The Guardian
Grace Dent braved a subversive, immersive and rowdy Swedish take on multi-course fine dining that she felt was targeted at “cash-rich, experience-hungry twentysomethings”. It certainly wasn’t for her, and she signed off with: “It’s only rock’n’roll, and I don’t like it.”
The 20 courses arrived in quick succession, with little in the way of conventional cutlery or crockery, and the jokes in each one (starting with “bumps” of caviar served like “cocaine at a grotty afterparty”) were not so much playful as “big, clumsy sledgehammer thwacks”. And despite the pricey ingredients (foie gras, lobster, truffle and so on), “nothing tasted of much… At the end, they served a cube of what could have been Hartley’s jelly.”
“Some might say it’s not about the food, it’s about the vibe. But at £500 (for two with a non-alcoholic drinks pairing) it really should be about the food, too, not just painting oysters green and serving unseasoned tofu nuggets with damp breadcrumbs on a box lid and thinking you’re Escoffier in Vivienne Westwood tartan pants.”
Grace Dent - 2025-10-12Daily Mail
A couple of weeks after Grace Dent savaged this new London outpost from a group of Swedish art/food pranksters for “trendified” food that “tasted of nothing much”, a pair of rival reviewers have now offered a more positive view – led by the roué-esque Tom Parker Bowles, who declared: “Part restaurant, part rave (minus the dancing), Punk Royale is a headily intoxicating mix of glee and gastronomy, hedonism and haute cuisine, camp, vaudeville and caviar.”
The immersive concept, he said, “may not be to all tastes (first dates and maiden aunts beware)” (ouch! to that, Grace) – but “I haven’t had so much fun for years”: “their tongue is wedged so firmly in cheek, the service so exuberant, the atmosphere so giddily voluptuous that one cannot help but fall in love. More surprising still, the food is superb.”
Tom Parker Bowles - 2025-11-02The Times
A couple of weeks after Grace Dent savaged this new London outpost from a group of Swedish art/food pranksters for “trendified” food that “tasted of nothing much”, a pair of rival reviewers have now offered a more positive view – led by the roué-esque Tom Parker Bowles, who declared: “Part restaurant, part rave (minus the dancing), Punk Royale is a headily intoxicating mix of glee and gastronomy, hedonism and haute cuisine, camp, vaudeville and caviar.”
The immersive concept, he said, “may not be to all tastes (first dates and maiden aunts beware)” (ouch! to that, Grace) – but “I haven’t had so much fun for years”: “their tongue is wedged so firmly in cheek, the service so exuberant, the atmosphere so giddily voluptuous that one cannot help but fall in love. More surprising still, the food is superb.”
Charlotte Ivers - 2025-11-02
