Northbank Restaurant & Bar

On first impressions as you walk in it’s a nice looking place with a great view, sat down at the bar and had a few cocktails which have to be the highlight of the place (great espresso martini and bloody mary).But that’s where everything got a bit shaky, only about three tables in the whole place, so there was no atmosphere but to be expected maybe on a Saturday night in this area. Looking through the menu its not all that interesting always a bit concerned when I think I might have the steak and chips, because if I can happily cook that at home so tend to avoid that option. I chose the cured salmon, and went for the pork belly with black pudding mash for main, and my partner went for steak, because nothing interested her. The cured salmon look lovely came with a toast, thought this is promising, but was over salted and the consistency of strips of cardboard, most unpleasant, ate the whole thing as I was hungry and hate making a scene, especially in such a quiet place. The mains came out and a empty plate came out for me, and a slate with all my food was placed by it, but here where I don’t get it I basically picked up all the items from the slate and reconstructed the whole dish on the plate and was left with a empty slate for the entire menu. Taken up space which was not really there so stuck it under the candle. The dish was tasty and nice and a fair old portion. The steak on the other hand was rather on the small side, bit to thin for a steak, but very well cooked and tasty it was good value but I rather pay a little more and get a proper steak. Desserts were ok nice rice pudding but never a fan of a cheese cake that biscuit and a dollop of cheese cake mix on it. As for the service except for the bar tender at the start there was none. Everything took ages, 15 minutes to flag down someone for the bill even though they were empty and generally did not look after you. Might come back to have a drink at the bar
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mark - View all reviews by this user
2 Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 5
Sunday, September 18, 2011

What an absolute gem of a restaurant.

I'd never been here before so decided that I'd take my girlfriend out one Friday night to a decent looking restaurant. I booked our table for 9.30pm and on arrival I was a little suspicious about the quietness of the venue. This suspicion soon faded.

We were warmly greeted by a very pleasant member of staff who had our booking already lined up on the computer and were shown to our table which offered a great view of the Tate Modern, Millennium Bridge and Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, as well as the new Shard tower at London Bridge.

A wonderful, cosy candlelit atmosphere, nice and quiet and very attentive staff who weren't rushed due to the quietness, but are probably no less attentive when it is busy. We both never had empty glasses, put it that way!

What can I say about the food? Well it was a surprise! Absolutely divine. However, those who are not used to intensely flavoured food, beware as the flavours will blow your head off.

To start I had grilled whole Tiger Prawns with Sweet Chilli and Watermelon. An absolute delight. The flavours worked incredibly well together. To follow I had seared Calves Liver with lentils and bacon. This is the dish that blew my head off. Firstly it was a large piece of liver cut into three pieces. Very tender, very meaty and full of flavour. What did it was the lentil sauce which was very strong in flavour. I complimented this with gilled wild mushrooms which were just as flavourful as the main dish.

It was that intense a flavour that I simply couldn't eat it all, otherwise I'd feel ill. I did feel very guilty leaving food on the plate as it was so good and a lot of effort went into it's preparation cooking.

Also recommended is the Ham Hock and Black Pudding terrine starter which was incredibly tender and not salty at all (I was expecting it to be as ham and black pudding tend to be salty). Also recommended is the steamed Sea Bream with Clams. Both these dishes my girlfriend had and not a bad word was said about either.

Sadly we just couldn't manage a desert as we had plenty to start with!

The wine was beautiful. Both the Rose and the Sauvignon Blanc.

The total for the two of us may have been in excess of £100, but it was worth every penny. I don't mind paying it if it's good. And this was more than good, it was outstanding!
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9 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 9
Friday, June 10, 2011

I think the enjoyment of a meal out for two largely depends on who you invited and what kind of day you’ve had. But when you have 42 friends for lunch, like I had last week, you’re totally in the hands of the restaurant’ staff. I can honestly say, Northbank far exceeded my expectations in every respect. The food was brilliant, as always, the sun was shining on their wonderful terrace (okay we were lucky there) and the staff were absolutely first rate. As host, I kept an occasionally eye out and saw how hard they worked – and always with a smile. These guys really know what they’re doing. Interesting reading a previous review with a derisory comment about Veronica, the owner’s bulldog. Poor Veronica. She adds charm to the place. I’ve never seen her in the dining room, but I’d agree at least that she gives the bar a (nice) cosy pub feel. That and the generous portions of pork-scratching accompanying each drink. Northbank is a happy mix of upmarket, quirky, stylish and friendly. Llinos, the head chef’s wife, by the way, makes unbelievably good cakes for events.
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Charles Christie-Webb
10 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Friday, May 13, 2011

If this restaurant was more of a pub type venue then I would perhaps understand seeing a dog roaming around by people's ankles whilst they're eating. However, this isn't a pub, it's a restaurant. We were sitting outside when the owners dog decided to go to for a poo near to us. I'm surprised the owners get away with this or think it's ok! I love dogs (I own 2 myself) and she is lovely - however this isn't the right place for a dog. Other than that, this venue is fine. The views are the best thing (food isn't up to that much/service is ok).
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2 Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 2 | Value for money 2
Thursday, May 12, 2011

I found the review below very strange as every time I have been it has been spot on. Well worth a visit for the food; views and indeed the service.
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Jamie Cotter-Craig
9 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 9
Wednesday, October 13, 2010

I wouldn’t recommend this restaurant to anyone. The service was terrible -- we were brought the wrong wine but the waitress tried to cover it up by lying and saying that it was what we had ordered, there were dogs running around diners and the food was overpriced and overcooked.

