Searcys | The Gherkin

I attended this restaurant for lunch with two friends, one of whom is a member.

The only good thing about this place is the view which is absolutely outstanding. However, the venue itself is soul-less and the service, whilst efficient, is totally without anything to recommend itself.

You cannot order a single course but must choose between two and three course or tasting menu optons. We all opted for the two course option at £42. Two of us ordered mussels to start and the other ordered lamb. When the starters arrived, we all burst out laughing.Three of the timiest mussels you will ever see were arranged i on a vast plate with a few other micro ingredients that I really can't remember. The waiter then proceded to douse the mussels in a frothy soupy slop. That was it. I wouldn't mind so much but it wasn't particularly tasty. My other companion's minuscule lamb came shredded and wrapped in cucumber. She had maybe two or three tiny bites and just left it.

My cod main was overcooked, as was one of my companion's. My other companion had a lamb main which was so tiny he made a sandwich out of it with the bread roll. Oh, I nearly forgot, the main meal was accompanied by a particularly unappetising, runny bowl of polenta.

Our main gripes were (a) portion size; (b) quality; and (c) taste. I'm no expert but I thought nouvelle cuisne had fallen from grace. Not here it hasn't. The portion sizes were laughable. We wouldn't have minded so much if the portion sizes were compensated by quality and/or taste. Unfortunately they were not.

At no stage did any of the waiting staff or mait're d ask any of us if we were enjoying our meal. We got the impression that they were so used to getting generally underwhelming reactions to their food from diners, they would rather not ask! If I could give this place zero stars I wiould. The one saving grace is that you can't get in unless you go with or are a member, are a tenant or attending a private event. If you do not fall into any of these categories, you are in the happy position of never having to suffer my experience

If you can get in here, and trust me its not simple you either need to know someone or become a member at a huge cost, 40|30 offers quite simply the most stunning views of any venue in London. The service is good if a touch too fussy – see if you can get more than a third of the way through a glass of wine or water before its been topped up – and its certainly not cheap (we managed to spend around £260 for two – all be it with quite a lot of drinks!), but as somewhere to take a special date this is an amazing venue. The bar, right at the top of the Gherkin, provides 360 degree views of the whole of London, the restaurant is more limited due to the private rooms, but even so is quite stunning. Food is good, but not exceptional (desserts are a definite highlight though) and without the view would struggle to justify its high price. Worth going at least once – if nothing else to be able to bore friends with the pictures you'll want to take – and try and go over the period of sunset as the day to night transition is amazing.