Le Pont De La Tour
our review
There’s no doubt that Pont has the best view in London. Other restaurants may be several storeys higher, some may be in swisher locations, but to see the iconic landmark that is Tower Bridge filling the sky as you eat takes the proverbial biscuit. Okay this means sitting outside and the lunch time we were there the sky went from blue and sunny to bloody awful and raining by the time we had dessert, but under the canopy we were nice and cosy and, it has to be admitted, by that point slightly squiffy on gorgeous wines by the glass from the superb wine cellar. The staff did kindly move us when the rain found a chink in the cover and watered down my wine a bit, but it wasn’t a problem for them or us.
All of the contentment came from Chef Lee Bennet’s menu of nice things well cooked. Beef tartare with the obligatory raw egg and capers was perfect for me, although my companion looked on in horror as I ate it and recoiled in disgust when I tried to get him to try a forkful. The gazpacho he chose instead worked well in the fading sunshine, the fresh well-ripened tomatoes gave it a delicate flavour accented by the roast cherry tomatoes bobbing about the bowl. A nice glug of a high quality Spanish extra virgin olive oil would have made it even better, though. The Seafood Platter, or Seafood Splatter as a certain kid I know calls it, had everything you need for fun by the shoreline and while the Thames isn’t the sea, it still delivered the right vibe to wolf down West Mersea rock oysters, potted crab, sea bass tartare, smoked salmon and caviar, plus a deconstructed prawn cocktail with liquidised lettuce, I wasn’t wholly enamoured with the latter, I like the traditional crunch of iceberg. Call me unhip, but there it is. Another starter, Foie Gras with spiced pear compote, was all it should be; rich and unctuous enough to you feel slightly decadent for eating it especially when washed down as it was with a rich Sauternes.
Loin and shoulder of lamb, potato fondant with aromatic spiced jus was a fine piece of lamb but the potato was hard and tasteless, which was something of a surprise at this level. Much better was Label Anglais chicken, braised cabbage and morel sauce, the chicken moist and tender, the morel sauce darkly bosky with the cabbage delivering bite and flavour and was a long way from the watery boiled mess it can so easily be.
As the rain came down in earnest, and even the table of famous ex-cricketers and Sky commentators who had been sat behind us gave up and went inside, we happily ploughed through a sharing menu selection of desserts including White chocolate mousse, passion fruit and coconut sorbet, toasted almond and cherry crème brûlée and pineapple tatin, with lime crème fraiche, all of which showed that there was a proper pastry chef in the kitchen.
The Pont always had the looks but the kitchen didn’t have the skills. Now with Lee Bennet it has the complete kit to deliver excellent food in a fabulous location.
NH - June 2008
your comments review this restaurant and win a bottle of champagne
Very disappointed with our recent visit over the Christmas holiday.
Taking a friend for lunch, we assured her this was a restaurant with good food and service – unfortunately, not on this occasion. An early indication of the troubles to follow came with our glasses of champagne. One was flat and clearly the last of a long opened bottle. There was no excuse for this as it stood, in stark contrast, alongside a second glass full of life and bubbles, and clearly from a bottle, just opened.
The menu was limited and, when it arrived, the food was poor. The service throughout was negligible. The entire experience had the feel of a restaurant handed over to staff more familiar with catering for a corporate or wedding function, with no style or quality.
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MSJ
Overall rating 
Food 3 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 2 | Value for money 2
Friday, January 02, 2009
Our lunch today: Two people in the group ordered steak Diane. There were no side orders listed on the menu. We asked if the steak came with chips. The waiter looked at us somewhat askance and muttered something about roast potatoes. So we assumed that the steak came with roast potatoes (and perhaps chips were off the menu because the chip chef was on holiday or something ). My friend asked if there were any green vegetables available. Again our waiter seemed put out - no there were none, he advised. But in the end the steaks came with no potatoes of any description. My friend asked a different waiter about vegetables and he said no problem, she could have some spinach! So she did. But by then more tables had started to fill up, and we saw waiters delivering what looked like very nice chips to other tables (we all had the same menu). We saw lots of green vegetables – e.g. green beans, which would have gone very well with the steak. We felt like second class citizens.
We had to ask for the bill twice. Then nobody brought the card reader, so we had to chase that up as well. Service was very poor and charmless throughout.
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M Fitzpatrick
Overall rating 
Food 4 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 4 | Value for money 4
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Food: 7. Chose the blue cheese and cranberry tart for starter, only grumble was that I could not find any blue cheese on it. Main course was the warm salmon, potato and green bean salad, very nicely cooked flame grilled salmon. Went for the ice cream sundae for pudding. Tasty food, but more of a summer than a winter menu in my opinion?
Service: 7. Service was good, maybe a little impersonal, could be a little warmer.
Atmosphere: 7. Nice buzz, not too noisy even though we were sitting quite close to the piano. Tables are a very close together.
Value for Money: 10. Pre-booked and went for the 3 courses and a glass of wine for £17.50. Can't grumble about value for money with that. It was nice to see a restaurant that refilled the bread basket without being asked and then did not try charging us for it. Fantastic value for money with the special offer.
All in all, I would definintely go back, but I am not sure how tempted I would be to order from the a la carte menu...
