Bread Street Kitchen

Address: 10 Bread Street, London, EC4M 9AJ, United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0)20 3030 4050
Website: view Bread Street Kitchen ’s website
Door: Open door
Style: Restaurant bar
Food: Set menu

Review

We first visited Bread Street Kitchen when it launched and despite the opulent setting and an offering of two bars, the cocktails were below standard. Happily things are now very different.

Entering this venue on the ground floor you are immediately faced with a bar and lounge area. It's a small space intended for daytime coffees and a relaxed drink. It's also rather dull, the whole point of coming to drink in a celebrity's restaurant is to observe the food and general dining floor hustle and bustle. So by-pass this bar immediately and head up the stairs.

The restaurant bar is located at the end of the main dining area, it's a long wooden bar with seating for a dozen or so and limited standing space. Décor upstairs is less of the red velvet curtains you are greeted with downstairs and more of a vast, open-planned gentlemen's club. There are green leather couches, wooden surfaces, warm lighting and floor length windows.

But what we're really here for is the cocktail menu. Divided into 'eye-openers' - classic drinks with an updated name - 'bartender's choice' and 'on loan' - great modern cocktails from around the globe - the menu is imaginative and current.

We tried a Remember the Maine, which was a rested drink using 
Rittenhouse Bottled in Bond Rye, Martini Rosso, Cherry Heering and Pastis Henri Bardouin, and a Trinidad Sour, one of the on loan drinks, originally created by Giuseppe Gonzales in 2009, using Angostura Bitters as the base spirit, Rittenhouse Bottled in Bond Rye,
 Homemade Orgeat and fresh lemon juice.


The bartender handled the complexity of the Trinidad Sour with expertise, first having recommended it, and we were thoroughly impressed with the skills behind the bar. Both drinks were well-balanced and served with care. And seeing as it's a Gordon Ramsay restaurant it seemed rude not to at least have a nibble and the bar dishes were just as excellent as the drinks.

Overall the modern feel of the menu was a pleasure to behold, a restaurant were keeping the bar as current and edgy as the kitchen is always a delight to find. Staff were friendly and knowledgeable and this venue has come on in leaps and bounds since our last visit.