Hawksmoor Borough — Restaurant in London

We booked dinner for a Sunday evening on a friend recommendation. The place is very close to London Bridge, if you go down the stairs at the (Glaziers hall side) just after the Barrowboy and the Banker pub then its a very short walk to the restaurant across the back of Borough Market. If you walk along the high street its a much longer walk. We got there on time for our booking, there are some stairs leading up to reception where you can leave you coats if you want and the reception confirmed that out table was ready and showed us to the table. Luckily we got a corner table for two, as the tables are quite small I preferred that to the ones in the middle of the row. Our waiter was helpful in finding out the diary content on the menu and telling us what to expect from each dish. The gravy has traces of dairy in it, and the sausages also have traces of dairy in it. We ordered two cocktails, I have to say the no-alcohol cocktail menu is very limited, but we were assured that if they have the ingredients they will make off menu items too, which I appreciated. I ended up ordering the lychee martini from the menu at the end which turned out to be the best part of the meal. Unfortunately. As we wanted to try the meats selection we opted for the mix grill for two. We waiting approx. 30mins for the food, but I appreciate that it was a lot of meat to prep so didn't worry about it until it all arrived. Firstly a different waiter brought us the food, put everything to the table and then said 'anything else?', which I thought was odd, unnecessary and borderline impolite but we ran with it. Then I started with the pork bacon, which was so salty that even having lot of salad and water with it didn't help, eventually I have up on it as my lips started swelling from the sheer amount of slat! Then we moved onto other meats, the lamb sausages were also so salty that neither of us finished it (there are 2 sausages on the mixed grill). The bone marrow as also very salty but just about borderline edible, I wanted some sourdough toast that I would have loved to have with the marrow but that wasn't an option, so you just have the marrow with the meats, meh... The lamb chops were ok, if a bit flavourless. The beef fillet was medium rare (came dark pink which was great), this was the only thing on the tablet that made the mark. Overall the meats were not warm enough I think they might not timed them well in the kitchen and the cast iron plates were also not warm enough to keep the meats warm while we were eating, but the most disappointing was that most meats where inedible level salty. The triple cooked fries also arrived lukewarm and smothered in fat, half of them were overcooked to too hard. We asked for catchup for the chips which was another 10mins wait. The green leaf salad had good dressing (lemony) but it was genuinely just a few leaves in a small pot. We tried our best to eat but I am sorry to say we left most behind (except the beef) and were very disappointed overall. We did give the feedback on the food to the waiter but he didn't have much to say apart from sorry. I assured him the beef was good, trying to not make a big deal of it all. When we paid we had to pay to a different person. So for the 6 interactions (arrival, order, getting the food, getting the catchup, clearing plates, paying) we had 5 different members of staff, not sure why is that a thing. Ambiance overall is like a high end gastro pub. They do not have any outside space. I very much doubt that we...

4/10 would not recommend and would not return.

FOOD - average. Ordered the prime rib (850g) which I understand is a fatterier cut of meat. However, the ENTIRE cut minus 2 pieces were straight fat (£114). The chef would clearly be able to see all the fat as it is served to the table pre-cut. The flavor from the 2 pieces that weren’t fat was pretty decent. But for the price, completely unacceptable with all the fat. I would not order this particular cut again. The grilled mushrooms were good.

COCKTAILS - average. Fancy names but standard flavor. Ordered the Fuller Old Fashioned and the Ultimate Old Fashioned, both were just ok. They were served with a single/large ice cube which is preferable but the overall taste didn’t call for me to order a second round.

ATMOSPHERE - busy, noisy, and family oriented. Not “first date vibes”.

SERVICE - average and friendly. Nothing over the top which I prefer. Our server answered our questions regarding some of the dishes, and explained the timing it would take for the steak to be prepared. No issue with the service.

PRICE - overpriced and hidden fees. A $1.00 “Charity Fee” is added to the bill. Unfortunately I didn’t see this until the next day when I was reviewing my photos as I happen to take a photo of this particular bill. At no point in time did the server or other staff inform us of the charge or ask if we wanted to donate. The answer is No, because (restaurants, retailers, etc.) use this as a tax write-off. I will donate directly to a charity of my choice if I want to donate. I understand it’s $1.00 but it’s the principle of the matter.

An “Optional Service” fee of 12.5% was included on the bill. Normally I would have requested this to be removed as I remain consistent in the “no tipping” culture from living in Italy for many years and there was nothing special about the service or restaurant in my opinion. However, our server experienced a bad fall from the tables next to us because they spilled a bottle of wine so we ended up not seeing her again, and there was a lot going on around us so we were just ready to go at that point.

Overall - it’s a no for me and can find better. We left...

Hawksmoor Borough Market Sunday 8th March 2020

A weekend visit to London, an early celebration for Dariusdave’s big 70. Saturday night Ball & Boe at O2 Sunday lunch at Hawksmoor Borough Market. Just managed to beat Covid 19 shut down and for over 70s lockdown!!!

Oh, how I love daughter or daughters taking Dariusdave to this epicurean emporium. Somehow the wood panelling reminds me of an Edwardian Gentleman’s Club. Despite being on NHS list for a replacement knee, climbing the stairs breathing in smells of roast beef dissolves ant pain. There is always a friendly greeting and we are taken to our table more as old friends than customers.

Never any doubt what we will choose on a Sunday “Roast Beef with all the trimmings” and a cauliflower cheese shared. Hope the photos work just look at that plate dry aged real pink beef, hand crafted Yorkshire pudding, crisp well-seasoned roast spuds, delightful firm green cabbage, garden carrots, a roast garlic bulb. Having Borough Market across the road may help in sourcing fresh veggies but it takes Master Chefs to correctly cook and present these delights.

Then the trimmings look at photos two gravy jugs each with offer for seconds! A bowl of hot horse radish, yes real tasty hot coarse texture horse radish. My mouth waters sat at computer dreaming of that hot horse radish. Finally, the cauliflower cheese, Dariusdave’s family are West Country folk brought up on Cornish Cauli. But look at the various browns on top. Our waiter mentioned that the cheese sauce is created from many cheeses hence colour and sticky texture just as Mother made it 60+ years ago.

One photo portrays both sparkling water and red wine. The wine list is Encyclopaedic, even if a modest lotto win would help choice! Yet again Hawksmoor has come up trumps, this must be the finest Sunday lunch south of the Thames. Now Hawksmoor has re-opened and over 70s “house arrest” is ending can’t wait to...