Canary Wharf again? I hear you say. Yeah, yeah. I know. I can’t help it. I love that place and all the restaurants in it! I thought I would get through them all before sharing my experiences with other restaurants around London with you.
The Plateau Restaurant in Canary Wharf is a French classics restaurant with a contemporary twist and glamorous design which combine to provide an unforgettable experience in Canary Wharf. This is a restaurant to go out on a special occasion. Located on the 4th floor of the stunning Canada Place building, the restaurant over looks some spectacular views of the glass and steel of Canada Square. Stepping into the restaurant from the private lift takes you into an almost cinematic set like outlay with an open and expansive glass roof, iconic furniture, from Eero Saarinen’s Tulip table and chairs to Castiglioni-style Arco floor lamps.
There was a car show going on in Canada Square that made our visit even more special. You can see the car show in the background in the photo above. All the premier brands were on exhibit with some new upcoming models. We chose a table that looked out into Canada Square so we can watch the show progress as we had our dinner.
As you would expect from a 5 star restaurant, the maitre’d was all elegance and spent a few minutes asking us about our day and all. He then brought over the wine list and said he would be back with the food menus in a little while. It took us a while to actually take a look at the wine list since we were so busy looking around the immaculate interior of the restaurant.
When the maitre’d brought over the food menu, for starters we ordered the Lemon cured salmon, crÅme fraiche and capers and the Seafood cocktail with 1/2 dozen Colchester rock oysters, mignonette, prawns and salad. Although the starters were presented well and were made from the best ingredients, our palette being partial to spicy and flavourful dishes, we found them to be a little under seasoned. However, we did enjoy the fine ingredients and the various textures.
As we ate our starters and tasted the fine Portugese wine (Nova Safra, Pinhal Da Torre, Ribatejo 2008), I marvelled at how fine dining restaurants manage to boost their luxury factor and make us feel the astronomical prices are actually worth paying. I enjoy fine dining and appreciate the little luxuries in life. In fact going to fine dining restaurants inspires me and enables to appreciate quality in life. I and Bhavani would one day like to open a 5 star fine dining restaurant like this one – for the sheer thrill of offering high quality food with a customized experience.
For mains, we ordered the Steak tartare, grilled sourdough and the Beer battered fish & thick cut chips, mushy peas, tartare sauce. The Steak tartare was superb, although I must admit the photo below does not do it justice. I was using my iPhone 3GS and the quality is not that great. It was juicy and well cooked and the sause was awesome. The beer battered fish was equally good and rivalled the best fish and chips that I had at Harry Ramseys.
The main dishes were so light and tasty that we made a short job of them in a few minutes and still felt hungry! So we then went back to the menu and ordered the Butter poached cornfed chicken, chantrelle mushrooms, field mushroom purée, jus gras. Even the maitre’d was slightly amused and was glad that we were still hungry!
For desserts, we had the Crème brulée, apricot sorbet, pistachio biscotti and Sugar coated French donuts with dark chocolate. The Crème brulée was divine and the donuts melted in our mouth. The desserts showcased the skill of the head chef Allan Pickett who places seasonality at the core of his cooking, giving a light and contemporary touch to classic French dishes.
The evening was fantastic and I would throughly recommend Plateau for any special occasion or a romantic dinner out. The spectacular views of Canada Square, the awe inspiring decor of the restaurant and the fine food would leave wanting to come back again!
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