Londoners seem to be aiming higher and higher in the thrill of getting the best views of London. However, it’s not the only place to get a great view of London, some can be found much closer to the ground. On the river Thames is one such place and it’s one of the reasons we visited the Sunborn which is situated east of the O2 and Canary Wharf, as a result, guests are treated to a unique view on board a mega-yacht hotel.
Thankfully, you don’t need to be staying at the Sunborn hotel to enjoy the view. We were invited along to experience the newly transformed Lands’ End restaurant and the new menu by head chef, Paul Hegley.
It perhaps won’t surprise you to hear that Paul has an impressive CV. He’s worked at the likes of The Vineyard, serving 2 Michelin Star dining in Newbury. Paul has also worked closely with John Christophe Novelli at The White Horse before opening A Touch of Novelli, The French Horn in Stepphingley.
So Dan and I decided to see who could order the best dishes off the menu and the loser would have to buy the nightcap on the way home.
Both the steak tartar and the mackerel tasted fresh, very tasty and in keeping with his influence of bringing to life classic British dishes and using seasonal produce.
Dan loved the freshness of the dish and thought his cured Cornish mackerel was cooked perfectly. I thought that the egg on the steak tartar was a truly wonderful thing, especially with the hint of marmite, which danced on my tongue. Result: Draw
For our main courses, Dan had the lamb and I had a pork dish, with both of us having food envy of what the other had chosen. Dan’s salt marsh lamb was the star of the show and was perfectly accompanied by hasselback potatoes, seasonal greens, black garlic, creme fraiche and mint.
The Suffolk pork belly was just as it should be and was the star of the plate. closely followed by the celeriac and potato dauphinoise. It was a great dish, but I’d tasted the lamb and that’s what I should have ordered. Result: Lamb
Finally time for desserts. The choice of 4 on the menu were all strong looking and we would have been happy with any of them. However, we had to choose only 2 of them and I went with the Chocolate delice, salted caramel, with malt cream. Whilst Dan went for the Sticky toffee pudding.
Both were delicious and were fitting ends to a wonderful meal. However, because we are also rating these dishes on looks, the winner was obvious.
Result: Chocolate delice (just)
So the overall winner was both of us, in part because of the food and also that iconic view.