Table of Contents
1 Review of the Gallery Restaurant at sketch London
Let me set the scene, 6 pm on the 2nd of August, and we are dodging another downpour on
our way to the station; it’s been like it all day; the weather is dreadful. However, nothing can
dampen our excitement as we are off to have dinner in the Gallery restaurant at sketch London.
I have only been to sketch once before for cocktails, so I have been counting the days since
we booked for dinner.
My partner today is my wife, Leigh; it’s also her first time dining in the restaurant, although she has experienced afternoon tea at sketch and still raves about it.
Before I get into the foodie bit, it’s worth giving you an overview & brief history of sketch.
2 Overview
So for those who have not heard about sketch, I will do my best to paint a picture.
It is quirky and slightly eccentric in terms of decor & layout. Visually it is stunning & playful;
art, design & music are in the DNA of sketch London, with various different areas to enjoy food, drink and relax.
The Lecture Room & Library restaurant at sketch takes the culinary experience very seriously and holds a coveted 3 Michelin star rating, one of only eight restaurants in the UK to do so.
The best way to describe sketch is that it is a hub of Restaurants & bars, each with its
unique identity.
The five areas are;
The Lecture Room & Library, three Michelin-starred gastronomic restaurant where the head
Chef Pierre Gagnaire creates his award-winning tasting menu, which is fine dining at its best.
The Parlour, is an all-day patisserie to pop in for breakfast or light snacks during the day &
evening or for a cocktail or drink.
The Glade is a mythical forest, the place to enjoy a pescatarian set lunch menu, as well as
breakfast or cocktails.
The East Bar & Pods, the hidden East bar, is another area to enjoy cocktails & the most
famous restaurant toilets in London, I will describe the toilets later on.
The Gallery, by day, this grand room hosts their famous afternoon tea & in the evening
becomes a beautiful restaurant area. This is where we are dining tonight.
3 History
sketch’s home, a Grade II* listed building on 9 Conduit Street, was designed by James
Wyatt in 1779 as a private residence of James Viner. The building hosted various
institutions, including the headquarters of the Royal Institute of British Architects, before later
becoming the London Atelier of Christian Dior, and hosting the headquarters of the
Suffragette movement in the early 20th century.
Born out of a creative friendship, sketch was inaugurated in 2002 between restaurateur
Mourad Mazouz and French Master-Chef Pierre Gagnaire.
The Mayfair venue continues contributing to the building’s heritage as a destination for
experimentation.
The site consists of the Lecture Room and library, the Gallery, the Glade, the
Parlour, and the East Bar. Each room has its unique mood and influences; Mazouz
collaborated with numerous designers to create an ethereal experience in every space. The
Lecture Room & Library was awarded its first Michelin star in 2005, and a second star in
2012.
The restaurant was recognised with Michelin’s top three stars accolade in 2019 and winner
of AA’s best Wine list in England in 2008 and 2016, as well as the World of Fine Wine’s best
wine by the glass (with Coravin) in Europe and the World in 2014, 2021 and 2022.
Over the past decade, due to Mazouz’s commitment to art and design, the venue has hosted
works by hundreds of artists – Chris Levine, Ron Arad, Carsten Nicolai, Jonas Mekas,
MaryEllen Bute, Tracey Emin, and Turner prize Winner Martin Creed and Nominee, David
Shrigley and Yinka Shonibare
.
4 Menu & Dinner
At the reception, we were shown to our table and took a minute to enjoy the splendour of the
Gallery restaurant. It is a very impressive room. It’s a sizeable square-shaped room with a
high ceiling & with a domed centrepiece. The restaurant was full, but the room’s acoustics were perfect, with noise levels low. Occasionally, you can walk into a full restaurant and be hit by a wall of sound.
The seasonal menu is split into two distinct sections titled Tradition & Open Mind. For our
visit, the “tradition “ menu features starters of Fish Soup, stone bass & smoked cod, Oysters,
Scallop carpaccio & to give you a little taste of the mains, Dover Sole, Fish pie & Fillet of
Beef served with a bearnaise sauce & allumette potatoes.
The “Open Mind” menu included starters: Isle of Wight tomato soup, burrata, Campari Ice
cream, melon with San Daniele ham, Bavaroise of sand-grown Carrots, and aged balsamic
vinegar. For the mains, a few options included John Dory in tandoori, grilled fennel, apple
and celery, Sketch tartare, smoked eel, Caesar sauce, and Bloody Mary.
Wine
We were introduced to our delightful sommelier Ruairi, with a short introduction, and it was
decided that he would pair the wines with our menu choices. This proved to be a very good
decision & Ruairi treated our tastebuds to a selection of wines that complimented
our food perfectly & introduced us to wines that we would have never considered. That, to me,
is the art of being a good sommelier.
