Where to eat London: The Lockhart
Saturday night in swinging London was a chance to catch up with old friends Madame Lapine and Chiot Lapinot. All present were card-carrying foodies but there were some dietary issues at play. One thing we could agree on was fried chicken.
Greedy Girl admits she didn’t spy a KFC in London (a bit of a surprise, given they were everywhere in St Petersburg) so no danger of having to resort to getting the chicken fix there. We headed to Marylebone and The Lockhart.
The chef here is from Mississippi y’all, so we were very much looking forward to a feed of southern fried chicken. Greedy Girl had read the menu online before booking but was a little dismayed to find the restaurant had changed its approach slightly in the weeks between reservation and attendance. In the main dining room upstairs, there seemed to be more experimental dishes. The ol’ southern favourites were still available in the bar downstairs. They seriously need to update their website.
So why didn’t we immediately head down the staircase? Two reasons. One: London doesn’t do air-conditioning all that well. It was a warm, slightly sticky night and the temperature was just bearable in the main dining room thanks to a portable unit blowing out a bit of cool air. Downstairs, it was baking. Two: the waiter told us he could render the bar snacks from the downstairs menu as main courses. All good. We opened a bottle of merlot from Sonoma in the Napa Valley and settled in.
This is good sharing food; we ordered a number of snacks to start, followed by main courses. Indeed, we took all the snacks on the menu – red leicester cheese straws, devilled eggs, pickled shrimp (pictured at the top of this post), summer sausage and corn bread. All were quite tasty and worked well with the wine. The cheese straws were crunchy and tangy (if rather larger than ‘straws’) and the shrimp was delicious. We expected more of a flavour hit from the eggs. The corn bread, which the menu advertised was baked to order, arrived at the table in a cast-iron pan, merrily bubbling away in a pool of very hot syrup. This was particularly yummy and we happily carved slices from that all evening.
Devilled eggs
Red Leicester cheese straws
Summer sausage
Corn bread, merrily bubbling …
Next up were our mains. Crispy southern fried chicken, ‘Jacob’s ladder’ beef short ribs, pulled pork sandwiches and a side dish of collard greens. The fried chicken was perfectly nice but one large piece was plenty. The short rib was quite soft but flavours really didn’t develop, while the pulled pork was a problem. We ordered two of those to share (one per couple) and when Greedy Girl bit into the soft roll with lashings of mustard, she wanted to snaffle the lot. Sharing. Sigh. Such are the demands of love …
Madame Lapine enjoyed the greens although Greedy Girl isn’t a huge fan.
Southern fried chicken
Beef short rib
Pulled pork sandwich
Collard greens
And we were done; we decided to decamp across the road to the winebar to continue our evening.
The restaurant is a perfectly pleasant place to sit; the dining room is light, bright and furnished nicely. The food was also perfectly edible, if not at the same level as Greedy Girl and gluttonous husband experienced at Le Bon Ton. Still, if you’re craving a southern US food fix in the heart of London, you could do worse.
The Lockhart
22-24 Seymour Place, London W1
lockhartlondon.com
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