Cara may be more of a Marvel fan herself but it didn’t stop her from appreciating the impressive DC themed décor of Park Row restaurant at Brewer Street.
From the outside it’s the usual grey stone Piccadilly Circus building, but quickly changes its style as soon as you step foot inside. You are greeted with study room theme of blue and mahogany book shelves.
Then a book case opens up to a large Gotham city spiral staircase leading to the main dining room, which is just one of many of Park Row’s hidden secret rooms.
Park Row is a themed restaurant inspired by DC comics with many magic tricks up its sleeve. They have the famous Kiss from a Rose dessert that many travel from far to try, my very excited friend tells me as we enter the restaurant.
The main dining room continues with the teal velvet theme bringing it a few tones lighter and adding pastel pinks, yellow and blue in one of the bars stretched along the wall.
The second round bar that steals your attention is finished in dark wood with an ice sculpture of a penguin at the very centre.
Despite being a themed restaurant, the first DC restaurant in London in fact, Park Row is quite a classy establishment, a bit like Bruce Wayne.
They serve all the classics such as champagne, caviar and an impressive list of spirits, plus an a la carte menu and afternoon teas, they just do it with a twist, like themed dishes rabbit terrine “Rabbit in a Hat” and theatrical cocktail “The Lotus Flower Fountain” and “Dark Knight”.
We visited for the Amusement Mile DC inspired afternoon tea. The theme certainly lets the chefs step away from the uninteresting sultana and raisins scones that almost always sit on afternoon tea 3 tier stands.
Instead we enjoyed delicate mini raspberry scones, a bit of a Harley Quinn touch, I presume? With a proud display of Joker petits gateaux on the top tier, as he always likes to make a grand entrance.
The tier was topped with purple heart with passion fruit center coulis and white chocolate rose with splashes of purple and green filled with a delicate lychee jelly.
The savouries included a truffle egg sandwich, coronation chicken with turmeric bread, spiced aubergine and the classic smoked salmon and cream cheese.
My guest was a fond of the spiced aubergine, it reminded her of a ratatouille and goulash she said.
While I loved Park Row’s take on coronation chicken, I’m not a fan of turmeric but the spice was exceptionally mild so it pleasantly surprised me.
The contrast of the softest bread and the crispy coated chicken, which sustained the crisp texture despite being topped with a generous portion of date puree and Mulligatawny, was impressive.
We paired our afternoon tea with earl grey loose tea and a glass of NV Lauret- Perrier. The tea has endless refills. For an additional of £2.50 you get access to a page of more loose varieties such as Chocolate Noir, Triple Mint, Jasmine Pearls to name a few.
The experience was complimented by attentive and polite staff. And I don’t normally comment on the seating but the armchair style chairs were outstandingly comfortable too.
The two hours flew by swiftly. We could easily have stayed there another 2 hours but we had chores to do that evening.
Park Row, 77 Brewer St, London W1F 9ZN
parkrowlondon.co.uk