RIBA Restaurant Review.

RIBA restaurant at art deco gem 66 Portland Place, London W1

 

I have had many a party at RIBA, it is a wonderful venue. I had never eaten at the restaurant before and was incredibly impressed by the food and the service. No one likes to eat alone so I went to review this restaurant with my friend, New Statesman columnist Nicholas Lezard.

 

The venue is bright and airy, in the summer you can eat outside. There is always a lot going on at RIBA.

 

What I ate.

 

Middle white pork belly

 

Black pudding, quince

 

Jerusalem artichoke and red onion fritters

 

Braised lentils, grilled artichoke hearts

soft poached egg

 

Baby leaf salad, cherry tomatoes, cucumber

 

White chocolate mousse

 

Dark chocolate honeycomb, gold leaf

 

What Nicholas ate:

 

Seared scallops

 

Leeks, candied hazelnuts, black olive powder

 

Braised Yorkshire venison

 

Sautéed girolles, truffled mash, redcurrants

 

Sticky toffee pudding

 

Clotted cream, butterscotch sauce

 

Curly kale, garlic butter

 

The starter comes on black, granite slabs, a touch that I found different and original. They are very good at presentation. My pork belly was done perfectly.

 

The food tasted like heaven, the fritters I had were absolutely delicious. The different consistency of the ingredients of my main meal worked brilliantly. I didn’t know lentils could taste so good. My egg was poached perfectly. The fritters were crispy, as all fritters should be. At first I wasn’t sure how all the ingredients would work together, but they do, beautifully.

 

I had a side salad with my main even though it wasn’t necessarily needed. The main was very filling. I liked that they put balsamic vinegar on my salad. The staff were also attentive and eager to please.

 

My white chocolate mousse was absolutely divine and was a visual treat too.

 

To drink I had port and coca cola. Nicholas had red wine and port.

 

RIBA is a good restaurant, the food is divine, the staff expert and the location incredibly up-market. I highly recommend. I will definitely be eating here again.

 

 

Vintage Seekers First Birthday Party {Social Diary}

Frost joined Vintage Seekers at the RIBA institute on London’s Portland Place to celebrate their first birthday party, alongside shoe designer and vintage muse Charlotte Dellal, Bip Ling, Gemma Cairney, Cara Delivgne, Savile Row tailor Patrick Grant, and Henry Conway.

 



Vintage Seekers
sources premium vintage goods from wine to watches and everything in between. The beautiful and historic artifacts on show – and for sale- included beautiful Dior dresses, a picture of Apollo 11 signed by all of the astronauts, a flag signed by Che Guevara and Fidel Castro, classic cars- I loved a beautiful Citroen parked outside- and an Andy Warhol ‘Mao’ screen print.

They do these on their amazing website, and they also have a magazine. I also loved seeing Steve McQueen’s sunglasses. The crowd of collectors, press and celebrities were joined by Vintage Seeker’s two valued investors, luxury retail expert Jurek Piasecki (his experience include being CEO of Mappin & Webb and Goldsmith jewellers) and e-commerce guru Guy Hipwell, the former managing director of Liberty online. Co-founder and director Rob Keylock gave a brilliant speech and seemed happily overwhelmed at how well the night was going.

We drank Champagne and enjoyed Hendricks Gin. The evening finished off with Port and Whitfield cheese. It just may have been the party of the year.