Thanksgiving was a week ago today. This year, I decided to try something different and go out for Thanksgiving lunch. I reserved a table at Christopher's Grill and Bar in Covent Garden for midday, and we arrived after having a quick look around some of the shops and the Christmas displays. When we arrived, our table was not quite ready for us, so we were seated in the Martini Bar.
The Martini Bar is impressive and a wall of windows lets in a lot of natural light. Each table had a gold mini pumpkin, which I thought was cute.
While we waited for our table, we ordered a couple of cocktails. As it was Thanksgiving, they had a couple of special cocktails on the menu. My partner had the Cranberry Martini, and I had an Apple Pie Martini. The Cranberry Martini contains Vanilla Vodka, Limoncello, Chambord, Ginger Syrup and cranberry juice.
The Apple Pie Martini contains cinnamon-infused Zubrowka Vodka and fresh apple and maple syrup. I had a taste of the Cranberry Martini, but I much preferred the Apple Pie Martini. It did taste like apple pie. It was delicious, and I would have quite happily had a few more of those had they not been £11.00 a glass.
I watched the staff make our cocktails, and they were delivered to our table (below).
We were then shown to our table upstairs in the dining room. We walked up a spiral staircase with an impressive light/sculpture suspended from the ceiling.
We were shown our table at the back of the room. (Unfortunately, they would not let us sit by the window, even though the window tables were empty during the duration of our stay; I prefer the window seats as food and drink photographs better in natural light and lack of lighting makes the images look a little grainy.) I was surprised that the restaurant was not nearly as busy as I was expecting. We were the first to arrive and be seated, and by the end of our meal at 13:30, only three or four additional tables were occupied. Many of them were couples like us, but the largest group contained six people.
We were served a choice of bread while we waited, and we had a choice of plain or herb butter to spread. While we waited, I ordered another cocktail, the Hollywood Star. It contains Vodka, apricot liquer, vanilla sugar syrup, lemon and pineapple juice, cherry syrup, and star fruit. Real vanilla beans were used, and you can see them floating in the cocktail photograph below. This also tasted nice, and it set me back £12.00.
Cocktail - Hollywood Star
Our starters arrived. My partner had the Maryland crab cake with rocket salad and red pepper mayonnaise. I had the roast corn and chorizo chowder, which had a vegetarian option that I ordered but failed to arrive as the vegetarian option. Despite this and pushing the chorizo aside, the chowder tasted lovely.
Crab cakes and roast corn chowder
After we finished our starters, the main meals arrived. We both ordered the roast turkey, described as "slow-cooked Ballotine of organic turkey." This was meant to arrive with corn bread, hazelnut and Michigan cherry stuffing, cranberry relish, buttered beans, and creamed potatoes. It did come with an extra miniature sausage too, but we were missing the corn bread. I asked after the corn bread, but the staff did not seem to understand anything and tried to tell me that the stuffing was the corn bread. After some back-and-forth, I think they realised as the manager came over with a plate of cornbread and apologised and stated that it was their first Thanksgiving meal of the day. However, we had nearly finished our meals by the time it arrived.
Turkey and all the trimmings
My verdict on the main meal was that the turkey was a little bland, and I was disappointed overall with the meal. However, we had our desserts to follow so I was excited to see if they could redeem themselves on these.
I ordered the pumpkin pie with cream chantilly, and my partner ordered the chocolate fudge brownie with raspberries, vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce.
Pumpkin pie
For some reason, they cut the crust off my pumpkin pie, so I received the pumpkin triangle slice pictured above. This is a pity, because I do like a little more crust with the pumpkin rather than the little bit of what is underneath the pumpkin. Nonetheless, it was alright but it was not enough to redeem the meal. On the other hand, I had a spoonful of my partner's brownie, and it was delicious.
Chocolate fudge brownie
While I enjoyed aspects of the meal at Christopher's Bar and Grill in Covent Garden, I thought that the price was expensive for what we received. I was not impressed with the main meal, and the staff did not seem to be as responsive as I would have hoped as I had paid quite a bit, and they did not understand the menu. The cocktails (especially the Apple Pie Martini) were quite good but also expensive, and the desserts also tasted nice. Would I go back? I would go back for cocktails and a dessert, but I would not rush back and would not have another meal there.
After our Thanksgiving meal, we went across London to Hyde Park Corner to go to Winter Wonderland. My verdict on the day was that I had fun doing something a little different on Thanksgiving this year, even if it my expectations were not met.
Leave a comment