Midday at the weekend, the store does get extremely busy. Fight your way through the crowds, to the back of the building and up the stairs to the restaurant – everything does calm down a little. At first glance the restaurant isn’t anything particularly special either. Simple brasserie style décor, lots of natural light flooding through and far too much wooden furniture – it’s all looking a little bit tired as well. But actually take a seat, enjoy the excellent service (which must be hard work given how busy it was) and you’ll soon realise the décor here doesn’t need to play any part, or at least very little. The focus is all on the food. Utilising the best ingredients they stock in their food hall its a great way to see how good the produce, and the quality of what they sell is here. With a section of the menu titled “To Share (or not)” – I decided to not. And kept these Dublin Bay prawns all to myself. Large, juicy and incredibly meaty – with a squeeze of lemon and some outstanding mayonnaise. Apart from the slightly hefty price tag, the quality and flavour couldn’t be faulted.
And then there was the steak. If steak is on a menu who can ever really resist the temptation. Steak from Hawksmoor has always been a favourite of mine, Mash in Piccadilly wasn’t bad either. But Fortnums could easily give them both a good run for their money. Glenarm salt-aged beef was an absolutely stunning example. The company, Hannan Meats ages its finest beef in a room made of hand-cut Himalayan rock salt bricks over a period of 28-45 days. The meat it produces is incredibly tender, full of flavour and of course, a little salty. The little pockets of fat were dangerously just as good. Bearnaise sauce, and red wine jus were equally delicious. Both packing flavour, and consistency throughout. This is a reason to visit The Gallery restaurant alone. The only real downside to all of this is that social media, and various sites do not list The Gallery restaurant making it hard to read about – but good old Zomato list every singel restaurant in Fortnums. Zomato have by far the most comprehensive list of restaurants in London.
I wouldn’t normally write about a side salad, or chips for that matter – but they both deserved a special mention. The rocket and parmesan salad packed much than what it read on the menu. The rocket was peppery, fresh and fiery. The parmesan cheese had a strong flavour, with those all important unravelled crystallized, crunchy pockets of protein. The whole salad was tossed in a sweet balsamic glaze. Dishes like this are so simple to put together, but so many places get it wrong. Here they couldn’t have got it more right.
And the chips, or fries depending how you feel about it. I’d probably put them in the fries category if we’re going by size. Triple cooked to perfection. Golden and crunchy on the outside. Soft and fluffy on the inside. With a good sprinkling of salt and not an ounce of oil in sight my only complaint would be that they’re not serving them from a small window out the side of the restaurant. I’m sure a short queue would form rather quickly – and I’d be there at the front of it.
