Londoners love a rooftop. And Sky Garden is often where Londoners go for their first rooftop experience.
Sky Garden is busy, buzzy and free, provided you’re happy to wait in a long queue. Meanwhile 14 Stories is the quieter neighbour for when you’ve outgrown the tourist checklist and want something sharper.
Although there is a queue to get to the free part of the rooftop, The Garden at 120, it’s shorter and less competitive than the Walkie Talkie. Yet the views are just as brilliant and the fun part is you get to see Sky Garden from there.
If you are visiting the bar or the restaurant you skip the queue, which is exactly what I’m doing, through the security and up in the elevator to the 14th floor.
It’s a Modern British restaurant and a bar adorned in real leafy greens overlooking London through floor to ceiling windows, it’s quite a stunner really.
Our nighttime shots, of course, don’t quite capture its true magic. But having checked with professional photographers in the past apparently there isn’t a way to take a good shot of the city lights through glass after dark.
So we just admire it instead while sipping on a cocktail by the bar, the kitchen here opens at 6pm. I keep it classy and stick to a glass of perfectly chilled bubbles and my guest tries the Sabbatical Spritz at the non-alcoholic list.
It’s grapefruit zesty and very in theme with the tropical greens that surround us.
The food menu at 14 Stories has a fair amount to choose from the grill, a few vegan dishes and fish including Cornish John Dory.
It’s the latest wild fish I’ve been seeing on both the London restaurant menus and fish markets.
A great fish to try, white flesh, subtle and a little sweet, especially best enjoyed September to March. June to August are to be avoided as it’s breeding season.
But let’s start with the starters, as you naturally would, while diving into the boules of fresh bread with butter. I just love the individual whole mini boules, the all around crackling crust revealing fresh soft middle.
Large loaf slices just don’t give you the same treatment, no matter how much the staff keep it away from the air there’s always a bit of a weathered side.
We keep our dinner very sea orientated today starting with yellowfin sashimi, a mountain of white radish, delicately spiced with a Japanese 7 spice – togarashi and rounded off with toasted sesame seed oil.
The oil is my staple when it comes to raw fish, it just adds that gentle, toasty complexity that elevates the flavor without overpowering it.
For my guest it’s a very generous portion of oak-smoked salmon, the salmon slices are carefully arranged in a cylinder, traditionally the center is made of crème fraîche making it more of a crème fraîche with salmon.
But on this occasion salmon is the main dominating component topped with a teaspoon of crème fraîche, capers, dill and Avruga caviar.
My earlier mention John Dory main here is presented in a unique way, a bit like “I wanted it all” dish.
A trio of fish fillet with chicken and mushroom sauce, fried chicken wing roulette beside it and sautéed King oyster mushroom in the third column.
A little odd you may think but it’s rather thoughtfully composed and eachcan be enjoyed each on its own or better as the three together.
For my guest it’s a perfectly tender native lobster with an eye catching bright green garlic and parsley butter dressing.
Among the sides — truffle fries, French beans and creamed leeks — it’s the French beans that linger in my memory. Still delicately crisp and shimmering with oil, I can’t but keep reaching for them as though they were fries but better.
To sweeten up our visit more I think we picked the best desserts on the list, poached pineapple which is stacked perfectly cut pineapple, and chocolate Aero for myself.
With just a tap of a spoon, the chocolate glaze breaks with a satisfying crack, inside is milk chocolate parfait and a zesty passion fruit caramel – a dessert where every detail feels just right.
Google rating gives 14 Stories 4.4 but to be honest I don’t understand why it’s not higher. It has it all: excellent staff, beautifully crafted dishes and stunning views.
14 Stories, 14th floor, 120 Fenchurch St, London EC3M 5AL