. However, it came with a horseradish cream which added to the flavour.

  My other starter was the Warm Crab on Brioche. This was a tiny little thing but full of flavour. The crab was shredded and was delicious in every way possible. The toasted brioche added to the flavour and complimented this bad boy in the best way possible.

 

 The Scallops for my main was also a small dish, not much bigger than the starters. The scallops were well booked and full of flavour and came in a mixture of butternut squash. The whole dish had 3 scallops scattered around. It definitely left me feeling rather hungry, and I don’t even eat much!

 

However, the selling point for the whole night was the Chocolate Plate – they may as well have called it “A Mouthful of Heaven” because that’s just what it was. There were 2 mini chocolate fondants and 2 mini Dulche De Leche Cheesecakes.

 

 So my rating for OXO Tower would be:

Food                       5 out of 10
Service                   5 out of 10
Ambiance             7 out of 10
Uniqueness          5 out of 10

Overall, I would give OXO Tower Restaurant a 5 out of 10, mostly because the restaurant itself is beautiful with amazing views of London – food and value for money not so much, unfortunately. Also, as we are nearing the end of the year, OXO Tower Restaurant is an amazing place to go to watch the fireworks for New Year’s eve, away from all the crowds in a beautiful setting.

Let me know your thoughts if you have been!

Lots of Love,

TLH