Cyndi Himmelstiere on booking a table purely out of curiosity and leaving with genuine food regret about every meal she’s ever had before
I’ve walked past the Harvey Nichols restaurant more times than I can count, always assuming it would be the kind of overpriced department store dining that trades on the name rather than the food. Their exclusive Plated London menu finally gave me a real excuse to test that assumption, and I am genuinely happy to report I was wrong.
The Starter That Actually Silenced Me
A small, delicately plated dish balancing something sweet against something properly savoury, executed with a precision I wasn’t expecting, and I actually stopped talking mid-conversation to focus fully on eating it, which anyone who knows me will tell you is a genuinely rare event.
The Main Course
Confident, well-seasoned, clearly built specifically for this festival rather than pulled from a standard rotation menu just to tick the participation box. You could tell the kitchen had actually put proper thought into what would represent them well for the month.
The Service
Attentive without being hovering, which is a genuinely difficult balance for restaurants to strike and one that department store dining in particular often gets badly wrong in my considerable experience of eating in far too many of them.
The Bill, Let’s Be Honest
Not cheap, obviously, this is Harvey Nichols we’re talking about, but for what you actually get on the plate I’d argue it’s genuinely fair value rather than the tourist-trap pricing I’d assumed going in based purely on the location and the name above the door.
Whether I’d Go Back Outside The Festival
Yes, and that’s honestly the biggest compliment I can give a restaurant that was specifically doing a one-off festival menu. I’ve already looked at their regular offering and I’m properly tempted to book again once Plated London wraps up for the year.
My Overall Verdict
Book it, trust the exclusive menu over agonising through the full carte, and don’t assume the shop window means the food inside can’t back it up properly, because in this case it very much can, and did, thoroughly.