Not that our meal isn’t edible and that y pasta wasn’t actually good but the prices were very high considering that the feel of the place was beachside teenage unkept. The bathroom was the worst I have seen in 5 months in London and the service left plenty to be desired.
The caesar salad was pitiful. First, it was not a caesar dressing, second, it was soft, third, it used vinegar cured anchovies. There is no vinegar in a proper Caesar salad! And the salad came with chicken that could no way have been described as freshly made. My tortellini pockets were very good though not enough to make a meal with three limp pieces of brocolli in a tiny bowl. Our dessert of Sticky Toffee Pudding and ice cream barely had two spoonfuls of ice cream on it though it was very good.
Had this truly been a high end restaurant I suppose I could have accepted the small portions and just found them pretentious. But it wasn’t and I didn’t. What I found was an ordinary restaurant with a great location that was getting by on its name.
The location.. well , that was nice but even that they were sloppy about. Given that the afternoon sun was causing half the restaurant to wear sunglasses and the other half to bake in the heat. Perhaps they should consider sun shades on the tacky sliding doors. If you cannot tell I wasn’t happy.
The best part of the river edge location was as we arrived and caught the opening of the swivel bridge at the mouth of the basin and then later walked in and found the lock. I do love a good lock.
We took a DLR to Limehouse and walked bit. Honestly, it was a part of town that held little charm until we got to the boat basin. Even this was covered in slime. Clearly its a desirable place to live judging by the multitude if new apartments surrounding the docks, but I didn’t find a greta neighborhood.
Our walk back home was totally lovely. We did a 45 minute walk up towards Bow Church, with the sun at our backs and, as we do, enjoyed boat and bird and duck watching.
this steeple reins over the boat basin
The canal walk was not as well maintained or appealing as others we have done. But if you want to know about hydraulic lifts there is a tower that occasionally opens where you can supposedly go in and see it happening.
and a really nice sign.
There was nothing around it, it sat on a pole at the pier with no indication where to go or what to do. But it is a fantastic looking sign.