Review of 'The Folly'

This new bar/restaurant is located right around the corner from Monument in the heart of the city. It is immediately attractive with the spacious, modern, interior. Unpretentious the space invites you to sit and enjoy spending time talking with your companions.

We arrived on their first Saturday which was much busier than they expected with the Lord Mayor's Show on at the same time…There were no tables available so we sat at the end of one of the long, high tables surrounded by stools in the bar area. Most tables were numbered but we could not find one for us which would come back to haunt us…The menu is wonderful with loads of “sharing” dishes including flatbreads (£7.95 to £10.95), various starters (£5.25 to £8.95), and “sharing boards” (£9.95 to £34.95 for the deluxe seafood board containing fresh shellfish). Of course, they also have individual dishes forming the “mains” (£8.25 to £18.95 for the “Côte de boeuf”) that include sandwiches and burgers (£5.95 to £8.25), salads (£8.25 to £9.95) and general mains consisting of typical pub dishes including “Chargrilled London pork sausages, mashed potatoes & red onion gravy” (£8.95), “Chicken pot pie” (£8.95) and “Fresh market fish & scampi fried in a basket w/ chips” (£9.95). Puddings (£4.95 to £6.95) are wonderfully simple. Everything is served on sylish wooden slabs rather than plates. All of the food delivered to the tables around us looked absolutely wonderful - Fresh and beautiful.

As it was lunch, we kept our choices quite simple - We shared a starter of “Crispy squid w/ ginger, pink peppercorns & citrus mayo” (£5.95) then I had the “Deli Stack” (“Ham, turkey, salami, lettuce, tomato & onions on fresh focaccia w/mustard & mayo”, £6.25) and my companion had the “Chicken Club” (“Chargrilled chicken, mayo, tomato, bacon & salad leaves w/chilli jam”, £5.95). The gentleman taking our order at the bar was obviously still getting the hang of the system and it took about 10 minutes for him to do what he needed to do (particularly trying to figure out the table number which, as I said, we did not have…).

Eventually our starter walked by to another table so with some furious arm waving it was redirected to our table. The squid was lovely with light, though greasy, tender squid with lovely, though very mild, mayo…missing any sign of peppercorns. They were not missed. Lovely.

Twenty minutes later and our sandwichs had not arrived so we flagged down the maitre d' who apologised and explained about their just opening – offering us free drinks while she went to re-place our order with the chicken. Anxiously looking at our watches (we had a tour we were due to attend…) we eventually received the sandwichs which were a sight to behold and were not short-sold by the lack of any “extras” (that the staff tried to sell us). My mountainous “Deli Stack” contained only two meats, chicken and a salami of some kind but was quite pleasant but not exactly a massive amount of taste – A huge, rather dense, piece of foccacia on the top and bottom made this almost too large to fit in the mouth. My companion had the same problem with her “Chicken Club” though the bacon was superb.

A bit of a problem also came up in the free drink my companion received – In a dirty glass. If we were not in a hurry we would have had a few things to say about this…Here's hoping they get rid of some of these “glitches”.

All very tasty…Shame we had to run as we would have loved to sit around, enjoying the atmosphere and trying some of the wonderful looking desserts (the “Homemade chocolate brownie served warm w/vanilla ice cream” looked amazing!). We shall come back when we have more time.

Rating: “Really good but I have some issues”

Review Date: 2010-11-13


Cuisine: Modern European

Address: 41 Gracechurch Street, London, ENGLAND EC3V 0BT

Public Transport: TUBE Monument

Location: London (England) - Bank

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Telephone: +44 (0) 845 468 0102

URL: http://www.thefollybar.co.uk/