London - 40/30
Autumn 2009
Frank's view 
Go if you can for the view
"Photo ID please?" asked the man behind the desk.
I had submitted our names in advance which had to exactly match the names on our photo ID.
"Round to the right and after security take the lift to the 34th Floor, then switch to the lift to floor 39," he continued.
She wasn’t quite Gatwick Gestapo, but the woman by the X-Ray machine was a bit scary and very thorough.
Finally, our ears were popping as we shot towards the roof of ‘The Gherkin’ - one of the highest buildings in London, and certainly the city’s highest restaurant. Yes - this palaver was all for lunch.
40/30 is ‘the coolest restaurant name in the city’, or so the web site claims. Well I think “River Café’ is a pretty cool name and, anyway, shouldn’t a restaurant be judged by its food and ambience?
The restaurant is located on the 40th floor of No. 30 St Mary Axe, hence the ‘cool’ name. Well actually the restaurant is on the 39th floor with the pinnacle of The Gherkin housing the bar.
The Gherkin is London’s leading architectural statement – a 591ft structure designed by Sir Norman Foster on the site of the old Baltic Exchange building which was terminally damaged by an IRA bomb in 1992.
Essentially an office block, The Gherkin was adapted to accommodate the restaurant and bar, which unusually sits in the very roof of the tower, hence the reason why the main lifts terminate on the 34th. The two lifts to the top are pushed up from below which leaves the roof area free of mechanical gubbins and totally open. You can actually see the sky through the glass dome roof. The office block theme is particularly apparent in the loos where no effort has been made to change anything or achieve coolness.
The waiting staff at 40/30 looked like corporate catering staff. Most wore cheap black suits, Mr Byrite rejects perhaps? The trousers on one were so long that they were wrapped underneath her shoes. Another looked in need of a good scrub. The white shirts had clearly never been through a ‘boil wash’, probably not any wash.
40/30 is run by Searcys, the up market catering company which has ring-fenced the iconic building restaurant market as their own. If you grab a bite or a drink at The Royal Opera House, The National Portrait Gallery, the Barbican Centre or even the London Transport Museum, it is prepared and served by Searcy’s.
Searcy’s style of catering may be fine for venues where dining is not the main event and the cuisine is secondary to an artistic or historical experience. However, a restaurant with a view is a not unique and so the dining experience has to be exceptional, particularly when the prices are high - £39 for 2 courses, £47.50 for 3 courses and £65 for the Tasting Menu.
The food was fine and the view spectacular, particularly from the bar upstairs, but the bar area was a vast open soulless area, like an airport lounge.
I suggest that Searcy’s are the wrong entity to run 40/30. The restaurant should be one of London’s top restaurants for service and cuisine as well as ambience but on the evidence of our lunchtime experience, Searcy’s style and level of service is not good enough. This restaurant should be on a par with London’s slickest and it just isn’t. They could start to improve by recruiting staff who don’t look as if they'd be more at home on the set of Four Weddings and a Funeral.
Nevertheless, if the opportunity arises you should go once. In a city with few skyscrapers it does offer a rare view of some of London's most famous sights.
(40/30 is a Private Member's Club and not open to the general public.)
40/30
30 St Mary Axe
London
020 7071 5009
Link to website
I had submitted our names in advance which had to exactly match the names on our photo ID.
"Round to the right and after security take the lift to the 34th Floor, then switch to the lift to floor 39," he continued.
She wasn’t quite Gatwick Gestapo, but the woman by the X-Ray machine was a bit scary and very thorough.
Finally, our ears were popping as we shot towards the roof of ‘The Gherkin’ - one of the highest buildings in London, and certainly the city’s highest restaurant. Yes - this palaver was all for lunch.
40/30 is ‘the coolest restaurant name in the city’, or so the web site claims. Well I think “River Café’ is a pretty cool name and, anyway, shouldn’t a restaurant be judged by its food and ambience?
The restaurant is located on the 40th floor of No. 30 St Mary Axe, hence the ‘cool’ name. Well actually the restaurant is on the 39th floor with the pinnacle of The Gherkin housing the bar.
The Gherkin is London’s leading architectural statement – a 591ft structure designed by Sir Norman Foster on the site of the old Baltic Exchange building which was terminally damaged by an IRA bomb in 1992.
Essentially an office block, The Gherkin was adapted to accommodate the restaurant and bar, which unusually sits in the very roof of the tower, hence the reason why the main lifts terminate on the 34th. The two lifts to the top are pushed up from below which leaves the roof area free of mechanical gubbins and totally open. You can actually see the sky through the glass dome roof. The office block theme is particularly apparent in the loos where no effort has been made to change anything or achieve coolness.
The waiting staff at 40/30 looked like corporate catering staff. Most wore cheap black suits, Mr Byrite rejects perhaps? The trousers on one were so long that they were wrapped underneath her shoes. Another looked in need of a good scrub. The white shirts had clearly never been through a ‘boil wash’, probably not any wash.
40/30 is run by Searcys, the up market catering company which has ring-fenced the iconic building restaurant market as their own. If you grab a bite or a drink at The Royal Opera House, The National Portrait Gallery, the Barbican Centre or even the London Transport Museum, it is prepared and served by Searcy’s.
Searcy’s style of catering may be fine for venues where dining is not the main event and the cuisine is secondary to an artistic or historical experience. However, a restaurant with a view is a not unique and so the dining experience has to be exceptional, particularly when the prices are high - £39 for 2 courses, £47.50 for 3 courses and £65 for the Tasting Menu.
The food was fine and the view spectacular, particularly from the bar upstairs, but the bar area was a vast open soulless area, like an airport lounge.
I suggest that Searcy’s are the wrong entity to run 40/30. The restaurant should be one of London’s top restaurants for service and cuisine as well as ambience but on the evidence of our lunchtime experience, Searcy’s style and level of service is not good enough. This restaurant should be on a par with London’s slickest and it just isn’t. They could start to improve by recruiting staff who don’t look as if they'd be more at home on the set of Four Weddings and a Funeral.
Nevertheless, if the opportunity arises you should go once. In a city with few skyscrapers it does offer a rare view of some of London's most famous sights.
(40/30 is a Private Member's Club and not open to the general public.)
40/30
30 St Mary Axe
London
020 7071 5009
Link to website
Be Frank: agree or disagree? What do you think?
