TOM PARKER BOWLES has good old fashioned fun at American-style grand cafe The Park, in London's Bayswater By Tom Parker Bowles For You Magazine Published: 12:01, 27 July 2024 | Updated: 12:01, 27 July 2024 e-mail View comments It was hardly the most thrilling of prospects: a ground-floor restaurant in Park Modern, that brand spanking newbuild beside Hyde Park , where the penthouse is yours for a mere £60 million. In most hands, this would be little more than a glorified refectory, sustenance for the terminally rich, a gilded add-on to the concierge, cinema and 24-hour gym. But The Park stands resolutely alone, master of its own universe, the latest restaurant from Jeremy King.
Having brought Le Caprice back to life, in the new guise of Arlington, the man is on a roll. And his great skill as a restaurateur is not just in understanding restaurants, but understanding us. Cobb salad is just as it should be: salad for people who don’t like salads The room is broad, handsome and flooded with light, all clean lines and blond wood, vibrant Horst P Horst photos and good art.
Banquettes are clad in soft caramel leather, and service is equally deluxe. The all-day menu, which has an American accent but European heart, is a beauty: crab linguine alongside cheeseburgers; gotham shrimp cocktail – five plump beauties with a horseradish heavy, chilled tomato dip – cheek by jowl with summer minestrone. My first visit is dinner with my daughter, and we eat charred corn ribs, and a chicago hot dog with pickle relish, chopped white onion and gherkin.
The frank has snap, smoke and succulence. Cobb salad is exactly as it should be: chopped romaine lettuce, bacon, smoked chicken, avocado, gorgonzola and boiled egg. It’s salad for people who don’t like salads, exalted greenery and already something of a Park star.
I return for Saturday lunch, only to find brunch. God, I hate brunch, a trite, try-hard, johnny-come-lately of a meal. Here, though, the American drawl is reassuringly thick: latkes, French toast and steak with eggs.
Freddy, my son, battles merrily through a pile of thick, fluffy pancakes drenched in maple syrup and criss-crossed with crisp streaky bacon. There’s an immaculate chicken milanese, golden and glorious, variations on a schnitzel being somewhat of a King trademark, and a build-your-own ice cream sundae. On our first night, my daughter spots candyfloss on the table next door.
‘We bring it for your birthday,’ explains our waiter. Her face sinks. But two minutes later she has her own plate of pink confection: ‘We thought you might like to try it.
’ The Park really is that sort of place. Democratic, delightful and, most of all, good old-fashioned fun. Rating: ★★★★✩ About £25 per head.
The Park, Queensway, London W2; theparkrestaurant.com Share or comment on this article: TOM PARKER BOWLES has good old fashioned fun at American-style grand cafe The Park, in London's Bayswater e-mail Add comment More top stories.
