Eat Here: Skylon RestaurantBy Alicia Grimshaw

I love stumbling across a restaurant and realising you’ve struck gold. For me, a test of a good meal is waking up the next morning and you’re still talking about it. This happened when I ventured to Skylon restaurant, situated on the third floor in Royal Festival Hall on the Southbank. Part of the D&D group (who’s other restaurants include Italian eatery Satoria and Chelsea favourite, Bluebird), Skylon comprises of a restaurant, stylish grill and cocktail bar.

Skylon Restaurant: The Vibe

The restaurant is truly beautiful. You can’t help but fall in love with the place; dimly lit, uber cool modern furnishings and thanks to floor to ceiling windows, the restaurant offers panoramic views of The Thames. The main restaurant is a glam affair – the crowd is as clean-looking as the interiors; wear your best shirt, you’ll thank me later. Date night, graduation or a fancy birthday meal – Skylon is the place.

Skylon Restaurant: The Food 

It’s not only the interiors that make you drool – the menu itself is a work of art; beautifully presented and deliciously enticing.  Executive Head Chef Tom Cook has created a menu showcasing the best of modern British cuisine. Tom’s style of cooking is light and seasonal, with these techniques reflected in his menu – autumn vegetable salad, Cornish crab and roasted breast of goose.

While the menu is a feast of delights, Skylon has specially created a dedicated vegetarian menu for all the meat-free hunnies out there. The bake yukon gold potato veloute, with braised onion and finished with sourdough and onion macaroons is nothing short of an all round fantastic dish. A creamy, rich soup that will have you mopping up the last dregs. The ravioli of wild mushroom and spinach topped with endive and butter sauce left us wanting more. Ravioli dishes can be somewhat bland and a little boring, but not this one. It was a perfect marriage of flavours, the sweet, nutty taste from the endive leaves matched well with the wonderfully simple butter sauce. Vegetarian dishes are not an after thought at Skylon.

The main menu has a well balanced meat and fish selection, but it goes without saying that the beef tournedos rossini has to be ordered. The beef is perfectly executed; soft, cooked to my asking, it literally melts in the mouth. The beef is served with a truffle and madeira jus, it has a real comfort food feel about it, with a decadent twist.  This timeless french dish is finished with pan fried foie gras and mushroom jam. It’s outstanding – so many textures that all come together on the plate. The beef isn’t overly seasoned and the tang of the mushroom jam feels like the first time you bite on a piece of airways chewing gum. Delightful.

No good meal stops after the main course, and if you’re in the mood for a slice of the sweet stuff, the iced peanut butter dessert is worth loosening your belt a couple of notches. A chocolate brownie bottom layered with peanut butter ice cream, topped with a sticky chocolate ganache. It’s sublime, it really is. The tip here is to let the dessert melt slightly for a couple of minutes to get a real taste of all the layers. The dish is finished with salated caramel sauce. We won’t lie, we ordered more sauce, it’s like sweet, sweet nectar.

Skylon Restaurant: The Drinks

Wine is taken very seriously here, so seriously that the wine list feels more of an encyclopedia. Don’t worry about being overwhelmed, Head Sommelier, Marco, is on hand to talk you through the correct wine to match your dishes. The wine menu largely features wines from France, Italy, Spain, Austria, and New Zealand to name but a few. Along with the extensive wine list, the cocktail bar also rustle up innovative cocktails – the Rosemary Mule made from homemade fennel seeds infused vodka, rosemary sugar and cherry liquor is a liquid dream.

Skylon Restaurant: The Verdict 

Just go.