Much like a bee container, Sea Containers is also a hive of activity.
Only it’s a slick restaurant tucked into a boutique hotel on the Southbank, overlooking the romantic, sprawling vista of St. Paul’s and the London skyline.
Housed in the eponymous riverside building (now the Sea Containers London Hotel), it’s a globe-trotting restaurant whose design draws inspiration from the “Golden Age of transatlantic travel”. And no, that’s not Phileas Fogg (although there’s a place for that too), but more ‘retro cruise’, as referenced by Tom Dixon’s sleek copper walls, and mustard and burgundy leather seating. And pretty fortuitously, there’s a ready-made river right outside too, which you can enjoy from the floor-length windows or al fresco on the sizeable terrace.
So you can expect delicately prepared dishes like agnolotti pasta with wild mushrooms and ‘cep dust’; pan-seared salmon with cockles and mussel chowder; slow-cooked beef short ribs with espresso sauce to share; and ceviche tacos with seabass and coriander salsa.
And if you’re wondering what that is in the middle of the room, it’s merely a horseshoe-shaped, 18-seater, stainless steel bar that reflects both the Atlantic eatery theme, and, more literally, the hefty yellow submarine suspended above it.
It’s here that they whip up faultlessly executed cocktails – like the Shaddock Daisy with tequila, Aperol, agave syrup, Tabasco and Worcestershire sauce – besides stocking an immense number of spirits and high-end wines available by the glass.
Because if you’re dining like you’re at sea, well, you may as well drink like a fish.
NOTE: Sea Containers is open daily from 6.30am (7am weekends) to 11pm, with bottomless brunch on weekends. You can book a table on their website HERE. You might also like to know that the exceptional cocktail bar Lyaness is just across the lobby…
Sea Containers | Sea Containers London, 20 Upper Ground, SE1 9PD
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Carpe Diem!