New restaurants in the Shard: how to eat your way up London's tallest building

As two new restaurants — Lang and Ting, both in the Shangri-La hotel — make London’s tallest building a pinnacle of fine dining, Rosamund Urwin has a plate with a view in each of the Shard's eateries
Haute cuisine: Rosamund Urwin tucks into a David’s Mess at Aqua Shard (Picture: Rebecca Reid)
Rebecca Reid
Rosamund Urwin9 May 2014

"Would you like to eat the Shard?” the Standard’s food editor asked me this week. Once I'd established that she meant a dish at every restaurant in the skyscraper, my heart sang, as my mouth began to water. I’d struggle to dream up a jammier job.

For I am a London skyline evangelist. Each new skyscraper — liked or loathed — is a reminder of the daring and optimism of this city. Much like the Gherkin before it, I started out a Shard critic and became a convert: now I delight when its blades pop into view and acknowledge its power as a navigational tool for geographical muppets like me. And how better to enjoy the views it offers of the rest of the capital than over a five-course meal?

I’m not alone in that opinion. Last year, the most-visited restaurants were those at altitude. According to Squaremeal.co.uk, the Shard’s Oblix came top, despite only opening in May, while Aqua Shard (a floor down) took silver and Hutong, a floor up, was sixth.

Now, the building boasts a hotel too, with the launch this week of the Shangri-La. London’s first elevated hotel occupies floors 34 to 52, with prices starting at £450 a night. By that token, the restaurants offer more wallet-friendly ways to see the London landscape. Although after feasting there, you might — like me — leave a little rounder and less Shard-like than you entered.

LANG, ground floor

Chocolate Temptation, £6

My meal starts at Shangri-La’s patisserie-cum-café, which is tucked away near the front desk. Lang — which opened on Tuesday — has a Gail’s Bakery vibe, only sleeker and with an added sprinkling of glass and class (huge Wedgwood tea-cup sculptures adorn the tall walls).

The dish: in a move that was met with raised eyebrows by other Shard staff but cheered by my sweet-toothed self, my “appetiser” was a huge, diet-destroying slice of cake. Chocolate Temptation consists of a soft chocolate sponge, with green and red fruit tea infused in the ganache and a raspberry compote, decorated with gold leaf. It was glorious — moist, dense, not too rich, not too sugary. I had to be restrained from bursting into the kitchen and proposing to the pastry chef.

The view: Unless staring at a Starbucks is your idea of panoramic perfection, you’ll need to get in the lift if you want food with a view.

TING, 35th floor

Scallops, £18

Next, I zoomed up 420 feet to the Shangri-La’s main restaurant. Ting means “living room” in Chinese, the idea being that guests feel at home there. Of course, it’s nothing like my living room: it’s seen a Hoover in the last year, for starters. Still, comfy seats.

The dish: Ting serves both Asian comfort foods — curry laksa, wonton noodle soup — and European dishes with an “Asian twist”. Most of the ingredients come from nearby Borough Market. As a starter, I picked the scallops with carrot, ginger and coriander. They were fat and fresh and not overwhelmed by the other flavours — another scrape-the-plate-clean course.

The view: ★★★★★

My first few minutes after arriving at Ting were spent in open-mouthed awe, gawping out of the floor-to-ceiling windows. You’re almost as high as the London Eye; my table looked over Tower Bridge and the bend in the river towards Canary Wharf, but it’s more fun to play Megalomaniac Overlord and focus on the tiny people and the Dinky Toy cars on the streets below.

Eat the Shard - in pictures

1/10

HUTONG, 33rd floor

Dover sole, £29

You have to travel down 127 metres to go back up 123 at the Shard, although at least the lifts are the super-swift kind that make you feel as though you’ve stepped into the future. Hutong is the entrepreneur David Yeo’s contemporary Northern Chinese restaurant and the one critics seem keenest on, be they Shard-huggers or Shard-haters. It’s beautiful inside, with traditional red lanterns and a wishing tree for the kids. As soon as I sat down though, a loud-speaker warned that we might need to evacuate the building. Drama at 400 feet! Or, according to staff, just a regular test of the alarm.

The dish: I ordered one of the Hutong signature dishes: pan-fried Dover sole in coriander-vinegar sauce. The fish came filleted, but with the battered bone underneath for decoration. It was full of flavour and perfectly cooked.

The view: ★★★★

Almost as spectacular as Ting’s. St Paul’s! The Gherkin! That skyscraper with a silly nickname! And, er, what’s that? God, I don’t know — Disneyland?

OBLIX, 32nd floor

Suckling pig, £24

A floor below Hutong is Oblix, where the menu resembles a New York grill. Oddly, you enter through a dark, stone-walled corridor with running water and candles. It looks like a spa — you half expect to stumble upon men in white bathrobes. Instead, you land in an open kitchen, walking past hanging meat — presumably intended to elicit the traditional Pavlovian response. It was buzzing, with every table taken.

The dish: from a menu for carnivores, I chose the suckling pig: as rich as the City types eating lunch around me.

The view: ★★★

London still looked appealing, if from a slightly more awkward angle than at Hutong. But I fear view fatigue had set in by now. I almost longed for a table facing a wall.

AQUA SHARD, 31st floor

David’s Mess, £7.50

David Yeo’s second restaurant in the building, Aqua Shard, offers contemporary British cuisine. It’s a grand room, although the lunch area reminded me of the lower deck of a cruise ship, and you miss much of the spectacle by eating there. Luckily, they put us where afternoon tea is served, offering the best views in the house.

The dish: I picked Yeo’s version of an Eton mess: a massive ball of meringue with guava sorbet inside, vanilla Chantilly and raspberry cream. It was the perfect pud.

The view: ★★★★★

After three hours staring at an overcast city, the sun came out. The Square Mile glistened, the Thames turned pewter and I could finally see London in her best light.

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