Darwin Brasserie at the Sky Garden in London

There are quite a few places in London now with amazing views to go along with the food and the cocktails you’re having. You may or may not have heard of the locally dubbed Walkie Talkie building – officially known as Sky Garden but you may have seen it as part of the ever-growing London Skyline. This is London’s highest public garden believe it or not! This 38 storey building is London’s 5th tallest.

If you are in to your Yoga you should absolutely look into the sunrise yoga sessions that are held here. I actually had to borrow the 2 pictures above from my bestie who’s also visited – she got it for her Dad as a fathers day present. How sweet is that!? I was too focussed on our dinner reservation that I didn’t even think to take a picture of the building or of the actual Sky Garden. Bad blogger! thank goodness for wonderful friends right! ahahahahahah

It’s actually free to visit but you do have to book tickets in advance. I believe they do have some walk in tickets available but I’m assuming these will go quickly each day. Another ‘free’ way is to book a table at one of the restaurants. Thats what my husband and I did. We booked a table at Darwin Brasserie on level 36.

Confession time….

I have so many pictures of the food I eat from yesteryear to yonder and therefore so much blogging material hahahaha I honestly thought it was only last year I went to Sky Garden but alas, it was two years ago – where does the time go!?

The View

The 360 degree view of London is gorgeous and the gardens are amazing. We made sure we booked our table so that we were here for the sunset. Smart huh! The walk around the gardens which is all indoors is quite breathtaking. I can’t even keep a plant alive in the house hahahahah

The Bar

How cool does the bar staff look with their sunglasses on right? It must be quite annoying to constantly have the sun in your eyes to be fair.

The Drinks

You probably know by now that I’m not the biggest drinker and that I am that annoying person that asks for the prettiest drink hahahahah I really appreciate some guidance from a sommelier or a bartender as to what would go best with the food we are having or explaining what the flavours in different cocktails are. If I can’t find anything I like on the menu on offer I really appreciate places that make one up on the spot based on the flavours I tell them I like – without making me feel foolish. I always think that places that do that set themselves apart from others.

I can’t even remember what these were called because they were a bit meh and bit exaggerated respectively hahahah oh well, you gotta try stuff to figure out what you like right? I gotta look on the bright side, at least I got a nice sunset shot with one of them right hahahahah

The Food

It was pleasant enough. It was nice. I’m not going to lie, it had that ‘chain restaurant’ feel about it. You know, mass produced and make it all look the same. Mush some sauce around the plate and make it look artsy fartsy.

I like to support independent restaurants as much as I can because I like that personal touch. That personal touch is so important to me because it can make or break how I feel about a place. Darwin Brasserie did not have the personal touch. It felt like we were in a fast food restaurant because they just churned out the same food over and over as quickly as they could and I didn’t feel appreciated enough as their customer. I almost felt like they treated you like you should think yourself lucky to be there…. I want to be treated like I’m special to them, not the other way round. A few examples of restaurants that are great at making you feel important to them and special is the NAC which you can read about here or 34 Mayfair (which I’ve yet to write about) or Aquavit at St James (again, yet to write about it).

Even the plates, the cutlery and the way the tables were laid out felt a little off, a little impersonal. I mean come on, the dip for the main (which I think was chicken milanese, I can’t remember now) came in a little pot on our actual plates. I don’t know, I guess maybe I expected too much?

The Verdict

• Come for the view stay for the view
• Very expensive for a Brasserie
• Food was nice enough but nothing special
• The service was quite quick but felt like they were trying to rush us out of there as a result
• Felt a little bit like a tourist trap
• I wouldn’t come back to this particular restaurant at the Sky Garden but may try one of the others

All the details you need to get yourself to The Darwin Brasserie can be found below;

To visit their website click here

To see a selection of their menu click here

To visit them their address is: Level 36 Sky Garden, 20 Philpot Ln, London EC3M 8AF

If you’ve been here before what did you think? Or are you planning a visit? Let me know in the comments as I’d love to hear from you.

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