Park Plaza Sherlock Holmes

For a lot of hotels today, it is not enough to have a guest simply stay in their particular outlet. The experience of staying in a hotel means there is much more on offer than there used to be, and the various components of a hotel are being looked at and re-evaulated.

I returned to the Park Plaza hotel on Baker Street after an evening showcasing the different wines being brought into the restaurant. Featuring an elegant mixture of new world and old world wines, it was clear that the chain of hotels were putting serious effort into making sure the wines on offer were of the highest quality. But did they have the food to match?

My companion started off with the buffalo mozzarella, beef tomato, avocado and homemade pesto, while I ventured for the bresaola (dried salted beef) with wild rocket, parmesan and olive oil. I found that there was plenty to enjoy with my choice, with the saltiness of the beef combining well with the tangy qualities of the parmesan. My companion’s choice was marred by the large amount of oil oozing from all areas. It was a mistake to add in the pesto with an already oleaginous set of ingredients.

Things took an upturn with the main course. My companion eagerly feasted on the corn-fed half chicken, which came with a flat mushroom and chunky chips. So keen was her interest in her food that my wandering hand was rapped as it made a vain attempt to nab one of the chunky chips. My course of duck breast with sautéed wild mushrooms mixed in was excellent but there was an excess of the mushrooms, which did not go well with the richness of the meat.

Onto the desserts and my companion was very effusive about her choice of crème brûlée. To me, it seemed a little thin but my companion rolled her eyes and informed me that this was exactly how crème brûlée should be done and good it was to see the dish prepared correctly. Humbled, I tucked into my rhubarb and vanilla panna cotta with honeycomb and pistachio ice cream. Although there was nothing wrong with the dish itself, it could have been labelled better. For one thing, the panna cotta was labelled as caponatta, which is something else entirely. Also, the panna cotta was only flavoured with vanilla, rather than rhubarb, and there was no combination of honeycomb and pistachio in the ice cream. The ice cream was pistachio-flavoured and then rolled in honeycomb. One more point: the panna cotta itself was tough rather than slipping out of the bowl.

This was by no means a bad meal, with several pleasing aspects to each of the courses. However, with the meal coming at £40.50 per head, you might be best served spending this amount of money elsewhere.

Park Plaza Sherlock Holmes
108 Baker Street
Marylebone
W1U 6LJ

Tel: 020 7486 6161