Galvin at Windows

Wow have I just been to the same restaurant that the reviewers on here visited?

From our pre dinner drinks amongst the drunken crowd in the bar to leaving we found the whole experience depressing.

I know that the location and views of this restaurant are part of its appeal but when the view takes precedence over the food on the plate then questions must be raised about the attitude of the restaurant. The lights had been set so low that once it had gone dark outside we could not see the food on the plate which could have been ok if the food was a taste sensation sadly that was not our experience. The atmosphere was further ruined by air con set so low it could have chilled the wine and the surly service referrred to in other reviews. Is this not the home base of Fred Serieix the high priest of service?

But the most unforgetable part of the evening and the one we will relay endlessly was the tarte tatin for 2. Others on here have remarked on the size of this dish positively, at the end of a meal I do not want a tatre the size of a pizza! Not only did it look totally out of place in a restaurrant with pretensions to fine dining it was luke warm and served from a pristine copper frying pan that had never seen a cooker top in some insulting pretIance of table theatre.
If it had been cooked in the kitchen, which I struggle to believe, it cetainly was not whilst we waited and surely the whole point of the tare tatin is the sticky, carmelly apples on the freshly cooked pastry – not this confection served with a seperate sauce boat.

If I did not know better i would think this was some restaurant in a chain hotel in the American mid west that happened to have a gret view from its lofty perch! We'll not be back

In simple terms they offer elegant sophisticated stylist dining at it's best. My wife and I opted for their taster menu, which wasn't cheap but the experience more than compensated for the cost. A visit to Galvin's is a must of those looking for an elegant evening out with a loved one. Highly recommended to all for the view and the food alike.

I was taken here as a surprise dinner and it was fantastic. We had the degustation menu deluxe which included the wines with each course. They were very accommodating with a change to one of the courses that I cant eat. The wines were excteptional and at exactly e right temperature. On a Saturday night it had a very buzzy atmosphere and we were moved to a window table after an hour or so (you can't reserve the window tables as it is first come first served) so the view was fascinating. I would highly recommend is as a treat like I had!

I recently booked a dinner at Galvin at Windows with important clients of my business. In general, the food and service was good – which is consistent with my previous experiences of dining at this restaurant.

For my starter I ordered the Seared Scottish scallops, wild sea vegetables & oyster emulsion. It was tasty, but consisted of only one scallop which I thought was quite meagre for a dish which cost £18. However, near the end of our meal, I noticed that other diners who had ordered the scallops had been served two scallops on their plate.

I queried this with the waiter who abruptly told me that the scallops that we had were much larger than the ones on the dishes served with two scallops. I responded that the difference was not so significant to warrant just one scallop and I felt that we had been short-changed. The waiter responded to this saying the chef had made the decision because my scallop was much bigger. He then made a hand gesture to illustrate the size of my scallop which was a gross exaggeration of the actual size of the scallop. By doing this, I felt the waiter was effectively calling me a liar.

Additionally, the waiters continued to serve us bottled water throughout the meal without any request to do so. In the context of a business meal, I found this to be acceptable. However, at the end of the meal (when everyone had almost finished their coffee) they opened and served yet another bottle of water which, at this stage of the meal, was entirely unnecessary and simply an opportunity to increase the cost of our bill. I also raised this point with the waiting staff and, after considerable disagreement, they reluctantly agreed to remove the service charge and the coffees from the bill. Given that the service charge is a discretionary option, I found this offer to be highly insulting.

Overall, I found the manner in which the waiting staff dealt with me to be very unsatisfactory. Their rude and arrogant approach to my concerns and lack of apology for serving dishes of different quantity to that of other diners in the restaurant made me feel like a second-class customer, which is extremely disappointing when I have eaten at this restaurant many times.

The next day, I telephoned Galvin to see if they had changed their attitude, but sadly it remained the same. The member of staff who received my call was very agitated and did nothing to allay my concerns. In fact he approached the complaint in a very erratic manner. One moment he would casually announce “If you want the £18 you can have at” (which was in and of itself insulting) and the next moment complaining about the cost of the bottled water he had removed from the bill. This was confusing, unprofessional and offensive.

I so wanted my dinner at Galvin Windows to be blow-your-socks-off good. Really really wanted it to be. And yet I left feeling a little deflated and disappointed.

Don't get me wrong, the food is very good on the whole. We chose from the Menu Prestige, which at £65 for three courses is a little steep in comparison to something like Marcus Waering at the Berkley. The choice however was good and varied enough, though not vast, and I was torn between the venison and the fillet of beef bordelaise (which incurred a £5 supplement)

The amuse bouche was superb – pumpkin bavarois, mushroom cream, topped with a parmesan froth. It was spectacular, although they lose a few marks by not telling me it had pistachio mixed into the parmesan froth. I have a partial nut allergy which I told them about before ordering, but still the amuse bouche came with the pistachios! Fortunately pistachios, hazelnuts and almonds are the only three nuts that I am not allergic to, but still it could have been a close call.

