Skylon, South Bank Centre

Press Reviews (8)

• Matthew Norman (17th October 2007)
  5.25/10 points
  
  The river-view turns out to be the only truly impressive aspect of the restaurant in the relaunched Royal Festival Hall –“average” fare is the highlight of a formula that otherwise “doesn’t work at all”.
• Gills Coren (2nd July 2007)
  Meat/fish: 8/10 points; Cooking: 6/points; Value: 4/10 points; Water: 10/10 points; Score: 7/10 points
  
  Giles’s amusing review of the less expensive part of the new D&D London operation at the Royal Festival Hall is nicely summarised at the end. “They use great ingredients here… but the prices for these well-made brasserie standards are still pretty startling”.
• Terry Durack (2nd July 2007)
  13/20 points
  
  Mr Durack finds “delays between courses” and “a lack of spontaneity” in the food on offer at the fine dining section of the new D&D London restaurant at the Royal Festival Hall. A logistician, he surmises, “is needed as much as a chef”. He loves the room nonetheless, but prices are quite high, though he regrets that the place was not more “designed to be more of a palace for the people”.
• AA Gill (18th June 2007)
  1/5 stars
  
  The Royal Festival Hall, as Mr Gill observers, “now looks exactly as it used to, only slightly more so”. In that, he’s in accord with most of the press. Not so, however, in his particularly negative view of the new dining room. The spin of the review, however, rests on a fundamental mis-statement – or at least mis-implication – of some important facts. In particular, the Conran group may recently have changed its name (to D&D London) but it has not, as stated, “been bought by a consortium” – it is still majority-owned by Sir Tel, and the other shares are held by the long-established management (albeit now backed by third-party money). He then notes that Conran is still “credited as a design consultant” – as if the involvement was notional – and goes on to dismiss the design as “pastiche”. Skylon, however – designed by Conran & Partners – is as much Conran-designed as any other D&D / Conran restaurant of recent times, so it is rather difficult to see wherin any distinction might lie.
• Jenni Muir (18th June 2007)
  4/6 stars
  
  Time Out’s reviewer likes the “slightly Scandinavian air” of this “fresh-out-of-the-box restaurant, bar and grill in the Royal Festival Hall”. And so the praise goes on. Skylon is “an appealing weekday lunch destination as well as a pre-concert option”. At the bar, a non-alcoholic fruit cup “cleverly balanced the sweetness of lychee and mango juices with tart kiwi and crisp green cucumber”, and “well-judged flavour combinations were a hallmark of the meal, too”.
• Mark Palmer (12th June 2007)
  7/10 points
  
  A pretty good review of the new dining room at the Royal Festival Hall, where – in the finer-dining area, a “gloriously simple” menu is on offer, and people seem to be having “a rollicking good time”. Waits for service, however, can be “far longer than acceptable”.
• Fay Maschler (4th June 2007)
  4/5 stars
  
  Even by her standards, Mrs M seems to have reviewed the new dining room at the Festival Hall early in its life – her meal was
• Tracey Macleod (2nd February 2007)
  Rating: Food 3/5 stars; Ambience 3/5 stars; Service 3/5 stars
  
  With “good” food (“modern brasserie fare with some Scandinavian twists”) and “a magical view over the Thames”, this is “how eating out is meant to be, and sadly, all too often isn't”. Or at least that's the Indie's view on the cheap bit of this much-reviewed newcomer, which “is just as good from the cheap seats on the other side of the room”.