Richmond-upon-Thames is supposed to be the happiest borough in London. Recently, as a professional curmudgeon, I have been contemplating the things that make me unhappy, perhaps to parlay that into a political career (because it seems like any idiot can be a politician these days). Among the things that upset me are people who hog the middle lane on motorways (arming the police with Predator missiles would be a real vote winner), the fact that men no longer wear hats (although I look ridiculous in a trilby), and the complete absence of decent food in Richmond. There are a couple of honourable exceptions (Mignonette being the closest, but technically in Kew, with The Ivy and Cocotte waving the flag for the chains), but in the main, decent, good value food cooked in independent restaurants all but disappeared in Richmond 20 years ago, and hasn’t returned.
So it was with some trepidation that I stepped into the Tower House in Richmond, cajoled by a couple of old friends who had charmed an impossible to get table for 4 on a Friday night. It is a huge building right by Richmond Bridge, and was the site of an All Bar One or similar, which was a terrible pub, but did have an amazing terrace, perfectly situated for a drink on a summer’s evening, watching the sun go down/ships roll in (delete as appropriate). The terrace has been ripped up and very nicely replanted, with a large glass box dumped into the middle of it, of which more later.
Our table wasn’t quite ready, so we sat at the bar and ordered a drink. The decor and lighting are incredibly tasteful, and the whole place has a slightly louche and decadent feel, which is reinforced by the Traitors like sealed menu (see below). Service was friendly and efficient, but we hit a little snag on the cocktails. There were only a few on the menu, and we ordered a couple off piste, a couple of classics, a Negroni (obviously) and a Cosmo.
My Negroni was unbalanced and a little weak: A good one should feel like a blow to the side of the head. But the Cosmo tasted of nothing, in fact had a sort of anti-taste that wanted to suck the flavour out of your mouth. We suspect an inexperienced bar person as our waitress came over and asked specifically whether we had enjoyed the Cosmo. My friend L (who speaks her mind even more freely than I do), told them exactly what she thought, and the cocktail was immediately whisked away. We replaced it with a label-less 75cl bottle of Verdejo (they seem to fill it from a keg out the back, which I haven’t seen since a Uni party in 1989), which everyone pronounced excellent, and very good value at £36.
This is another one of those restaurants that talks about small plates and large plates, but what is on the menu actually seems to strongly resemble starters and mains, especially as you are urged to have one “small” and one “large” per person and some vegetables on the side! But we have got wise to this (see previous reviews ad nauseam), and we tend to invest heavily in the starters, with the odd main course. The theme here is sharing (so I will not be bringing my father), and being with fellow foodies, this suited us very well.
N (friend number 2) was slightly horrified by the number of vegetable-type dishes we were ordering, and put his foot down demanding some red meat. Well the steak is £95, so we balked at that, but we convinced him that British veal was close enough and we (somewhat skeptically) ordered the T-bone.
Everything was excellent, I mean absolutely could not complain about a thing excellent. Even the veal was a generous enough portion that we could all have some, and N was able to sit and gnaw on the bone in a very manly fashion.
In front of you are some croquettes (oddly the standard portion is only 3: How many tables of 3 do they get?), beetroots (a dish rescued from vinegary hell by chefs everywhere at the moment), baba ghanoush (excellent!), cauliflower, carrots, fennel, trout, the T-bone and a genuinely amazing hispi cabbage. The sauce was just delicious.
Now, if I were a proper food critic, I would have kept detailed notes about every dish, and regaled you at length about the umami flavour and incredible mouth feel of every dish, but to be honest, I was having too much fun stuffing my face with my friends. My recommendation if you go is to order exactly what we did, but if you absolutely have to ignore that advice, really do lean in to the small plates/starters as they are great value, and the best tasting/value dishes by far.
As you know, I am not a pudding person, and this is not a cheese place, but cheesecake gets you halfway there, so I did allow myself one spoon of the Basque cheesecake, which is another dish that has recently hit menus pretty hard. No Basque cheesecake is ever going to be as good as the one at Lurra, which was a pudding epiphany for me, but it wasn’t half bad, and L+N made very, very short work of it.
Before we left, I was urged to check out the downstairs of the restaurant (which was convenient as the loos are down there), as L had suggested it would be the place to sit (per her Gen Z offspring), albeit that we loved the upstairs table overlooking the river. OMG am I pleased we didn’t. The open kitchen was like a bad day on Boiling Point, and the glass box I mentioned above seemed to have the volume turned up way past 11: Just peeking my head inside made me reel, so loud was the conversation. Glass boxes are not noted for their sound absorbing qualities, and this was just a wall of sound, enough to make even Phil Spector, God rot his soul, spin in his grave. If you are under 30 and your hearing is up to snuff, go in there and have fun shouting at your friends. If like us you are creeping into hearing aid territory, stay upstairs. I am not being facetious when I suggest there should be something on the booking site reflecting the somewhat(!) different atmospheres…
I was just amazed at how good this restaurant was. Clearly, it can’t last past Xmas as Richmond is the place good restaurants go to die, or if it does last, it will end up being crap, which is what happened to Brindisa, so visit very soon!
Conclusion
Overall Rating: 5/5
- Food: 5/5
- Drinks: 4/5
- Service: 5/5
- Ambiance: 5/5 (upstairs!)
- Value for Money: 5/5
- Price: £££
- Would we go back: In a heartbeat
Tower House: https://thisistowerhouse.com/
