Thames Restaurants and Bars
Northbank Restaurant Feature in St. Paul's

Northbank Restaurant Feature

North Bank restaurant, St Paul’s -
Review by  Paul Stephens for The River Thames Guide Ltd 2010

In a tweet- “Excellent food and service with fabulous views of the South Bank -£40 per person per head.”

Run by Mark Wilson (from Devon) and owned by Christian Butler from Cornwall, an unlikely combination I am told, North Bank has successfully pulled of the trick of having a fabulous City and Thames location whilst serving excellent food and wines within a range of affordable prices. Over the last 2 years, this energetic, lively duo have introduced a large neighbourhood to a range of memorable daily dishes, based on fresh West country fish, meat and veg where possible and very much a hands on management style with close attention to the small detail.

The night I ate there it was a bitterly cold and having arrived at Black Friars by Thames commuter service, I realised I had misjudged where the restaurant was. But it was only a short walk along a well lit towpath, towards the Millennium Bridge and reassuringly there were plenty of passing walkers and joggers.

We arrived on time to a very busy bar and a warm, genuinely, friendly welcome, typically West Country no doubt and worth gold to any restaurant in a recession.  Shown to our booth with a fabulous view over the Thames we were soon at ease helped by slightly subdued lighting, fresh, modern and spacious table settings by  window or in the raised booths.'

Our order was taken and served by fast, friendly serving staff with obvious interest and knowledge of the food. No hovering over the customers and no skulking in corners to avoid the gaze from the booths.
For my starter I settled on the truffled, split pea soup to be followed by the braised Oxtail with the pea and mint risotto and shaved parmesan. My partner chose the Dartmouth smoked trout with chives and horse radish. To be truthful, my starter was good made rather interesting by the poached hen’s egg, but my partner’s smoked trout was a triumph. That flavour beat the fins off anything I have eaten for a long time. It just proves the age old rule that great food starts with the best ingredients.


My Oxtail dish put me ahead again in our little contest of who chooses the best dish of the night .It was memorable, made so by the excellent, slow cooked meat and a very clever red wine jus that I believe takes light year’s to produce, plus a very good Bordeaux worthy of more than its £35 price tag (Cotes de Bourg from Mark Hellyar’s winery).

Sweets were every bit as varied and good with a selection of cheese (west country very prominent of course), old fashioned but timeless favourites like lemon curd (superbly rich , balanced and enhanced with the fruit compote), rice pudding and cheese cakes with chef’ Peter Woods very particular style of presentation. But risking the wrath of that Savoy trained chef, I would have liked that delicious rice pudding served with those amazing brown, burned  bits around the edges that grandmother’s all day cooking efforts would have achieved!.

We took our time to order and eat, leaving around 1030. The two of us rarely take 3 hours to eat but felt all the better for doing so. Our 3 course meal for two, with wines, coffee and good fresh mint teas came to just under £45 per head including 12.5% service charge. Well worth booking a table.

Copyright The River Thames Guide Ltd -2010