The Trading House

3 Reviews on “The Trading House”

• Lauren Hudson

  I visited The Trading House last week and had a wonderful meal! I adored the decor – I felt like I was back in colonial Britain. The decor and the approach that this restaurant takes really sets it apart.The cocktails are delicious! In fact, perhaps too delicious..! They have a spiced cocktail range, to represent the spice trade, but we opted for other drinks – namely the Breakfast Tea-tini which is a must order!We started with some nibbles instead of full starters – home made houmous with crudites, pork crackling and chipolatas. All very simple dishes in themselves, but done in the most incredible way. I adore simple food that’s done well.For the main event we both ordered from the home comforts section of the menu, option for the chicken and chorizo pie and the scampi and chips. Again, both very simple dishes but done very well. I loved good British pub food, something that I feel London lacks sometimes, but The Trading House steps up and fills that void.For dessert the strawberry and marshmallow kebab is a must!All round, a great restaurant and cocktail bar in a very handy location in London. thelifestylediaries.com

  September 30, 2015, 1:42 pm

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• Connie Consumes

  Neither of us work in the City so this was an intriguing little detour for us. Walking into the Trading House we were transported to a place where perhaps style is more valued than substance?! I commend them for going all out with the theme, from the interiors to the menus.We perused the extensive cocktail list and quirky beer and ales menu and settled on a peach and pineapple mojito and G&T where you can select your gin and tonic type- this was a nice touch. The food menu was a little more disappointing- while the snacks looked decent, none of the mains really appealed. We ordered some scratchings, pate and chipolatas and gave ourselves a little more time to consider the mains, hoping something would stand out. On this occasion it didn’t. All the starters were fine but the highlight was definitely the rich, smooth pate.We couldn’t bring ourselves to order a sad pub-grub sounding dish so finished our drinks and called for the bill, much to the surprise of our waitress. If I was in the neighbourhood again I’d pop in for a drink, but I think The Trading House will do just fine with the custom of the City suits and heels! connieconsumes.com

  September 13, 2015, 7:37 pm

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• Alice Gee

  We attended the soft launch where food is discounted 50% until June 6 2015.It’s a handsome space. Looks like a Parisian art nouveau brasserie, but is probably actually spanking new because the building used to be the Bank of New Zealand. Quite a lot of City folk, with women rather dressed up considering the posh pub atmosphere.I thought there were some errors regarding the design of the place. All evening long, staff were carrying plates up and down the rather narrow but pretty wrought iron spiral staircase. This was the same staircase used by clients to get to the toilets so there were some traffic jams. Seeing as this former bank must have had a total refurbishment to transform it into a restaurant, they really should installed a dumb waiter. But the aspect about the design that bothered me most was the noise level. There was an amplified live band playing in the bar area on the evening of our visit. Even in the restaurant section, everybody had to shout. You needed to shout at the waitress to be understood. The table next to us were trying to have a conversation which was all shouting too. The acoustics weren’t helped by the (albeit pretty) patterned ceramic tiles on the floor. Food was surprisingly good despite the slightly dull looking menu. Mostly English classics, but the menu also included dishes from the English colonies. As we were put off by the noise, we decided to only have one course. My companion had hake fillet with parsley sauce with a side of mash. The fish was nicely pan fried with a crispy skin and the sauce which contained white wine, cream and parsley was a pleasant accompaniment. There was a garnish of tomatoes and baby spinach. The mash was interesting, as it was made with creme fraiche instead of butter. I ordered the flattened rump steak served with chips and a side of coleslaw. I was surprised to hear from our waitress that there was no way to order the steak blue or even rare. Orders were put through an iPad app, which only gives you the choice between pink or well done. Pink then. It hadn’t occurred to that flattened meant that the steak would be pounded to the thickness of half a centimetre. So even ordered pink, it was actually cooked through. It was at least tender, though. Moral of the story: don’t order the rump if you like your steak rare. The chips were very good and the sweetish slaw had a sprinkle of mustard seeds.Staff were accommodating. When asked about my food I mentioned that my steak wasn’t pink, as ordered. We were offered free dessert by means of compensation, which we declined because we just wanted to get away from the noise.This venue is probably better suited for a raucous night out of drinking with colleagues, accompanied by some decent bar food. Not a date night kind of place.

  September 6, 2015, 4:28 am

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