My first time at Galvins @Windows, the restaurant on top of the London Hilton hotel on Park Lane, and my first impressions weren’t that good!  I arrived at the hotel by taxi and made my way in, asking how to get to the restaurant, and pointed towards a bank of lifts. Be aware (as I wasn’t) that the Hilton has very unusual lifts: one has to first go to a lectern and input where one wants to go, and the machine then tells one which lift number to take. On entering the lift there are no floor buttons, so one is taken to the destination input into the ‘lectern’ machine. If, like me, you missed the lectern machine, or just jumped into the first elevator door that opened, you’ll be taken up to a seemingly random floor, with no way of choosing to get to the desired floor, or back to the lobby.   I mastered things on my second attempt and made it up to the 28th floor restaurant, where I was shown to a table without a view.

Now, a key usp of Windows is the view across London to all compass points. It’s the thing they major on when one opens their website www.galvinatwindows.com and I’ve even used a photo of a view for my featured image on this site.  My table required me to look across another table and its diners towards the window, which was not at al comfortable for me or those diners, who probably thought I was staring them.  So clearly the tip to take away is to request a window table when booking, though I’m not sure if that would actually make any difference.

The dining room was busy and quite noisy, despite it being carpeted, and it seemed quite drab and very 1970s in style.  The menu du jour looked fine, with three courses for £37, but I decided to go ‘a la carte’ at £82 for three courses, even though it didn’t look hugely inspiring and the dessert course wasn’t displayed on the menu. I had a few problems understanding everything the east/central European waiters were saying to me, and had to ask three different people to repeat themselves.  I’m in no way xenophobic, and I appreciate that immigrant labour is essential to London’s restaurant scene, but in a “fine dining” establishment charging premium prices, I would like to be able to understand the staff.

The tables were nicely dressed with white linen, but there weren’t any ‘amuse bouches’ offered, which one might expect in a Michelin 1 star restaurant so first to the table came bread and butter. It was just OK, nothing notable 4/10

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My first course was ‘seared yellowfin’. There were three slices of tuna, with avocado puree, grapefruit, coriander and some orange roe. When I asked the waiter what the roe was he told me “it’s a kind of caviar”!! My follow-up question revealed it was sea trout roe. The dish was fresh and citrusy, the fish was fine, but not of Japanese quality, and I would have liked a bigger portion. 7/10

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With nothing to look at other than the small vase of unopened flowers next to my table, and no-one to talk to (I was dining alone), I became quite bored waiting for my main course. And after 25 minutes they brought me the wrong dish! So I stood up to take a little walk around the restaurant, to see if I could get to just a sliver of window away from the dining tables, to sample the views. The front of house team had seen me taking notes at the table, and very clearly had suddenly realised they were facing a bad review somewhere, and suddenly everyone’s attitude and level of service towards me shot up a few notches. The assistant restaurant manager invited me to a small outside balcony to take in the vistas. This was accessed through the kitchen, where three people, including the head chef, spoke to me and reassured me that my correct main course would be ready very soon.

Halibut with chilli squid and hispi cabbage was indeed served just ten minutes after the mistake dish. Things were looking up – the fish was well cooked, apart from the skin not being crispy, the squid was very tender and went with the hispi very well. This dish was very reminiscent of Asia, and it packed a decent chilli punch too. 8/10

I’d chosen a carafe (actually a half bottle, but served in a carafe) of 2016 Nelson Riesling, at £24. It was a good accompaniment to my dishes, and the polish sommelier gave me a coupe of extra glasses, as he warmed and displayed more friendliness, as the lunchtime rush subsided.

Dessert was a mango and passionfruit soufflé with a coconut sorbet. Presentation wasn’t the best, but the

soufflé was well-risen and full of flavour and had a nice crunchy crumb on top – it all tasted very nice 9/10

I finished off with a good-sized double espresso, which was strong, and came with four flavoured chocolates and some rose scented marshmallows, which weren’t very nice.

My overall score for Galvin @Windows is 7.5/10. Food was generally “fine” without anything really standing out. Service was a tale of two halves. But the disappointment of not having a table by the window will be my over-riding memory of this visit, and that’s what will make me reluctant to return.  The final bill, with water and service was £132.64, which is quite a lot for a lunch which didn’t really impress.