Having been to their sister restaurant in Hong Kong I have been really keen to eat here. They both share spectacular views and the signature dishes as you would expect are similar. We arrived early (6.15pm) to a near empty bar and took a window seat to see the view over the river; it was slightly unnerving seeing the trains leaving London bridge, but definitely worthwhile. If you get there later you will struggle to see much at all as the bar was packed on leaving. I opted for champagne which was reasonably priced and my husband went for a cocktail known for its digestive aiding qualities.
We were called into the dining room promptly at 7pm and were seated pretty far from the window, not surprisingly everyone had wanted a window table and being there at 7 meant the first tranche of people had bagsied those spots. My advice to get these coveted spots is to go very early or second sitting at 8.30- 9.00pm or maybe begging will do the trick. The view is spectacular when you get a good sunset, however you do have to contend with all the other diners coming up and taking pictures near you.
On to the food, we went for a couple of starters; the mixed dim sum platter and also the cuttlefish dish. The fish was treated with real care and addition in both starters and the addition of chilli dipping sauce and the ginger and garlic dressing on the cuttlefish was sublime.
For mains we went for the same dishes we had in Hong Kong as we have talked about them for years after. They were the deboned lamb ribs and the red lantern soft shell crab. Both portions were very large and it would have been great to have shared these and had a few more additions if we had a bigger group. They were both exquisitely presented and tasted amazing, however together they are quite filling and fatty. Ideally we would have ordered more contrasting dishes to clean the palate. Afterwards we opted for a cocktail, which were great, expensive but very well made.
The service throughout was impeccable, my only slight criticism was that the whole meal took only an hour, it would have been nice to have elongated it a bit. We therefore had a cocktail at the end and didn’t take the offer to have it in the bar which was packed. A must do trip are the toilets which are pretty surreal see the pictures.
