Skylon Grill

We arrived as walk-ins to the restaurant one sunny Sunday lunch. The maitre d' sized us up immediately; one of us in shorts the other in a hoodie. Perhaps we would prefer the grill?

Sure: it is one room, separated by those silly screens that Victorian ladies would modestly derobe behind. So far as I could tell, the only difference between the grill and the real restaurant is that the latter has white table cloths. Otherwise, same room, same staff and strikingly similar menus.

The room itself is a stunner; high, high ceilings, double height windows and cracking views of Hungerford Bridge. I guess it is better at night, with twinkling lights that don't quite illuminate the detritus of the South Bank.

The menu is standard grill nosh, with terrines and salads to start and steaks, confited duck and the like for mains.

Having just been to the aquarium next door, we had to have the fish. In fact, I wonder if the aquarium isn't really a holding pen for the restaurant: as soon as you walk in you are met by lobster, langoustine, spider crab, cod and all sorts of tasty looking piscine delights. The cod (yes I KNOW, but come on, it probably came from a sustainable source. Next door in fact) was as gorgeous a piece as I've had for a while. Crunchy skin, firm white flesh atop chorizo and chick pea. As lovely a fish dish as you'll find in London bistro land. The other dish, a linguine with wild mushrooms, was pleasant too; properly al dente, but a cold poached egg on top didn't really add anything.

Foregoing the desert, we instead had a desert cocktail; a Jaffa martini, which was a Jaffa cake in a martini glass, with orange and chocolate liqueurs. In fact, the bar looks pretty fine too, and turns out a good array of cocktails, with a good number of wines by the glass or half bottle too.

An odd place to find such a good restaurant but, if lost on the South Bank feeling peckish, it is worth negotiating the nightmare maze that is the Festival Hall to find what is, by a country mile, the best place to eat on this stretch of the Ping Pong and Yo Sushi infested river front.

Do not bother. Aside from great atmosphere and view over the river I wouldn't rate this place at all. The service was abysmal. Clearly not enough staff for the no of busy tables they had. We waited 40 mins before our drink order was taken. The food was rubbish. My foie gras was so warm it was almost swimming on the plate and the quince chutney still had most of the stones in it. A mouth of hard stones is not palatable and very bad show. I guess the only upside to that was the manager taking it very graciously and removing it from the bill. All in all below average (except for the wine) particularly for the price of food. I defintely won't be back.

I am puzzled by the rave reviews this rather bland restaurant seems to attract. We booked on the back of them but all four of us were left scratching our heads. It was “OK” and that is really the best word I can find to describe it. Food was fresh but lacked zing, and there wasn't very much of it. We had the pre-theatre menu: a salad of herring and new potatoes was pretty but didn't taste of much, a fricassee of orecchetti and spring vegetables was a very meagre tablespoon-full of pasta stir fried with some broccoli, cauliflower, broad beans and almonds with a few flakes of parmesan and that didn't taste of much either. The pear on the pear and chocolate tart had been sitting in the sun awhile and the guinness ice cream had a rather unpleasant bitter taste. Oh dear. The chocolates with the coffee were nice and the coffee was good. Service was hit and miss. The view is lovely, we agree, but I am not sure that you can rate a restaurant solely on the view, the food and the service would be more important to me. It depends what you are looking for: Skylon is safe but is not going to set your pulse racing.

Excellent meal there today. Delicious chateaubriand, perfectly cooked; juicy entrecote steak; good kids' meals; fresh salads – especially nice tomato salad, with red and yellow fruits; tasty sorbets and ice creams at just-right portion sizes. Impeccable service and catered well for a wheelchair user and kids. Gave us a good table near the window – but window tables themselves are only for tables of two or four. Prices are not low, but it's value for money.

The key attraction of Skylon is the great view out over the river through the huge 25ft tall front windows. If you can time your sitting for sunset in the summer it’s awesome, but on any evening the twinkling lights of London look great. They are also good from virtually any seat in the house, making it a safer bet for views than Oxo Tower for example.

I was there on a D&D offer of £15 for three courses so I had no complaints about pricing. The food was good throughout, with an excellent tirmasu yoghurt thing that is quite hard to describe but was delicious as dessert.

The atmosphere is fashionable, buzzy and makes a great setting for a Friday or Saturday night out with friends or a date. Service was well timed throughout. Décor is pretty cool, being a modern interpretation of the 60’s Royal Festival Hall in which it is set.

I recommend it as a good stylish all rounder, suitable for both weekend fun or something more intimate.