Glass Room

Dinner on a boat may seem a tad like a tourist trap, but Bateaux London’s Glass Room, a floating restaurant that journeys up and down The Thames, was a pleasingly fun experience.

The new boat departs form Embankment Pier for a memorable trip on the water, with a stylish Tom Dixon-designed interior, live music and river views of some of London’s most iconic land-marks. With the anchor coming up for lunchtime, afternoon tea, dinner and Sunday lunch cruises, there’s plenty of opportunity for messing about on the river.

The British menu champions seasonality with all food freshly prepared on-board by the kitchen’s highly experienced brigade of chefs. Our normal Friday night dinner had an upgrade as we set off for a three hour cruise, leaving port just as the sun started to go down.

Our dinner, accompanied by the dulcet tones of a jazz singer and grand piano, launched with a refreshing pea and mint velouté with coconut yoghurt, sumac and a Cheshire cheese sablé. To start, a delicious warm cherry tomato, caramelised onion and goat’s curd tart with a tangy red pepper essence was. The main course of free range chicken ballontine, pearl barley risotto, as-paragus and broad beans was a delicate combination of mellow summer flavours. their signature dessert of Bateaux Mess is a twist on a classic Eton with strawberry, basil and elderflower infused white chocolate and meringue, a lovely delicate pudding ahead of a (admittedly somewhat small…) plate of Isle of Mull Cheddar, Colston Basset Stilton.

While the food was tasty enough as one would expect from such an establishment, dinner is al-most second in place to the view. Thankfully there’s plenty of time between meals to make the most of the boat’s viewing deck, as throughout the course of the cruise you’ll trundle past such iconic sights as the Houses of Parliament, Big Ben, The London Eye, Battersea Power Station, all the way down to Canary Wharf in the east and back under Tower Bridge. I’d hazard a guess as to spending almost as much time outside on deck as I did at my table enjoying dinner. The lure of photographing London’s skyline twinkling in the skylight was too much.

With lunch packages from £39 and dinner from £59, it’s a delightful experience on the water and an opportunity to get a glimpse of London up close and personal; if you fancy yourself as a snap-per you’re in for a treat. We sat next to a couple on holiday from Canada, both keen photogra-phers, who said they’d been on several cruises around Europe and this was undoubtedly the best.