The day did not begin terribly well yesterday. I woke up feeling sad about my dad, then I remembered I had had a terrible haircut the night before on my way home from work, and then I poured a Starbucks Tall Skinny (ha! bit late for that!) Mocha down my dress on my way to work. But it was good to get the 3 bad things out of the way before 9:30am as it meant the day could only get better.
And get better it did! I was extremely lucky and got taken out to lunch at The Wolseley in Piccadilly.
The Wolseley had been on my wish list of restaurants since The Wig bought a book about it last year. It was built in the 1920’s as a Car Show room for Wolseley cars, but unfortunately was not very successful. Barclay’s bank acquired the building in 1927 when the car company went bankrupt and up until 1999 it was used as a branch of Barclays. Then it was sold again and became the restaurant that it is today.
Amazingly it’s pretty much unchanged since it was built and its like stepping back in time to the olden art deco days. It retains many original features like the flooring and light fittings and even a specially commissioned post box and stamp machine that was designed by the architect William Curtis Green. It’s a beautiful building and the food was amazing. I had a white bait starter followed by the most amazing fillet steak I have ever eaten. Unfortunately I was a bit too full for pudding but the desserts looked delicious too and by the time we left the restaurant it was filling up with people having afternoon tea. The staff were also exceptional, having different staff for taking the order, bringing the food, clearing the table, they even had a special condiments waiter! If it all goes tits up in advertising I think that would be my ideal job.
It was a real treat and I had a lovely time despite my getting told off for taking photographs and all of us getting told off in the bar after lunch for singing the Wham Rap. I blame the gin and tonics, Chablis, dessert wine and Champagne cocktails. Did someone say binge drinkers? The Wolseley is a really amazing place and I am going to give it 10 flappers out of a possible 10. Anywhere that puts a hairnet on a lemon to catch the pips when you squeeze it gets top marks in my book.
In other news I noticed that Satsuma on Wardour Street has closed down. Probably due to my scathing review about it a couple of months ago. Who knew The March Hare had such a powerful influence. Crap restaurants of the world, beware.
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