Taking advantage of another Top Table offer of 50% off a set menu Pauline, Sandra, Jenny and I decided to sample the delights of Gilgamesh Restaurant Lounge – a restuaurant serving Pan Asian cuisine.

The resturant is a visually striking venue from the moment you climb the escalator (most nights you will be met with at least two bouncers) and up into the vaulted and impressive restaurant and bar. The style is Babylonian with plenty of carved furniture and pictures and bronzed panels (which apparently tell the story of Gilgamesh – an epic poem which is among the earliest known works of literary fictrion.)

There seems to be many different areas including a lounge area, a private table that can seat about 15 people and for which you can get your own chef and even out in the restaurant the tables are not uniform with some tables being bar style (tall seats and tables) and some being banquet style and some being round and elevated higher than all the other tables. All are made of wood and inlaid with gold-paint impressions. The chairs are particularly cool (if not practical for moving about the tables) and beautifully carved.

The question was whether the food would live up to the decor?

Gilgamesh has two set menus – one for meat eaters and vegetarian. If we’d been savy about it two of us should have gone the vegetarian meal and the other two meat but instead we all went for meat. The current selections (it appears the set menu changes every month or so because the last time Jenny came she said they had a totally different menu) were:

– Shanghai Dumpling
– Thai Beef Salad with Red Nahm Jim Dressing
– Salmon Sashimi, Shiso dressing with Daikon

for starters.

A choice of Chinese Roast Duck & Lychee Red Thai Curry or Breaded Chicken & Japanese Wheat Noodles with Onion Vinegar Dressing for mains with sides of Stir Fried Asian Greens and Steamed Jasmine Rice.

And finally we finished with Green Tea Brulee with Jasmine & White Peach Sorbet.

The food was simply divine – great attention to detail was paid to the preparation so what we got was nicely presented and quite delicious. I didn’t think that what was on the menu would be filling but as they gave us plenty of time between our starters, mains and desserts this allowed the food to settle somewhat and allow us to leave fairly stuffed. I’m not sure any one dish stood out in particular but the Shanghai Dumplings were quite tasty and dessert was superb.

From a value for money perspective I can certainly say I wouldn’t pay the full asking price of £40 for this meal but at £20 it is good value for me. Actually, I’m starting to wonder, after taking advantage of all these deals, whether the 50% offers are genuine or a cheeky way of trying to trick customers into thinking they are getting good value for money. (Though having looked at the menu online just now maybe the £40 was genuine pricing after all – £5.50 for a dim sum dish of har gau (steamed prawn) – yowch!)

But saying all this doesn’t take away from the food quality at all – it was very good. Like Jenny I wanted to see the full menu – both to see the other offerings and to check out the pricings. Of particular interest was one dish that seemed quite popular – some sort of selection of sashimi served on a base of some sort of liquid nitrogen – which was very theatrical.

From a service perspective I would say it was fairly good. There were only two aspects which I didn’t like – the way the girl tried to trick me into changing my booking from 7pm to 6pm (as if I wouldn’t keep a record of my booking!) and the fact that I felt the wait staff were hovering over our table constantly all night. Not that they were trying to get us to move on or anything but I think there were so many staff that many just seemed to stand around for most of the night.

Finally, from an environmental perspective, there were two other negatives – the use of disposable chopsticks and providing FIJI water!!

Overall I can see the appeal of Gilgamesh. It is a very cool restaurant (one of the drawbacks being the chance of attracting posers!) and for once the food actually matches the reputation of the place. It is a touch on the pricey side but take advantage of any “offers” and I’m sure you’ll have an enjoyable night. Or else blow £75 for private dining at the chef’s table for a total Gilgamesh experience.