We’ve just returned from our visit to The Yellow House Bar & Kitchen in Surrey Quays, South London (close to Bermondsey and Tower Bridge), ten minutes walk from Canada Water tube station across the gigantic car park. We typically would not have ventured so far off the beaten track (the only other reasons why we get out at Canada Water tube station is to visit Café East or to go shopping for travel and sports gear at the gigantic Decathlon super-store. We don’t mind the area, but Bermondsey, Tower Bridge, and London Bridge/Borough Market areas simply feel much more appealing and there are a few rough social housing estates not too far away from the many newly-built, pleasant residential buildings.
What brought us here then? The Barbarians and two of our friends were invited to check out an escape room experience nearby and felt like we should probably have some food before we would push our minds to the extreme (very energy-consuming). The reviews on Tripadvisor (roughly #1,000 out of 20,000 London restaurants) were good, with a Certificate of Excellence, an OpenTable and a TimeOut award thrown on top.
According to their website, they only source the freshest ingredients, seasonal produce, and make all their stocks, sauces (incl. their ketchup), fresh pastas, breads, cakes, puddings, and ice creams on their premises (can’t comment on this until I’ve tried a few more dishes, but sounds amazing, many Michelin-starred places do not go this far; the fabulous, two-starred Lafleur, for example, our post here, source their bread from somewhere else, which is fine, of course).
We were seated in the bar area. Ms B ordered a wood-fired oven ‘Four Seasons’ pizza with ham, mushrooms, artichoke hearts, black olives & mozzarella (£13.95), my mind was made up as soon as I spotted the onglet steak (220g for £14.95) on the menu.
The dishes took a little while to arrive, but when they did, we were very impressed. The pizza was full of flavours, with the ingredients layered generously on the base. The onglet, which is easy to get wrong, was prepared nicely and went well with the brandy sauce. The grass-fed, dry-aged meat is sourced from Scottish butcher Donald Russell, who hold a Royal Warrant, can’t go wrong with that. Our friends were pleased with their dishes too.
They could probably improve on the interior decor and atmosphere and on the outdoor seating areas, but we intend to visit again, perhaps do a stopover on the way home from work at Canary Wharf to West London. 4.5 out of 5 in our book.
Looking for more restaurant reviews, check out Galvin at the Athenaeum, Rowley’s, Fera, or Aquavit.
Or seeking some inspiration for your next trip? Try London Helicopter, our posts about the Cotswolds or about Porto.
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