Mr A and I had booked a short UK staycation for the beginning of June ’21, when UK had begun to relax some covid restrictions, including indoor dining.  A week or so before our trip I read that Jason Atherton was opening another restaurant, Harrods Social, inside the famous Harrods department store, so, as a fan of chef Atherton’s cuisine, I booked a table for lunch.   Most of Harrods’ food outlets are on the store’s ground floor, next to their incredible food halls, but Harrods Social is on the 4th floor.  It was always my intention to have just a light lunch because we had a reservation at a 3 Michelin star restaurant for dinner that evening. I wanted this lunch and review to act as a comparison to the light lunch we’d had the previous day in Harvey Nichols department store.

We arrived for our reservation to find only a couple of tables occupied or reserved, so there seems to be a good chance for ‘walk-ups’ to get a table inside the airy and calm restaurant (so calm after the bustle of the rest of the store!).  Looking at the menu I was immediately pleased to see a good range of fresh-sounding plates, several of which I could have chosen to have. This was such a contrast to (and improvement upon) the day before at Harvey Nichols.

After placing our order we enjoyed a delicious and refreshing house cocktail called “Dill or no dill” which had a cucumber and gin base, and cost £15 each.

To start I had Devon crab with nashi pear, lemon gel and coriander.  This was a delicious and light dish, perfect for a warm summer’s day, packed with flavour, especially from the brown crab stock jelly which overlaid the white meat. 9/10

Mr A started with a seared tuna salad, which he reported as being very good too.

We both chose a Caesar salad for our main course, which had pieces of very tender charred cob chicken breast, white anchovies, grated parmesan and sourdough melba toast.  This was another tasty, fresh and light dish which was perfect for a summer’s day, and which wouldn’t fill me up before my dinner. 9/10

I’ve always enjoyed my food at the Jason Atherton restaurants I’ve been to; a record which continues after this lunch. The menu is packed with lunchtime ‘favourites’, the produce is fresh and healthy, and it’s all delivered with great skill by the small kitchen brigade.  I think the team has done a great job in delivering fine dining within a department store setting, and I can definitively report that everything here is so much better than at Harvey Nichols. So When you’re shopping in Knightsbridge you know where to go for lunch! 9/10

My total bill, including cocktails, wine, water and coffees was £177.10