Le Pont de la Tour is, as its name suggests, a Shad Thames neighbour of Tower Bridge; located directly on the river front, it affords excellent views of the bridge and the City to the west and Canary Wharf to the east. What's more, with a façade that extends to 150 feet along the walkway, it provides extensive outdoor seating capacity and on what felt like the first sunny day of the year, what better way to spend lunch time than to check out Le Pont de la Tour's al fresco option.
The restaurant itself is now something of a London landmark in its own right having just celebrated its 20th birthday. It was in the vanguard of the Docklands revival movement in the '90s and during that decade's recession, it was reported that Le Pont de la Tour was where Norman Lamont, then Chancellor, saw a full restaurant prompting his famous 'green shoots of recovery' statement. Not to be outdone, Tony Blair took Bill and Hilary there in 2003 along with a reported 500 Secret Service agents keeping watch.
Le Pont de la Tour comprises both a 'bar and grill' area as well as the more formal restaurant. We had decided by looking at the menu on line before arrival that we wanted the fruit de mer and on arrival at the restaurant, we find it is served in both areas. Both we observe have available tables outside, with the restaurant area distinguishable by sporting classic white table cloths, whereas the bar and grill does not. Feeling casual in the sunshine, we chose the bar and grill.
A pleasant greeting on entry, with no table booked, we were invited to wait a few minutes at the bar while our table was made ready. The barman was very friendly and looked after us well on drinks including the making of an excellent non alcoholic cocktail. The restaurant models itself on a classic French restaurant, inspired by those of Paul Bocuse. All the staff are smartly attired with the French waiter look and indeed, all of them we interacted with were actually French.
The fruits de mer is listed in the starters section of the menu but at £29.50 per person is hardly starter prices. Did we need a main to follow or would it be sufficient? Our waiter sincerely replied that that depended on how hungry we were. We hedged our bets and opted to share a burger for the 'main'. Overall, it proved a good strategy.
The restaurant itself is now something of a London landmark in its own right having just celebrated its 20th birthday. It was in the vanguard of the Docklands revival movement in the '90s and during that decade's recession, it was reported that Le Pont de la Tour was where Norman Lamont, then Chancellor, saw a full restaurant prompting his famous 'green shoots of recovery' statement. Not to be outdone, Tony Blair took Bill and Hilary there in 2003 along with a reported 500 Secret Service agents keeping watch.
Le Pont de la Tour comprises both a 'bar and grill' area as well as the more formal restaurant. We had decided by looking at the menu on line before arrival that we wanted the fruit de mer and on arrival at the restaurant, we find it is served in both areas. Both we observe have available tables outside, with the restaurant area distinguishable by sporting classic white table cloths, whereas the bar and grill does not. Feeling casual in the sunshine, we chose the bar and grill.
A pleasant greeting on entry, with no table booked, we were invited to wait a few minutes at the bar while our table was made ready. The barman was very friendly and looked after us well on drinks including the making of an excellent non alcoholic cocktail. The restaurant models itself on a classic French restaurant, inspired by those of Paul Bocuse. All the staff are smartly attired with the French waiter look and indeed, all of them we interacted with were actually French.
The fruits de mer is listed in the starters section of the menu but at £29.50 per person is hardly starter prices. Did we need a main to follow or would it be sufficient? Our waiter sincerely replied that that depended on how hungry we were. We hedged our bets and opted to share a burger for the 'main'. Overall, it proved a good strategy.
Le Pont de la Tour from Tower Bridge
Tower Bridge from Le Pont de la Tour
looking east to Canary Wharf
the Bar & Grill area
The fruits de mer was attractively plated but on arrival it lacked the wow factor that often comes with such a platter. But there was also a more obvious problem: the fruits de mer is stated as a platter for two people but it came with three oysters and one giant clam forcing guests to trade off with each other who gets what. We pointed this out to the waiter who subsequently brought us another oyster and a second giant clam. Was three or four the right number of oysters for the platter, we don't know; three does seem strange however. Of prawns, there were around eight but no langoustines.
Mussels were meaty and the whelks cooked well, no chewiness. The crab had been broken down and presented in the shell though for personal preference, we would have preferred the claws on the platter. Overall, it was a competent fruits de mer but not a memorable one. The slightly more expensive fruits de mer from Boisdale Canary Wharf (£35 per person) comes with 6 oysters, prawns and langoustines with plenty of each that seems to justify the extra money we think. Finger bowls were brought to the table close to the end and fresh napkins provided which was a nice touch not always considered. The wait staff seemed a little overstretched, possibly they were a man down, but they genuinely seemed to want to deliver good service.
Mussels were meaty and the whelks cooked well, no chewiness. The crab had been broken down and presented in the shell though for personal preference, we would have preferred the claws on the platter. Overall, it was a competent fruits de mer but not a memorable one. The slightly more expensive fruits de mer from Boisdale Canary Wharf (£35 per person) comes with 6 oysters, prawns and langoustines with plenty of each that seems to justify the extra money we think. Finger bowls were brought to the table close to the end and fresh napkins provided which was a nice touch not always considered. The wait staff seemed a little overstretched, possibly they were a man down, but they genuinely seemed to want to deliver good service.
fruits de mer
as above
the extra oyster and giant clam
Our burger to share followed. Lettuce, tomato and relish/sauce come on the side so you can construct your own but the issue we had was that the cheese had not properly melted onto the burger giving the appearance that this could be hard work. While our food blog has become a little burger centric recently (not planned), it seemed almost harsh to put up the LPDLT burger against recent champions from the MEATmarket and Goodman. To their credit, they fared a lot better than we thought they might. The patty itself had good flavour and the finest slither of bacon gifted a smoky, salty note overall. There was a little bit of 'angry red' in the middle of the burger but it was slightly short of natural juices on biting in to it. As a burger then, neither the best or worst we've tried recently, somewhere in the middle.
the burger
chips
Dessert was a chocolate moelleux, ice cream, strawberry sorbet, candied hazelnuts. Plating looked a little amateur but apart from the ice cream being too unyielding, the moelleux was nice and the sorbet excellent.
chocolate moelleux, ice cream, strawberry sorbet, candied hazelnuts
Sitting outside on the Thames walkway eating the fruits de mer and sipping a Chablis was an enjoyable experience but raised the age old question about the relative balance between the food and the view/environment. For sure, the food here was good enough to allow the meal to be an enjoyable one but how differently might we have thought about the lunch had we been sitting inside on a wet day? Admittedly too, this wasn't the fine dining part we did get a good sense of the overall offering. We can't help but feel however that our conclusion is that we would be happy to eat at Le Pont de la Tour again, but only on sunny days. In Winter, there's probably better places to go.
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