Category: Brasserie
So there is one major problem with Platform,a new restaurant close to London Bridge tube station. It is very loud. I mean ‘you can’t understand you own word and have to shout at your opposite’loud. ‘Having no voice left afterward’loud. ‘Having no way to attract the attention of the waiter’loud. I think you got the idea.
Located in one of the railway arches,the dining room upstairs is spacious and light and would be really attractive if it was not for the bar downstairs which is half open towards the dining area. And the owners must have underestimated how the voices,clicking of glasses,etc. carry in a room with acoustics like this. The background noise is unbelievable and you start thinking that Platfrom might be –for entirely the wrong reasons –a very appropriate name…We went there on Thursday evening and it was relatively busy in the bar,so maybe it’s absolutely fine during the week or during the day on weekends –I don’t know.
I did not enjoy my visit very much and this might have less to do with the food than with the atmosphere. The food actually was quite nice. Until the end of August they have a 50% off offer on Toptable,which makes it incredible value for money.
The food is very British and I am admittedly not terribly keen on things like pig’s ear or trotters or offal in general,fortunately there were apart from these still some nice sounding starters to choose from. The Neil’s yard goat’s cheese salad with beetroot and pears (5.50) was really rather good. No culinary epiphany but solid and nice.
I also liked the second starter:Chicken ballotine with prosciuto,foie gras and apple puree (7.5). I love the combination of foie gras and fruit,it worked rather well with the apple puree which was not too overpowering and the foie gras was lovely.
The mains were less convincing. The pan-fried seabass (13) was nicely cooked and well seasoned,however it came on yellow long beans which were just not cooked enough. I absolutely love beans and I hate them overcooked,but this was just a little bit too raw even for me.
We were intrigued by the beef on offer –some back rib piece with red wine jus and parsnip chips (13). An enormous piece of meat. I mean gargantuan. Only about half of it was eaten,that always feels like such a waste. It was ok but did not blow me away at all. The meat itself was nicely cooked but there was something with the sauce that did not quite please my palate. It came with some horseradish butter thing which did not taste of horseradish at all. When we pointed this out to the waiter he told us that their horseradish is very subtle. Yes.. that’s fair enough but shouldn’t it at least taste a bit like horseradish if advertised to do so? There somehow just doesn’t seem to be much point otherwise.
Anyway,these are details,I really don’t want to be too harsh on the food as I thought the quality of some of the ingredients was outstanding (many of the them,as for example the beef,is supplied by their own farm) and there was definitely some promise to be seen. However,the biggest problem is the noise pollution. I don’t even think I can objectively judge this dinner as it was –for this reason –impossible to enjoy.
- Food: 6.5/10
- Service:6.5/10 (a bit confused,but this is not surprising in this noise..)
- Ambiance:1/10
- Value for money:7/10
- Chances of returning: would give it another try if they do something about the noise..
- Verdict: loud loud loud loud loud loud loud
What you say