Starters for my partner were scallops in a slightly nondescript veloute of some sort, whilst I had a duck and foie gras terrine. The scallops were perfectly cooked – lightly browned on the outside, squishy in the middle and full of flavour, A shame then that the veloute was so bland in comparison and did nothing to lift, or complement, the scallops themselves. My terrine was very good – full of flavour, and came with an astonishing piece of brioche toast which I could have kept eating all night.

Mains – my partner had a roasted fillet of cod whilst I went for the beef. The fish elicited murmurs of delight, whilst the beef was actually really rather good, with slices of ox cheek underneath and a lovely bordelaise sauce. The smoked potato puree was also rather good, although not spectacular enough to elevate it onto another plain from other forms of mashed potato.

Dessert was a huge tarte tatin to share – huge in that it was a full dinner plate size, cut in half. Lovely looking caramelised apple, crisp pastry, but otherwise very run-of-the-mill taste. The vanilla bean ice cream didn't do enough to lift the dessert. In truth, and this isn't being harsh, Cafe Rouge offer almost as good a tarte tatin, but for considerably less money.

A lovely touch is their tisane menu, with some great teas. I had a “Tisane sans souci” which contained orange, lemon, possibly some bergamot, and other exotic herbs and flavours. Lovely. As too were their homemade marshmallows which we had set our beady eyes on all throughout dinner!

So after all this, why did I leave so deflated? Well, the food is very good no doubt, but sadly nothing more than that. It just wasn't spectacular enough – the flavours weren't so alive that they rearranged your taste buds. It was good fare, well executed, but lacking in imagination. Compared to the aforementioned Marcus Waering at the beginning of this review, it is evident that Galvin is trying hard but doesn't quite get to that level. That is before taking cost into consideration!

A couple of other things annoyed us. First, you are not allowed to wear coats in the bar. They must be checked in. If we wanted to keep our coats, and it was very cold that evening, then we would have had to go straight to the table. So after a bit of a stilted and incredulous conversation with their front of house, we checked our coats and headed into the bar. It took ten minutes for our drinks orders to be taken, five minutes for them to arrive, which was expected, and before we could even lift a glass to toast each other, a front of house girl came over, took our drinks off our bar table onto a tray and brusquely said that our table was ready and we should follow her. We hadn't even managed to have a drink in their bar!!! I found this really poor service, totally ignorant of letting a customer relax into a venue.

Then at the table, we had been seated for two minutes before a surly waiter comes over to ask for our orders! We still hadn't managed to drink any of our champagne!! And so it continues – no doubt the service staff want to ensure your every need is looked after, but this should be done discreetly without a constant ten minute return to ask questions or to prompt ordering. The restaurant wasn't even so busy at 8pm so why they felt they had to rush us into ordering, I don't know.

It is a shame when these aspects of service remain more prominent as memories in my head than the food itself. That is saying all that needs to be said. Yes, the view is spectacular and worth the visit alone, but honestly I won't be coming back.

This was about our 4th visit but our first on a Saturday Night, but well worth the whole experience even with the music coming in from the Bar next door as it just added to the atmosphere.Once again the food was simply wonderful and the service matched all our previous visits if not even more friendly than before (even got a takeaway for my son and his favourite marshmellows).Can't wait for our next visit.

I went with my father for dinner there on his last visit to London. The atmosphere and view are fantastic, but we found the food to be really really disappointing. We had the ‘offer menu’ which was 50gbp per person for set menu excluding wine. Of course this is less expensive than the regular a-la-carte menu, but we still expected cuisine of decent standard. Unfortunately this is not what we found. Both our starters were poor, our mains were not at all appetising, and only the desert was of an acceptable standard.

I am not exaggerating when I say the food tasted bad, and I have had much better meals at a local pub or chain. If the chef is not willing to cater for a prix-fix menu, then it should not be offered.

A very very disappointing experience.

Depending on your sensibilities, Galvin either has a fabulous location, way up in the Hilton and with breathtaking views over London, or perhaps has dizzying effects on your stomach as you peer over the edge. The restaurant itself is very nicely laid out, and with a multi-tier effect, you don't feel the space so much. I assume it was laid out in this way to afford everyone a decent view out of the window…

The waiting staff are very attentive – the sommelier remembered having a little ‘discussion’ on burgundies with the Hubby the last time he'd been in – and the waitress brought us some piping hot bread straight out of the oven – yummy!

The amuse was a tomato water – just fabulous… Fabulous, fabulous – I'm definitely going to make the effort to make it having previously considered it too time-consuming.

I began with the pan-seared foie gras, spiced duck pastilla, confit lemon and date consommé. The foie gras was, yes, you've guessed it – fabulous. But actually the date consommé was even more incredible – I was spooning down to the last drop as the staff tried to take my plate. If I could have a flask of the stuff, I could climb Everest.