Starters
Leigh went for the Isle of Wight Heritage tomato carpaccio, burrata & rocket salad, I decided
on a dish called Chantilly Lace, three layers of rice and lobster bisque.
Both were beautifully presented; Leigh’s tomato carpaccio had so much flavour, & worked so
well with the light Burrata cheese. It’s great to see the tomato as the star of the dish as,
sadly, we live in a world where off-the-shelf supermarket tomatoes taste of very little. Now, I
need to stop myself from ranting about supermarket tomatoes. Instead, let’s stick to our
meal; Leigh described her starter as delightful.
My plate had a tower of three layers of rice in the centre, with a sea of deeply flavoured
lobster bisque filling the bowl. It was a flavour explosion, and I was so pleased I took the
advice of our waiter, who recommended the dish.
Ruairi selected an Austrian wine for Leigh, Lust & Laune Gruner Veltliner. When I said
earlier about wines that we would not have even looked at, this was the perfect example. It
was slightly cloudy and earthy to the nose, but we both loved this wine. It was so fresh.
It was a white Bordeaux, much overlooked as the white version lives in the shadows of the
Bordeaux is another great choice as it balances the strong lobster bisque flavour.
Mains
We debated our main choices, but finally, Leigh decided on Wild Sea Bass pouched in olive
oil, mushroom and green curry cream with parmesan cheese. The choice was excellent, the
wild sea bass was cooked to perfection, being wild, the firm flesh and slightly more robust
flavour to its farmed cousin. The curry flavour was very subtle and worked well with the
Bass.
I plumped for the Aldudes pork chop with “nduja” potato terrine, and sucrine lettuce. The basque
country pork chop was a delight, cooked slightly pink and accompanied by a spicy potato
terrine & cooked sucrine lettuce that surprised & delighted me, finally completing a perfect
plate of food with a sublime red wine sauce that I could eat on its own; it was so good.
Wine choices for our mains, to accompany the Sea Bass, a Thibaud Boudignon Anjou Blanc
Sec & for the Pork, a Medoc goulee by cos d’estournel, Ruairi explained this red comes from
a small village in Bordeaux & is somewhat undiscovered which is becoming increasingly
more difficult to find in this region of France. It was an exceptional red wine.
Desserts
After two fantastic courses, we decided to round off our meal by sharing a dessert of
homemade macaroons. We still had a decision as there were six flavours to choose from,
and we had to choose four, so many difficult choices.
We went for Pistachio, Coconut, Blackcurrant and raspberry and Chocolate & Bailey’s. We
both love macaroons & these were excellent examples; interestingly, both our favourites was
the Blackcurrant and raspberry flavour.
We finished with the wine Vire-Clesse ‘Quintaine, which was not as sweet as a classic
dessert wine but worked so well with the sweet macaroons, an excellent choice by our
sommelier.
I must mention the service we received. It was exceptional, from the first interaction at
reception to the staff in The Gallery. They did not miss a beat all night; were also
knowledgeable & friendly. It really did add to the overall experience.
As with all great meals, time goes far too quickly, but before we finish, I must mention the
toilets at sketch.
5 sketch bathrooms
Those of you reading one of my reviews for the first time will be rightly mystified why I would
be writing about toilets in a restaurant review unless you have been to sketch London.
The bathrooms at sketch are famous the world over & very much a talking point for visitors a must view.
They remind me of something from an old sci-fi film (believe me, that’s a compliment). Go
through the double doors from the Gallery restaurant & you are hit by a splash of white & a
double staircase leading to the egg-shaped pods.
The only colour apart from bright white is one staircase has a slight pink tint along the edge
& the other a blue tint. It’s such a contrast from the lighting in the Gallery.
The retro-futurist egg-shaped Pods are above the East Bar and were designed by Noé
Duchaufour-Lawrance. What a job he did & sketch regularly wins the best restaurant Loos in
the press. They are such a point of interest that I guarantee anybody visiting sketch will pay
a visit to the toilets regardless of whether they want to go.
sketch london, time to go
We leave sketch London and head out in the Mayfair night; miraculously, the rain has stopped & the
the sky is clear & we walk to the station, enjoying a lovely summer night.
The good people at sketch gave us a memorable night and managed to fix the
weather. Is there no end to their talents?
Hopefully, the above has tempted you to visit sketch London (why would you not). We plan to cover the other areas of
sketch in the future, but in the meantime, please check their website, like the restaurant,
It’s fun, interactive & quirky.
sketch london menu on the website www.sketch.london
9 Conduit St, London W1S 2XG
Gallery Restuarant sketch London menu
Review date 2nd August 2023
