Hutong at The Shard, London, by Civilian London
Okay, so we’d hoped for something a little more… crystal. Something sharper. More shard-like. But not to worry, it’s too late now. And for many of us in London, The Shard is less the slightly grubbier Renzo Piano landmark than we’d anticipated, and more a symbol of how dining in the capital has achieved new heights of sophistication and glamour. Never mind about the extraordinarily expensive viewing platform (plenty of tickets available, all the time) – there’s some seriously good dining in The Shard.
Has there ever been a time when the city enjoyed such a giddy pace of seriously good restaurant openings? And while the trend remains for raw, modernist interiors in the east of the city, dining at The Shard looks remarkably different (avec reservations!).
We’ve already thrilled to the glass lift and golden tree terrace at Sushisamba; now there are the toilets on the 31st and 33rd floors of The Shard to get excited about. (Surely the most visually exciting urinals in Europe – hotly contested title or not.) The views from the bar and dining room at Aqua Shard – and indeed the views from Hutong, two levels above it, reached by one of the most impressive staircases in the capital – are dazzling. You’re closer to the detail of St Paul’s and Tower Bridge than you would be from the top viewing platform, so the luminous vista seems that much more impressive.
Aqua Shard, by Paul Winch-Furness
Hutong, the Northern Chinese restaurant on the upper floor of the dining atrium, has a slightly James Bond feel, with private dining rooms hemmed in by antique wall panels. Other elements make it feel like Soho House has opened in Hong Kong, and then been teleported to the banks of the Thames. It’s very pretty indeed. We still prefer the look of Aqua Shard downstairs, which is more contemporary and pared back, albeit with peacock feather textiles on the seats. It’s very Cloud City. If you haven’t got a window seat, you’re likely to be compensated with a booth. And the view is still extraordinary, so everyone’s a winner.
There’s also another restaurant, Oblix, which hosts “jazz brunches” and hovers in mid-space on floor 32, like a private dining room without a door. (It’s a totally different operation from Hutong and Aqua Shard). As the fabulously coiffured Grace Dent wrote of it in ES Magazine, it’s “the restaurant that nobody is raving about”.
The menus at Aqua Shard and Hutong are as impressive as their design. While we love the wontons and the aromatic beef upstairs, the food at the very-modern-British-indeed Aqua Shard hits some really surprising notes: there’s a steak tartare with Bloody Mary jelly and Scotch egg; green pea custard with seared foie gras; and the most lush roasted wood pigeon with blackcurrant, broccoli, caramelized pear and cognac and pepper jus. The menu lists the provenance of ingredients (largely British), and it’s all phenomenally good. This is no Seattle Space Needle tourist trap.
David Yeo
David Yeo is the Singaporean-born owner of the Aqua restaurant group, and the man responsible for the two key dining spaces at The Shard, as well the Aqua restaurant in Kowloon, which has become one of the most iconic dining rooms in the world, and has awe-inspiring views out over Hong Kong, across the harbour from the 29th and 30th floors of One Peking Road, towards the glowing Metropolis towers of the Central District and the nightly Symphony of Lights.
We met him at The Shard to talk about architecture and dining rooms with views.
Civilian: You’ve had the Aqua space on Argyll Street in London for some time now, which has its own great rooftop view, but you were looking for somewhere else. Where else was in the running?
David Yeo: We looked at a lot of spaces but we could never found the right site. We were the runner-up for the old Atlantic space in Piccadilly, which became Brasserie Zedel. We were going to do it as a kind of roaring 1920s Shanghai club.
Visually that basement space is an ocean liner, like the ballroom scene in The Poseidon Adventure. It’s the total opposite of The Shard.
Yes, I never really thought about that. And of course the interior was already all there. But when we came to The Shard I realised it was unparalleled. I have been to high-rise restaurants everywhere, and they aren’t a patch on it.
Beijing has no centre or heart. It’s like L.A. You can’t congregate. There are a lots of rent free arrangements – you get lots of Gucci and Louis Vuitton on every corner
Your restaurant in Kowloon is spectacular, but London doesn’t have the light show or the architecture to compete, does it?
