Gordon Ramsay’s Restaurant Dinner Post Pandemic
Few days ago, we had a reservation for one of Gordon Ramsay’s restaurants to celebrate my wife’s birthday after more than 4 months of confinement. Did anything change at all? Let’s talk about it.
Before we start, a little disclaimer. As always, I’m not getting paid for any of my posts and whatever I write it’s purely based on my opinion and experience. This is not meant to be a review of the food but more like how it felt to go back to the “new” normal. Right, let’s get to the point.
The day started with 2 surprises for Kristina. The first one being a stunning bouquet of perfect pink peonies, lilac memory lane roses with white lisianthus and blue veronica. The second one was a summer celebration hamper from Fortnum & Mason with a bottle of Chablis served with a traditional potted Stilton cheese over some butter crackers. The hamper also included a waxed cheddar truckle which paired perfectly with their caramelised red onion marmalade. Moreover, their Stilton cheese straws were hard to resist with some Piccalilli. In addition, some Gin Olives and some garlic and chilli nuts. Finally, when the wine was gone, the teabags of Darjeeling were ready to be paired with their chocolate and macadamia nut biscuits. That was our brunch at home.
For the evening, the selected venue was The Narrow by Gordon Ramsay in East London just by the river Thames. It’s a gastropub that serves classic British dishes using fresh and season ingredients. The layout is minimalist and sleek. They offer great views of Canary Wharf and the City. The one thing you can see very quickly is The Shard. The place is just 5 minutes’ walk from Limehouse station in case you take the DLR. You can also drive but Blackwall Tunnel is hectic as always. In our case, we took a Bolt ride from home as we had a bottle of Champagne. 🙂
The Way In
As mentioned before, because we had some alcohol, we decided to take a cab. In any case we had also sold our car in light of our upcoming move to Madrid. However, trains and DLR are good options to get there. In fact, those should be the preferred options if possible. Our ride was around 20 miles, equivalent to 42 minutes due to some traffic. Yes! People are back to normal. Actually, there’s more people driving than ever before as the public transport is the least preferred option due to the pandemic. I have to say that Kristina and I took few trains in the past few weeks and they were very empty. It’s going to be interesting from September onwards after the holiday period to see how the normal commute will be handled.
The Arrival
On arrival, we took the stairs down and entered the restaurant. They had sensor-based hand sanitiser pretty much everywhere. Still needed to pull the door to enter the restaurant after the sanitiser but not an issue as we brought hand gel with us. We got a table by the Thames with a stunning view. We arrived around 6pm. So still quiet. I think there were just 2 or 3 couples only. After 7pm the place was full.
Ordering Food
Here it becomes interesting. There were no menus. Only a little note with a bar code to scan with your smart phone and see the menu online. Good one, isn’t it? Well, I knew the menu by heart because I needed to make sure we had vegetarian options. It was not too difficult to memorise 2 o 3 options though. The waitress didn’t wear any face mask. Not sure if they should but according to the Government from 24th July this will be mandatory for everyone. She also didn’t wear any gloves. But again, this is not a legal requirement and the best way to maintain good personal hygiene is by frequently washing your hands. She offered us some water as always when sitting.
We got some tap water to start with. I typically drink a lot of water during the day (up to 4 litres!) and also as part of any meal. However, this time I just sipped it and didn’t drink anymore. Hey, nothing wrong! It was just me going back to the new normal. I needed time to adjust.
We ordered 2 cocktails. Kristina had Le Grand Fizz (Grey Goose, St Germain Elderflower Liqueur, fresh lime and soda) and I had Granny Smith Sour (Bombay Sapphire, Briottet crème de Manzana Verde, fresh citrus, Midori, Rouleur red wine top, Granny Smith dehydrated apple).
As mains we had Falafel burger, Fattoush salad, mint yoghurt dressing and chips. The falafel burger was a bit dry and the chips a bit industrial but still enjoyed it as it was so long since last time eating outdoors. For dessert, sticky toffee pudding with salted caramel ice cream for Kristina and Chocolate brownie with vanilla ice cream for me. Nothing memorable in terms of food but again, it was OK as we were both excited about being outdoors so we were less concerned about the food experience. The service was good and they added an optional 15% gratuity to the bill. The VAT was slashed from 20% to 5% for hospitality as a Government initiative to boost part of the economy hit particularly for this industry. We used contactless for payments and that’s it.
The Way Out
We went for a walk in the area, just to feel a bit normal again. Sometimes you don’t know what you have until it’s gone. We picked a point and called Bolt to go back home. Less than 30 minutes as no traffic on the way back.
Final Thoughts
It will take some time to become less paranoiac about stuff but on the other hand we can’t stop living our lives. Some can work from home, some can’t. We need to make sure we follow the recommendations in terms of social distancing, personal hygiene and protection. If we all go in that direction, we’ll be one step closer to face any challenge as a society. At the end of the day we can’t control the external factors but we can certainly control how we want to react to those.
