Harvey Nichols First Floor Restaurant

I’ve eaten here in the past, on and off. Cocktails in the bar always tempted us in, but the restaurant had gotten a little tired. They’ve a new manageress so we decided to see if things had improved. Since it was a Tuesday, they’d cocktails in the bar for € 6, so we couldn’t pass those up. Nothing wrong with the cocktails.
There were lots of free tables in the restaurant, and service was efficient. We ordered from their value menu — 2 courses for € 25. I had the ham hock terrine. I’ve had it in the past and it was excellent. This time however, it was awful. It was chilled and resembled a thick slice of Spam. Only drier in texture. It resembled nothing like what a ham hock terrine should look and taste like. The pickles were fine. My companions had the Braised Port Belly, which they said was delicious, and the Smoked Duck Salad, where for some reason the figs were not poached but tasted pickled. Avoiding the figs, the rest of the dish was pleasant.
For mains, I had the Pan Fried Hake with Pea, Bacon, Crayfish and Curry. I obviously had the knack of ordering the most unpleasant dishes because this was worse than the starter. The Hake arrived sitting on a green paste with embedded crayfish. The Hake was overdone, and the green paste (presumably the Pea portion of the dish) tasted acidic. No taste of curry. I picked at the dish and left it mostly untouched. The waiting staff pretended not to notice, and even when clearing the dish, didn’t enquire. They probably knew…
My companions had the confit duck leg which was OK, and the Roast Chicken which was «nice».
It was worth giving it a try again, but the new manageress has her work cut out on a number of fronts. I won’t be back for a while. There’s too many better places to eat.

This is fine dining in a fine restaurant. I was completely surprised — having been lured in after Friday night shopping by their special offer of two courses for EU21. First there were the delicious breads, then the sampler before the starter. This was a single spicy prawn with some garnish — it doesn’t sound spectacular — but it was. Then the very tasy starters and then we had the cod as a main course accompanied by an exceptional white wine — Altosur Torrentes ’08 at EU27 per bottle.
We skipped the dessert, however we received complementary petit fours.
There’s a «discretionary» 12.5% service charge added to the bill. We loved the service and were happy to pay.
Recommended for a special occasion

There are two ways at looking at this place;
1. A restaurant that places a wee bit too much emphasis on pomp and ceremony (which is in itself is a very out-​moded way for any such establishment to behave). You get the impression that they are trying to keep the rif-​raff out, judging by the many empty tables when we were there it was working (and yet I got in… go figure…)
The upshot of the above is that you have a very friendly, attentive and very professional staff, this is above all else in my book the makings of a great dining experience and sure enough it wasn’t bad.
Truth be told I would say the professionalism of the staff was probably the highlight of the meal — seconded by that first bite of my mains — a potted chicken dish… after the first bite the meal went downhill a bit– I think I got the best mouthfull first!
My starter was the chicken liver parfait — a very filling starter and tasty but perhaps a little too big as starters go, not a huge complaint by any measure and I would have it again. We both had the same mains — the potted chicken on a bean and pickled onion mix — the chicken as I said was very tasty but I really am not sure about the bean mix under it… actually I am sure, it wasn’t great. My wife didn’t agree, she said it was nice but an acquired taste. We agreed to differ and put the pistols down.
2 (or the other way of looking at the restaurant): a wee oasis of civilisation among a jungle of fast food outlets and shiny track suites. The restaurant doesn’t live up to the expectations or pretentions but it is damn good none the less and I’ll definitely be back. I have awarded it 4 out of 5 because we can’t award halves, 3.5 would be closer to the mark.