But The Shard can compete. It’s on the right side of the river, just like the restaurant in Hong Kong. So everything you want to see is facing you. If you think of restaurants in Manhattan, you can’t see anything because you’re in the midst of it. You need distance.
The view of London at night is, of course, amazing, as we knew it would be.
Actually the most beautiful time is just before the sun starts to set. There’s no harsh light, and London comes to life. We were waiting for the sun to set to test the light fittings recently — I turned around and I was dumbstruck.
Do you think high design in a restaurant can overwhelm the actual dining experience? Critics were ready to really hate SushiSamba when it opened here.
Hutong at The Shard, by Civilian London
Were they? Well, of course, you could probably open anything here in London on the top of a building and fill it. For me a restaurant is about food and service. That’s what you go for. You stop noticing the interior after a few visits, and you could be in a corner or basement. I’m not interested in gimmicks. We are about food that evolves.
Which is interesting. Mr Chow just had a relaunch in London, and the menu hasn’t changed since the 1970s.
Well, it’s thirty years later, and food has changed. But people still like Mr Chow. You go to certain restaurants for certain things. You go to Simpson’s in the Strand for a certain feeling and look, and you go to Harry’s Bar in Venice for a different atmosphere.
Renzo Piano’s design has been met with some criticism. Some people think it looks dazzling from afar. William Pereira’s Transamerica Pyramid in San Francisco is concrete, but looks as graphic and powerful up from a block away as it is from a considerable distance. The Shard can seem grey and pedestrian from street level. And some people think it looks annoyingly unfinished, but of course that’s part of the point of it. Do you think it’s a success?
The Shard, by Civilian London
It’s very successful. Here we are talking about it. I just wish there were more budget to give us more ceiling height in the restaurants. But it stands apart from other buildings. It’s not squashed between high-rises. It’s been designed brilliantly. It would be impressive in any city.
If you could open a restaurant in any landmark in the world, which building or monument would you choose?
I would like to do something in the Eiffel Tower. It’s a great building and it could have an interesting restaurant. I’m not saying that it’s not interesting now – but it could be talked about more.
What is the resonance of the Eiffel Tower for you?
It’s iconic, like The Shard, and has that 360 degree view. There are lots of beautiful buildings that look great from outside, but don’t look good inside. We have been offered a lot of spaces in China, but the windows often aren’t right. And as I said before about New York, if you’re in Midtown, you look out and you’re staring into someone’s window across the street. You have to be waterside really, but then you’re looking at New Jersey.
Why is why Windows on the World at the World Trade Center worked.
Yes, although I never went to Windows on the World. The new building will work very well. The top of the Flatiron Building could work very well. There are so many great loft buildings around there, so you don’t necessarily need to be that high up.
And Dubai?
Well – there are so many openings and so many closures. We have had invitations and turned them down. It was scary how people left Dubai in droves, leaving their cars abandoned. Now there’s so much construction. It’s exciting, but there’s the same problem as in China – there are so many wealthy tycoons, all making their marks on buildings. Beijing has no centre or heart. It’s like L.A. You can’t congregate. There are a lots of rent free arrangements – you get lots of Gucci and Louis Vuitton on every corner.
Dubai looks like Las Vegas, but without the fun. It’s no Showgirls…
I’ve never been to Las Vegas. You know, all our competitors went to open up in Macau, and we didn’t, because it has nothing to do with food. The Chinese go and gamble, and if they aren’t being paid to eat, then they won’t.
If you were building a home for yourself from the ground up, what would it look like?
I’d want it minimalist, but not cold. I would want it green. I like wood and glass, or concrete and glass, but not pure glass or pure concrete. I don’t like things that are boxy, with hard surfaces. I would like thick wood that would age well, and ivy. I like to bring the outside in. My personal nightmare would be coming home to something that has sheets of glass that you can look right through.
So would you live in The Shard?
Absolutely. Because it would mean I’d made it. C