The Hubby had the terrine of foie gras, orange purée, spiced salt and toasted brioche. Now the Hubby is renowned in his search for a decent foie gras terrine – he's had it everywhere and is usually disappointed. Here he thought the flavour excellent, he loved the texture (it looked very smooth), he loved the orange, and even the brioche looked crisper and more robust than the usual offerings. I didn't even get a look in!

I then had the slow cooked fillet of beef, braised ox cheek, pomme purée and red wine jus. The ox cheek was deep and earthy, packed with flavour and a great contrast to the fillet. The mash was as smooth and silky as you'd expect, and the jus rich to the point of obsession. A proper ‘you can wipe your finger across it’ richness. And I did.

The Hubby had the real highlight though, Cotswold white chicken, tortellini, broad bean, wild garlic and jus gras. It looked stunningly pretty. The small amount I was allowed to steal was loaded with the garlic jus which tasted intensely of roasted garlic purée – smooth, delicious, full of flavour.

By this stage it was too late for pud, though they all looked delicious. We were brought some of the marshmallows, and the strawberry one's were particularly tasty, without doubt the best marshmallow I've eaten. I did also buy a bag of tea (!) – there were some amazing combinations, and I went for one with fennel seed, which aids digestion. I thought it might be a decent Kümmel substitute.

So. If you find yourself in need of a really flavoursome dinner, I'd definitely try Galvin! It has a very cute bar which fills up quite late (I noticed that they shut the doors between the bar and the restaurant when it started to fill). If you like heights the view is sensational. Also, the atmosphere is very relaxed – you could come here with friends and enjoy dinner without feeling as though your disturbing everyone else – a definite plus in this calibre of dining. It's going on my favourite's list.

Galvin at Windows also participates in Galvin's Chance – an employment programme for 18-24 year olds – have a look on their website.

I visited Galvin @ Windows for a birthday celebration and we were fortunate to occupy one of the larger tables situated by the large window (does have a greenhouse effect on a warm day) over seeing the spectular views London has to offer.
Unfortunately this along with the charming service from our waitress was the highlight of our meal.
Call me old fashioned, but when I go out for a meal, the main focus should be the food. Unfortuantely the food here was not worthy of a Michelin 1*. The problem being – lack of seasoning not only on mine, but on all the dishes that we all tasted. I had to request salt and pepper for my organic pork chop.
Fair enough, we opted for the lunch menu, but we have eaten lunch menus at Maze, Alain Ducasse @ Dorchester, Ramsay @ Claridges in the last 12 months and this was easily the worse 3 course meal we have had.
The pineapple desert lacked flavour as if the pineapple had been in transit for a long while. I don;t normally choose fruit desserts. However I had a pineapple ravioli @ Royal Hospital Road quite a while back and that was probably the best desert I've ever had at a restaurant, so was hopeful that this pineapple dessert would evoke that memory. It didn't.
There was nice touch at the end with a nicely decorated plate of chocolates with “happy birthday” written around the sides, but other than that a mediocre meal with a nice view of London.

I had never been out for Valentines Day before, so I was a little dubious about spending an evening surrounded by other couples. People always say that first impressions mean a lot and Galvin most definitely made a good one. We were warmly greeted as we entered and were quickly shown to our table and of course it is hard not love the breath taking the views.

We were told that we would have one waiter assigned to us for the evening and he was introduced to us, however this was clearly not the case as we were served by a variety of people and I quickly forgot who had been assigned to us in the first place. Though this was not as irritating as it may sound, as all the waiting staff were friendly and polite, but not in a formal and stiff way.

All of the food was absolutely sensational and I honestly cannot think of any way to fault it. We had a ham hock with carrot foam Amuse Bouche; I was blown away by how they had managed to capture such a strong carrot flavour in the foam. I then had goat’s cheese curd, with baby vegetables, which was beautifully presented like a vegetable patch and almost looked too good to eat.

The Foie Gras was surprisingly unrich, which meant that I was able to eat a lot more than I normally would, which as far as I am concerned is never a bad thing. The main was a small piece of fillet steak, served on beef cheek, which left me feeling utterly spoilt and just to top it off there was the most delicious reduction and perfect creamed potato. This was all accompanied by a wonderful bottle of Alamos, an Argentinean, Cabernet Sauvignon.

In between courses I paid a visit to the loos, which turned out to be the only disappointment of the evening, as there was toilet roll all over the floor and with only two loos in there one hoped that one of them would be nice and clean, but this was not the case. As I returned to the table the dessert arrived, which was a heart shaped chocolate mousse covered in gold leaf and I thought that maybe they had taken Valentine’s a little too far.

I like to consider myself a bit of a connoisseur when it comes to chocolate desserts and I have to say that this was up there as one of the best I have ever eaten. There was a passion fruit mousse in the centre, which complimented the chocolate perfectly, as unlike most chocolate and fruit desserts it had not been sweetened at all, making it very morish. As it was Valentine’s Day this romantic dessert was designed for sharing, but I found myself wanting to eat it all.

So at the end of the evening, I left feeling like I had been spoilt with wonderful food and wine and that I had had a lovely Valentines Day.