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James Holden - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating 
Food 7 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 10
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
I had dinner at Pont de La Tour on Friday night with my wife. We were expecting great things but were left wanting more. The venue, location, views and service were great. It was the food that seriously let it down. We started with a couple of Kir Royals in the bar first. My wife pointed out that champagne cocktails were £13.50 each.. surely a Kir Royal isn't a champagne cocktail per se. We were later proven wrong. Oh well, we then had another drink and went through to the dining room. It's smart and comfortable but not exceptional. We ordered our wine, a glass of white to go with our starters. This wine wasn't cold enough for our liking. We should have mentioned it to the waiter really. Anyway, our starters arrived, Roasted scallops with cray fish cakes. We were pretty disappointed with this dish. The scallops were tough and chewy, and the fish cakes were overcooked and tasted like old cooking oil (I know what that tastes like, I used to work in a pub). Not exactly a great start.
We then had a bottle of red wine brought out. No problems there, then our main course came out. We ordered the cotê de boeuf for 2 people. Out came a huge hulk of beef on the bone, it was sliced and then served to us. It wasn't cooked to our liking (even though we asked for it medium, it was more like medium rare). It was really tough and not all that pleasant to eat. Chewy and quite average. It was served with roasted vegetables... hardly.. it had one piece of carrot, swede and some other vegetable. The mash potato that came with it was so salty, like very salty. We left quite a bit of our food. We then ordered dessert. I ordered a pear and butterscotch cake with icecream and my wife went for chocolate mousse. When they came out we were both a bit disappointed by them, until we tried each others and decided to swap. I liked hers more than mine and vice versa. Not the fault of the restaurant though. I would say that the amount of ice cream on the plate was tiny! About the size of a 10p piece in diameter.
Overall, I'd say this place is seriously overpriced. We ended up paying £200. We were gobsmacked. Those Kir Royals did that! It was made slightly easier to swallow knowing that my wife won a competition at work to win £120 at a restaurant of your choice. So we spent £40 each on the meal really so wasn't a complete disaster. We won't be going back there thats for sure. I'd say if you're minted and don't really care what the food is like then you'd like it, but if you are a real foodie and like to get value for money, I'd avoid. It just goes to show that reputation doesn't mean you'll have exceptional food.
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Dan Chippendale
Overall rating 
Food 4 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 3
Monday, November 10, 2008
I thought the food was fair, but the drinks were extortionate and I would never go there again
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Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 4 | Atmosphere 4 | Value for money 0
Friday, November 07, 2008
I went here for a client lunch and as usuall the food was excellent. The main service was efficient if the drinks were a little slow and forgetful, as we had to ask twice for the champagne.
Their attention to the small things was the usual fantastic, as they stencilled Happy Birthday on my pudding plate and added a candle to it!!
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Brett Pearson
Overall rating 
Food 9 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 9
Tuesday, October 07, 2008
i ate in the B&G last night for my birthday and have to say this was definitely value for money. i had the steak which was thick and tasty and my sis had the set menu which at 17.50 for 3 courses is pretty hard to fault. the food came out fast i would even say a little too fast as i wanted to make a night of it but service was friendly and i even got a happy birthday plate message written on my cheesecake which was a nice touch....definitely recommend this place
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deana
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 9
Sunday, October 05, 2008
I have heard great things about the restaurant, but the grill eating experience leaves a lot to be desired. We chose from the set menu of 3 courses with a choice of 3 different dishes in each. 3 of us chose the ham, apple and walnut starter consisting of 2 slices of good ham, but with what seemed to be the one walnut shared between the 3 of us, 3 minute thin slices of apple and a small rectangle of cheese that looked like it had been bought in a supermarket pick-and-mix selection. The poached salmon and salad main was made up of a dollop of smoked salmon on a leaf of lettuce, and the salad was a couple of chicory leaves, a thinly sliced black olive or two and a few french beans. The entire salad would could have been eaten in 2 mouthfuls with room to spare. The bread basket was a selection of breads, but the sliced brown bread had clearly been standing for a while and was stale. The view of the river is wonderful, particularly in the evening, but the eating area felt like it was utilising an entrance to the more glamorous restaurant, and I felt like Cinderella. Very disappointed.
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Niecieden - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating 
Food 2 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 1
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Been there many times my selves.... Its like heaven... Do not complain !
Just learn how to eat and drink!
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Anders
Overall rating 
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Went there on a Friday night after I had booked a table for 2 the same day. I was expecting a tiny table in the corner of the restaurant due to the late booking, but we got a table outside on the patio without even asking for one! Incredible views on the Tower Bridge made the first impressions even better. Service was immaculate with a kind, smiling but not overly pushy Maitre d', a very knowledgeable wine expert and a whole lot of waiters that were kind enough to jump for every small request we had (a small bottle of water instead of a large one, another slice of bread, some salt and pepper etc).
The food was fresh, tasty, nicely presented, and served hot (which in other restaurants is not necessarily the case). We had a 1997 Pomerol which was recommended by the wine expert ("it is coming very close to its maturity now, but is worth a try and very good value for money"). He was spot on! For £37 a bottle, it was more than worth it.
On a slightly more negative note, the bill was a bit disappointing. We went for the £20 3-course menu deal (which included a glass of champagne) but were, after dinner, presented with a bill of £130+ because of the extras (a bottle of water, a side order of runner beans, the wine, and the overcharged discretionary 12.5% service charge). It was definitely worth a visit, the food was grand and fresh, but value for money could be a little better.
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Claire
Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 6
Monday, September 01, 2008
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