An infuriating meal in a south London hotel is a reminder that skill in the kitchen is not the only ingredient needed to make a good restaurant
Seabird, The Hoxton, Southwark, 40 Blackfriars Road, London SE1 (020 7903 3050). Small plates £10-£18; mains £16-£40; desserts £6-£7; wines from £28
There are many delicious smells to encounter in a restaurant dining room. Flaming lamp oil is not one of them. Seabird, on the top floor of the new Hoxton hotel in Southwark, south London, stinks of the stuff, courtesy of the guttering paraffin lamps on every table. It’s not a great start and I’m afraid it isn’t about to get much better. This is unexpected. The new Hoxton hotel is, depending upon your point of view, either a glorious homage to the funky conversions of lower Manhattan’s red-brick warehouse buildings, or a vaguely tragic attempt at the architectural equivalent of an American accent: black Crittall-style window frames outside, lots of bare brick and globe lighting inside.
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