Latest opening: 14 Hills
What: Set on the 14th floor of 120 Fenchurch Street, 14 Hills is yet another ambitious all-day restaurant from D&D London. The restaurant and bar, which occupies a space of 9,200sq ft, is located beneath the public roof garden of Generali Real Estate’s new office building,
Who: 14 Hills joins D&D’s burgeoning stable of restaurant and bars - it now operates 41 restaurants as well as a hotel, n places including London, Leeds, Paris, New York and Tokyo. Heading up the kitchen is executive chef Thomas Piat, who joins the restaurant having worked as executive chef at Daniel Boulud’s Bar Boulud at the Mandarin Oriental hotel in Knightsbridge and, most recently, at JOÍA par Hélène Darroze in Paris.
The food: Piat’s menu is described as offering ‘modern British cooked with French flair’, with the chef sticking to the big-hitting classics. He has put together an unusually tight menu for D&D of modern British dishes aimed squarely at the hearty appetites of City workers (there are notably few vegan and vegetarian dishes), with the likes of steak tartare; game pate en croute; beef rossini; turbot roasted on the bone; chicken kiev; and cote de boeuf. Desserts follow in this vein, and include apple crumble; and a custard tart with salted caramel ice cream. The restaurant also serves breakfast, Saturday brunches and Sunday roasts and even has a fast-serve deli counter.
The vibe: The impressive space has been curated by Eric Parry Architects, which has included foliage hanging from ceiling structures and low cushioned seating in its smart and modern design. The restaurant in terms of its scale, fine-casual menu, location and its appeal to a moneyed clientele is very much in D&D’s sweet spot and so far it seems to be a smash with every table full on our visit and bookings hard to come by.
And another thing: Inspired by roof gardens and courtyards, the dining room’s numerous evergreen plants and climbers are an attempt by D&D to create a ‘forest in the sky’ to complement the garden above but also to compensate for the fact that the restaurant couldn’t have an outdoor terrace.
120 Fenchurch Street
14hills.co.uk
