#throwbackthursday review: lunch @ Galvin at Windows, London

This is a semi repost from my tumblr.

Located on the 28th floor of the Park Lane Hilton Hotel, this restaurant has stunning 360º views of London. Unfortunately on the day that we went, it was typical London weather so the view wasn't as spectacular as it could have been.

M was in town visiting and we wanted to check out Galvin and their (£30p.p??) lunch special  before bounding off for some shopping on nearby Bond St. Nothing we had that day appears on their menu anymore so I won’t be talking in too much detail about the food.

As is common with these sorts of things, we started off with a 'complimentary' amuse bouche of (if I remember correctly) a jerusalem artichoke puree. For starters I had the slow cooked hen's egg* (the first time they were serving this dish at Galvin) while M opted for the soup with chicken liver parfait. My dish was probably the best of what we had that day while M's was pretty forgettable. My main was skate wing with mussels, sea vegetables and salsify in a seafood broth while M got ever ubiquitous pork belly. Neither mains were spectacular but I did enjoy the addition of salsify to my main, after having recently introduced to the vegetable during our outing at Dinner by Heston (review to come). My main ended up being gifted because the chef had left a pastry brush bristle in the dish. Honestly, I didn’t even notice; I picked it out and put it on the side of my plate but I thought it was a frond from a mussel or from one of the vegetables but our waiter informed us (through some adorably staggered English; he was French like most/all the waitstaff at Galvin) that it was a brush bristle and that for this reason it would be comped. To finish, we got some cute house-made marshmallows and chocolates. As you would expect, the restaurant itself was gorgeous and the service was pleasant and very attentive. All in all it was a pleasant experience aided by nice service, the setting and the best company I could have asked for.

*I always find it hilarious when restaurants describe eggs as a 'hen's egg' to try and jazz up the stock standard egg. I can obviously understand when it's something like a duck or quail egg but those aren't stock standard eggs so the description actually adds something, but such is not the case with 'hen's eggs'.