Oopsie, this post is terribly overdue! Back in March (LAST YEAR!), the lovely man in my life treated me to a romantic evening meal at Oblix in The Shard – the highest building in London. 1000ft above the streets of London, The Shard is home to several restaurants; there’s Aqua Shard – serving modern British cuisine (and fantastic cocktails), Hutong, a very swanky Chinese, Ting in the Shangri La, serving European Cuisine with an Asian twist, and Oblix – self described as ‘Urban Casual Dining.’ The restaurant is the latest from Roka/Zuma co-founder Rainer Becker and opened to lukewarm reviews so we went with the hopes of having a memorable evening but not expecting tremendous things from the food.
As the sun set, we enjoyed cocktails in Aqua Shard – thankfully the menu was diverse, far from the usual expensive wines and show-offy champagnes that I was expecting, but rather a list of concoctions including Classic Inspirations; Mojitos, Porn Star Martinis etc, Gin Inspirations (only one of which actually included gin..!) and also Tea Inspirations – all with a British twist. The prices weren’t inflated for the spectacular location, costing the same as you’d expect in most nice London cocktail bars.
After our cocktails, we were escorted upstairs to Oblix – greeted by some super glamorous girls looking very official with their iPads, we waited with baited breathe as they searched for our reservation. Found it, phew! We were led past counters of fresh produce and cabinets of meat before being seated at our table – which wasn’t by the window. Apparently you can’t reserve a table by the window, something which we doubted very much when what appeared to be a Russian Oligarch was seated at a window table in front of us! But, refusing to accept second best for our anniversary meal, we sweet-talked the waitress into moving us to a window seat when a table close to us became available. The view wasn’t the only memorable thing about the evening though; the food was rather spectacular too!
Skipping starters, we both chose steaks for our mains, as well as a selection of sides. Both steaks were cooked perfectly for our different requests, and the sides of sumptuous Macaroni Cheese, triple cooked chips and al-dente grilled asparagus were all melt-in-the-mouth delicious.
I read lots of reviews before going, and have to say that I wasn’t expecting much from the food – the big publications seemed to be disappointed in the food, and stated that you only really went because of the view, but I couldn’t fault it. Yes I’ve had better steaks, and if you are looking for a culinary sensation then Oblix probably isn’t the one, but the food is still VERY good and the experience as a whole is hard to beat.
As it often is, the highlight of the cuisine for me that evening was the sweet course! We finished the evening by enjoying the cheesecake which the chef had personalised for our special occasion!
As you can see from my smile, (and Charlie’s pout?!) we had a super evening – the staff were all lovely, personal and professional, especially the waitress that switched our tables! I can not fault our experience at Oblix, so don’t be put off if you’ve read some less enthusiastic reviews – these people get paid to eat posh nosh for a living let’s not forget!