B A R B I C A N L I F E
Dining at the Shard The views, the views....
The editor visits all three new restaurants in the Shard, all of which offer fantastic views over the City – and some pretty decent food too.
why pay around £25 just for the view from the top when you can actually eat halfway up for little more than that – at least at lunchtimes and breakfast – with an almost equally amazing outlook. By the end of the year, the Shangri
La hotel in the Shard is due to open and as this is far higher up the building its restaurant will, no doubt, offer perhaps even more spectacular views – as long as you don’t suffer from vertigo! But so saying the outlooks from the existing restaurants in the building should easily satisfy the most ardent panoramaphile (if there is such a word!) We’ll cover the three restaurants
The Shard during the inauguration ceremony on
5 July 2012. The ceremony concluded with a light show of coloured lasers
beamed at the Shard from other buildings. Photo by Richard Goldschmidt
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The spectacular view from our table at Aqua Shard once the sun went down
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ow open in London’s, indeed western Europe’s, tallest, and some might say most spectacular, building, there are three
high end restaurants located on the 31st, 32nd and 33rd floors and Barbican Life has managed to try out all three. The spectacular views are of course, virtually identical only being separated by at most two floors, and at that height two floors doesn’t make much difference. With the location immediately
south of the river the panoramas back over the City of London and St Paul’s are amazing. The restaurants may only be halfway up the building, but
now open – Aqua Shard, Oblix and Hutong – by floor. Each occupies virtually a whole floor thus offering views in all directions from various points. Even the loos at Aqua Shard and Hutong have spectacular outlooks over parts of London. All three restaurants will make a great choice for special occasion eating, or for impressing visitors to London (particularly those from overseas). Food is good if not exceptional at all three and the views of the City of London are unparalleled.
31st Floor - Aqua Shard Our first experience of eating in the Shard was at Aqua Shard,
which certainly makes tremendous use of building the phenomenal views into its overall ambience and the initial experience is simply breathtaking. Aquashard is on the 31st floor. The
elevator serving all three of the Shard’s current restaurants runs from the building’s lower ground floor level on St. Thomas Street whisks you rapidly, and smoothly, to the 32nd floor and one enters Aqua Shard down an open staircase to the bar area – talk about wow factor with the City of London stretched out before you. (There is disabled access via second set of elevators if required). We were quickly shown to our
table, in a west facing window area. The sun was still up and diners were protected from the glare by translucent window blinds which automatically rose as the sun went down to take in the full impact of the spectacular sunset – and then as the lights came on all over London the scene was totally transformed. We were offered a cocktail, which
arrived quickly and could have ordered our food right then as the cocktails arrived, but we were still prevaricating over the menu choices and drinking in the spectacular views. Many of the initial reviews of all three Shard restaurants had commented on
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