The Cube by Electrolux proved so successful this summer that its original four-month run has been extended to run from October 7th to January 1st 2013
The unique dining concept is a celebration of Electrolux Professional expertise, and brings together some of the most pioneering and innovative chefs in the UK.
Double Michelin star chefs Sat Bains, Claude Bosi and Daniel Clifford will be joined by the winners of ‘Ramsay’s Best Restaurant 2010’ and Michelin star holders Jonray and Peter Sanchez-Iglesias, as well as Scotland’s Michelin star chef, Tom Kitchin. All of the chefs are supported by Electrolux daily in their own restaurants.
The chefs, who have been handpicked from around the British Isles, will present a unique menu using locally sourced ingredients to complement the incredible setting, as well as giving guests the chance to interact and watch their food being prepared. Serving a minimum of five courses, dishes will be accompanied by specially matched wines and unique sound and light concepts, to make the experience one to remember.
From its enviable position at Southbank Centre, the semi-transparent structure – which has been created to represent Electrolux’s Scandinavian heritage – will provide guests with outstanding views over the Thames including Westminster and The London Eye, which can be enjoyed both inside and from a large outdoor terrace.
Visits to The Cube by Electrolux are priced at £175 per person for lunch and £215 for dinner Monday to Sunday.
The Cube by Electrolux
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All In London Review
A great showcase for Simon Rogan (and Electrolux)
As mentioned in the previous review, there is one long table with 18 places, which has lent itself to a mixture of corporate bookings as well as friends and couples. The second run has already seen Tom Aikens, and Sat Bains in the kitchen, and future chefs include Atul Kochhar, Tom Kerridge and Claude Bosi. Today we are here for lunch prepared by Simon Rogan, famed for his Cumbrian restaurant L’Enclume, recently awarded its second Michelin star.
The kitchen is in full view of the diners, and Rogan himself explains each dish as it is served. The first course is cod yolk – a dish served at L’Enclume – with kale, squid ink and sorrel. The kale has crisped up and the yolk is deliciously runny, just like a real egg, except this is made from cod mousse, and is one of the many instances where Rogan displays his technical brilliance.
A turnip broth is thick and creamy, with sliced truffles, dumplings and drops of marigold apple to cut through it. Next there is a dish of autumnal vegetables, with crunchy carrots, cooked beetroot, foraged herbs, fresh curds and salty pork skin.
A hunk of plaice which has been poached in brown butter melts in the mouth, topped with mussels and oxalis root, a vegetable that a quick Google search reveals has its origins in Latin America. The guinea fowl, with perfectly crisp skin and juicy meat, comes with a dollop of stewed offal and drizzles of Pennyroyal cider.
There are two desserts, the first is wholemeal stout ice cream coated in blackcurrant, dominated by the heavy flavour of liquorice. Better is the lemon verbena, pear and hazelnuts; the lemon verbena takes the form of a desiccated sponge, pear jelly is transformed into dark slab-like pieces, and both are served atop crushed hazelnuts.
This is a fantastic way to get up close and personal to some of the UK’s best chefs (as well as being a great PR exercise for Electrolux), it’s just a shame that the prices mean only a lucky few are able to experience it.
Reviewed by Leila
Published on Nov 14, 2012
The square root of a very impressive meal
So it's quite timely that Electrolux have decided to bring their Cube concept to London, after stints in Milan, Stockholm and Brussels. Perched atop the Royal Festival Hall, it's perfectly located to exploit the iconic Thames river view it commands, just along from that other rooftop dweller – the boat perched on the roof of the Hayward Gallery. It's also, whether by accident or design, situated so that when seated you do not have to look at the hoards thronging the Southbank below. After all, this is all about exclusivity so we don't want anyone impinging on our experience now do we?
It's a clean, not quite cube-shaped white and glass box, with a terrace in front to take in the view, a few photos, amuse bouches and some champagne before being seated. It was sunny the day we visited, but seeing ominous clouds and rain roll in would be just as impressive a vista.
The Electrolux branding is not too in your face, bar a few logos; the kitchen is in plain view so diners can see what's going on. The room seats only 18 on a single long white table. For me, the experience is akin to secret dining (remember that??), where the first thing you do upon being seated is introduce yourself to your fellow diners, and prey they aren't complete douches. Assuming they aren't, your meal then takes on an added social dimension.
The Cube has six Michelin-starred chefs on its roster, each preparing their own selection of dishes, and on our visit we had the pleasure of two-starred French chef Claude Bosi, patron of the Hibiscus restaurant in London (the others being Sat Bains, Daniel Clifford, Jonray & Peter Sanchez, and the aptly named Tom Kitchin).
This was a seven course blow-out with wine pairing. Topped and tailed with Claude Bosi's trademark Hibiscus flavours, the menu took in seasonal produce such as charlotte strawberry, pink grapefruit, asparagus, and fresh peas. I enjoyed not having to decide what to order, and if you are going to hand over the decision making process for your food and drink to the establishment, this is the sort of place to do it.
Stand-out dishes were the confit of asparagus with burnt hay, cornish cod with girolles and lancashire mead, and for dessert a rather unusual combination of strawberry, celeriac jelly and a Sczechuan pepper cream, which left one's mouth all a-tingle. Service was slick, friendly and informal, with plenty of explanatory notes on the accompanying wines.
So you’re thinking it all sounds pretty top-notch and worth a look? Well here's the but, and it's a fairly big but – the price. At £175.00 for lunch and £215.00 for dinner, it ain't cheap by anyone's standards. At Claude Bosi's own restaurant an eight-course menu is £105.00 without booze. I was told the pricing was intended to reflect an equivalent meal at the respective chefs' own establishments: that's fair enough if you are the sort of diner who works their way through the à la carte and the wine list. At least you know you're not going to get hit by a surprise bill at the end – here the price includes everything you eat and drink.
But it's a lot of money however you look at it. As it's a corporate sponsored event, it would have been nice for Electrolux to have taken just a little bit of the sting out of the bill. For those considering a visit, the selling point of the Cube lies not just in the food and drink, but the chance to get up-close and personal with a top chef. Here, with only 18 covers to serve, he's pretty chilled out with plenty of time to impart his wisdom. And if you're not bothered about that, there's always the view…
Reviewed by Matthew B
Published on Jun 27, 2012
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