My boyfriend and I dined at Northbank at 6.30pm on a Monday night. The evening started off badly and got worse. When I arrived there was a bulldog asleep in the entrance, which I had to step around to enter. I was a little surprised as it seemed like quite a 'posh' restaurant and the presence of the dog seemed a bit unhygienic and wasn't a great first impression. The waitress couldn't find my booking and told me it must have been booked for different night, but I could see my booking on the screen and so once I pointed that out she seated me outside.

The outdoor terrace is lovely with a view across the river to the Tate Modern, but this is probably the only good thing about the restaurant. As we were celebrating some good news I ordered a bottle of Prosecco (£30). The same waitress bought over a bottle of bubbly wrapped in a white cloth and poured it for us, it didn't look like the wine I had ordered and so I specifically asked her, 'Is that the Prosecco?' to which she replied, 'Yes, it's the Prosecco. It's very refreshing'. Once she had left I unwrapped the bottle to find we had been actually been given a bottle of Cava. After unsuccessfully trying to get her attention I walked over to her and pointed out that we had not been given Prosecco but Cava, and that it wasn't what we ordered, and she replied straight away (i.e. without checking with anyone so she knew all along) that they were unable to source any Prosecco from their supplier and so instead we had been given Cava. She said that it was of the same quality (and the same price) but that we didn’t have to drink the Cava if we didn’t want. I was annoyed that I had been lied to in the first place when I asked that if it was Prosecco and that I had been given something which I didn’t order. Did they think I wouldn’t notice? And why didn’t she mention the issue with the supplier when I had first ordered it? I didn’t want to make a ‘big deal’ out of it so we agreed to drink it.

The terrace became more busy and the bulldog reappeared as did a large labradoodle which belonged to customer. I don’t mind dogs in pubs, I like dogs, but not in a restaurant and certainly not roaming around from table to table and sniffing around my ankles. If the owners want a pub atmosphere then they should charge pub prices. When the labradoodle started sniffing the bread basket we asked to be moved inside.

Inside has nice décor and we had a really nice blonde waitress (with maybe an antipodean accent?) that was much more friendly and chatty. The menu is not the same as the one online. The starters were nice, the mains were poor to average. I ordered trout with a fennel salad and samphire. The trout was well cooked but the portions were tiny, I think I had four maybe five sprigs of 4cm long samphire. My boyfriend ordered the rib eye with béarnaise sauce, which for £18.50 you’d like to think would be cooked properly. Instead it was medium possibly medium-well not medium rare, and the béarnaise sauce had split. We asked for the bill before finishing our mains (my boyfriend didn’t finish his) and didn’t finish our wine. I explained to the blonde waitress why we had not been happy with our meal and asked them to take the service charge off the bill so in the end we paid £115. It was meant to be a special night but instead we just wanted to cut our losses and go home. I have never been so disappointed with a restaurant and on the walk back to London Bridge I saw so many other places which would have been friendlier, cheaper, dog free and would have served better food! I wouldn’t recommend this restaurant to anyone.
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1 Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 2
Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Excellent location and interesting way of presenting food. BUT... why rip off diners £15 for two rum and cokes?

Shame... spoils what could be a good restaurant.
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6 Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 3
Tuesday, October 13, 2009

I've been going to Northbank for ages and find the consistently high standards of food, service and ambiance a triumph! Although it's full of regulars, the staff are so welcoming and the service is just right. Luckily we grabbed a table on the terrace (surrounded by lavender) for pre dinner drinks. The place was packed and the restaurant was amazing, not to mention the music.

This place is cool so please check it out, they deserve it!
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CBale - View all reviews by this user
10 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 9
Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Five of us went here last week for my mum's birthday and were unimpressed. Their website has the a la carte menu, 2 set menus (at £26.50 and £29.50 for 3 courses) and a 2 courses for £10 menu. When we arrived, however, there was just the a la carte and the 2 for £10 menus. The waitress denied that any other menus had ever existed - management need to either remove them from the website, or ensure that they are actually made available to customers (and staff).

Service was slow and haphazard (we were left waiting for ages for our wine to arrive), and the food was no better than you'd get in a gastropub - perfectly adequate, but nothing special and not what you expect from an upmarket restaurant.

I got the impression that Northbank are relying on their impressive riverside location rather than concentrating on good food or service. We all left distinctly underwhelmed and won't be going back.
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Sarah
5 Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 4
Monday, August 10, 2009

Food is mediocre. While service this Sunday 8th March was excellent, there was a dog seated and served at one of the tables. We were told it belonged to the owner. don't care who it belonged to but the place needs to be closed down.
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munoo
6 Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 5
Monday, March 09, 2009