Fifth Floor Restaurant

I really like the service here. If the food is inconsistent in any way they acknowledge your patronage as a regular and immediately offer to fix– which has only happened once. Its quite pricey but you can be assured of only the best ingredients and their menu has some excellent healthy options which is not designed to cheat e.g. many salads will have one or two super foods and the rest will be filled with cheaper ‘fillers’…not so here– its all good. Again you pay for it but in my view– its worth it!

It’s cliché to say but I wish there was 0 stars or negative stars. The premise was enticing, conveniently located at Harvey Nichols after closing hours, so can easily get a seat right after HN closes. Decent priced food and open concept seating.
However service was non-​existent from our waitress, it was mainly the busboy doing all the work bringing us our food and filling our water.
The biggest issue was the 12 hour aftermath, my wife and I both got food poisoning, we narrowed it down to either the cheese board for two or the distilled water. Either or it wasn’t a fun night, basically our bodies finding anyway to discharge the stomach bug. This also led to feeling weak and feverish for the next 24 – 48 hours. This really sucked because we were on vacation and lost time, energy an appetite to explore other things.

4 stars for the minimalist décor, and great coffee (literally the best coffee you can get in London and this is not based on my opinion, it is a representative sample of three people)
the prices are very reasonable, and I liked my soup. my other two friends didn’t like their orders — according to them the taste has changed, something is not as it used to be !!
no my problem with this place was the very slow service
we waited for 30 minutes for the order to be taken, 30 more minutes to get the food
and 15 minutes after the meal trying to catch the eye of any one to ask for coffee !!
of course once we ordered coffee we asked for the bill with it– just in case we are going to wait for 30 more minutes to settle the tab!
another cause of annoyance was the reckless constant hitting and dropping of my handbag (It landed on the floor five times by 3 different waitresses without anyone noticing or saying sorry!!)
I looked at my bag to see if it is so big and is getting in the way of the busy waitresses, the answer is no– it is a tiny bag
I looked at my chair to see if I am sticking it way beyond the margin, and I found myself even more close to the table than any one of the guys sitting on tables next to me
is it so crammed and no one can move between the tables, the answer is no– there is plenty of space for people to walk and run!
I don’t have an explanation for that — but it didn’t make me enjoy the place as I should.

The 5^th Floor Café is the more casual dining option on its namesake floor of Harvey Nichols, but the food is quality, well thought-​out and well-​prepared.
A «Tempted» menu offers three courses for dinner at a tempting £14.50. My mother went for this option and I went a-​la-​carte like a little brat.
She started with grilled calamari served with arugula, sliced red pepper, and garlic chips in a light vinaigrette, and I got the parma ham and melon with courgette strips, red chard, and basil yogurt. They were both sizable and tasty appetizers.
For our entrees my mom got the chicken piccata, served with plenty of herbs on a bed of polenta, all covered in mushroom sauce. I would complain that the actual amount of mushrooms was scant, but it was a great dish, comforting but with plenty of flavor interest. I did favor my monkfish tail with eggplant, tomato, onion, and chickpeas with dabs of balsamic, but not by a mile. It was wonderful firm fish, and the accompaniments were spot-​on.
For dessert, my mom got the raspberry ripple cheesecake with chocolate sauce and I got the pineapple upside-​down sticky toffee pudding with butterscotch ice cream and pineapple coulis. Frankly, this was the bit of the menu that made me want to go a-​la-​carte, and there was a pretty notable spread between these two desserts. The cheesecake was by no means bad, but I definitely forgot about it a minute after I tried it. The pudding, on the other hand, was fantastic. The pineapple flavor actually took a back-​seat to the warm mouth-​filling flavor of toffee, but the balance was lovely and little crispy bits stylized the texture.
The café itself is very relaxing though it doesn’t have a ton of ambience. Still, the service is up-​to-​speed and with a bottle of wine and the solid food, you can get quite a nice meal here. I’d highly recommend the «Tempted» menu for value, but you can’t go too wrong either way.