Food review: Food, drink, dining at the Royal Opera House in London!
Royal Opera House – map
Bow Street, Covent Garden
London WC2E 9DD
Review by: Alexa Williamson
A visit to the Royal Opera House is always fabulous – no matter what the reason. And, so, generally is the gastonomic experience… there are many different options for food and drink when you are there… here’s an overview of some of the options available…
The Amphitheatre Bar:
Rating: *** (out of 5)
Up at the top of the building, this is great because you can go out on the balcony for fresh air and a view of Covent Garden – and if you walk far enough to the end of the balcony you will also see the costumes department! If you stay in the bar, you can look through a glass window, down at the Paul Hamlyn Bar. It is fun to do this, and people watch, during an intermission of a show. The bar offers spirits, wine, water, tea, coffee and juices, and other drinks. They also serve pastries, other snacks and you can order ‘supper trays’ and book a table to eat your food either before or during an interval at a performance. This bar gets extremely busy. The staff are nice, but they can’t keep up with the demand. The food is well presented and they keep the area clean. However, the pastries have been dried out and the tea has been cold. You are safer ordering a drink that simply has to be poured and sticking with that. I have ordered an interval drink in “advance” before. I thought it would be special and time saving. It was a shambles. The drinks are not in alphabetical order as they say. They are put quickly on the bar. You are lucky if you can find yours – and any hot drinks will be cold. Just wait in the queue, get your drink and head out to the balcony!
Amphitheatre Restaurant:
Rating: ***** (out of 5)
This is an enclosed restaurant upstairs in the Amphitheatre. You book your table and your food in advance. If you are lucky you will be put near the window and get to enjoy the view out over Covent Garden. The menu, staff and service, food and view are all wonderful. The prices are more reasonable than I thought for what you get. You can easily spend £80 per person here, but the food, service, ambience and experience are amazing and memorable. You get treated exceptionally well here and food is served extremely quickly. Probably because it has all been pre-ordered! The food is delicious, light and creative. It melts in your mouth and has a memorable and more-ish taste. You could eat and drink your way through the menu but use restraint so that you don’t end up a huge fatso! Worth your time and money.
Paul Hamlyn (Champagne) Bar:
Rating: **** (due to the amazing champagnes and atmosphere) Where to start with this wonderful hall! This place is a delight and always makes me chuckle. You will have great memories here! The Hamlyn Bar is a huge, wood-floored champagne (and wine bar)… I once asked for a Bailey’s and the bartender said… “What’s that?”. I don’t know if they made me laugh or cry with shock. I don’t know if I am impressed that he was only familiar with champagne and wine or unimpressed. Depends at how you look at it really – class or ignorance? (Well, that’s one of the chuckles you will have here.) The Paul Hamlyn Bar is one of my favourite spaces in London because it is huge, has the wood floors and huge glass windows, plus a ritzy escalator encased in glass and steel that brings you up to the Amphitheatre Bar. Although the Hamlyn Bar is a champagne bar and you will pay a minimum of £12.00 per glass (at the time of writing this) for this. You can still get a bottle of water for… oh God, wait for it… £2.25 (granted that is utterly ridiculous – bring your own from the corner shop – or they do have free tap water!) or a cup of tea/coffee for about the same price. The most expensive bottle of champagne currently on their menu is Dom Ruinart Rose at £350.50 (who are they giving that extra 50p to?) – this is more money than the most expensive opera tickets! Why would anyone spend their money on that, who knows? But at least the option is there. The Paul Hamlyn Bar is simply a lot of fun. A place to socialise and people watch.
The Paul Hamlyn Bar also does snacks and light, cold, food. Like up at the Ampitheatre Bar, you can order a supper tray or snacks – even yummy smoked salmond. The quality of food at the Paul Hamlyn Bar is generally a “miss” and I would just grab something from Marks and Spencers near Covent Garden station. They do, however have the nice smoked salmond, and some of the cold things you can order are good, some are soggy and don’t taste as fresh as they should. The summer fruit plates are ALWAYS nice. The salmond is too. They have almonds as a snack. But they are coated in some kind of oil (shudder) – why do they do this? The champagnes are wonderful and you truly get what you pay for. They are delicious, dry, bubbly and do not have an aftertaste (like cheap ones do). If you want some lovely champagne go for a Strawberry Belini or the Champagne Cocktail. The staff here are nice and go as fast as they can. Your tea/coffee will generally be luke warm at best. Do what the bar does best – champers!
Hints: If you order your food for the interval or pre-performance in advance (ie before you come on the night) you get more choice of a menu. You also get the table for the whole night and there are 3-course supper trays available for £28.00 (at the time of writing). You can also book a table and food on the night. You will get sat on one side of the bar, at a table, instead of the other. However you get less choice and some of that food has been sitting behind the bar for hours.
Other eating spots at the Royal Opera House: There is also the Paul Hamlyn Bar Terrace restaurant and the Crush Room. The Paul Hamlyn Terrace is above the Paul Hamlyn Bar so you can gaze down at everyone while you eat! The Crush Room is very much a Victorian room with lots of oil paintings on the wall. Reminds one of Claridges or something!
Further information:
Royal Opera House (official site)
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