Restaurant review: The Factory House
The Factory House – a new restaurant on the edge of Leadenhall Market inspired by the grand age of Victorian industry – is certainly big on ideas.
On entering the ground floor foyer, visitors are asked to “clock on” with a time card, before being ushered down a spiral staircase to the lower ground dining room, which is filled with antique train station clocks, vintage machinery and exposed copper pipework.
Even the menu is presented on flimsy newspaper sheets, salmon-coloured, with calligraphy-style print.
The food, devised by former chief chef at the Tate restaurants, Sean Davies, takes on British classics with, of course, traditional twists.
Could this continuous theme-drilling be a sign of too much style over substance?
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Perhaps in some instances but, for the most part, the food is good.
We went for the crab salad starter, which was fresh and nicely set off by the green herb mayonnaise.
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For mains, the guinea fowl with accompanying black pudding and Scotch eggs was excellent – well cooked and nicely crisped on the skin.
The lamb shoulder failed to acquire that melt-in-mouth richness, despite the 12-hour cooking time.
Desserts of sticky toffee pudding and apple and blackberry crumble were hearty and the latter simply enormous.
The cocktail list is particularly quirky and worth delving into.
A reasonably-priced wine list includes bottles from the �14 to the �30 mark, but could perhaps do with a few swankier options. Starters range from �6 to �10 and mains from around �11 to �30.
The Factory House is in Lime Street, with the entrance on Leadenhall Passage.
See thefactoryhouse.co.uk
