HashtagLife Reviews The Rib Room Knightsbridge at The Jumeirah Carlton Tower
“May I take your bag madam?”
Quickly rearranging its contents to hide the trainer laces peeking out of it, laughing awkwardly, and maintaining eye contact to avert her glance from my tattered cotton gym bag, I handed outfit choice number one over. We had just completed a very sweaty gym session as pre-absolution to the meal we were about to fall into sin with.
The Rib-Room is bright and spacious, if breaking only slightly from the look you would assume of it: a spread fit for a scene from The Godfather. Indeed, if I was a mob-boss, I would feed all my men in a setting like this. As I walk into the fairly empty restaurant, as we have chosen 3.45pm to sample the lunch menu, I turn to glance back at the end of the open-plan dining room with a more enclosed round-table for private-dining parties behind shuttered doors open just wide enough to make those forbidden glances at whoever might be seated within. I snap myself into reality, telling my imagination to simmer down, and that we are not in a Coppola or Scorsese film. In reality, the Rib Room is charming, relaxed, spacious and airy, letting in beams of light through the long bay windows which adjoin it to its’ comfortable heated outdoor area, where you will most likely find yourself inhaling the Arabic oud of passers-by.
We take a seat on a high set table by the window and begin to calculate the foredooming meat sweats which are about to ensue. If miniature poulet is your thing, then the Free Range Chicken and Pearl Barley Risotto is a must. It is definitely a tease, but then what good starter isn’t?
For mains, be sure to try the Roasted Creedy (which, on first glance, I’d skimmed over as “greedy”, because, well, I am) Carver Duck, with beetroot purée and kale cabbage with fig sauce. Now, as is well known amongst all duck samplers world wide – there is always more promise of duck, than actual duck. So as we received our plate with its leg parmentier (basically, a leg balanced to perfection, vertically on your plate) my excitement deflated all too quickly as I thought “to eat the little leg, or to leave the little leg?” One must never finish their duck too soon, you see. And then, the unexpected emerged: beside it, a silver platter (quite literally) of a duck confit shepherd’s pie. Suddenly, there was too much duck. We ate, to our fill, with plenty to spare. The plates at the rib room are not for the meek.
The dessert menu is rich and indulgent, but the luxury of The Rib Room is that its ambience both indoors and at its outside seating area afford you the leisure of a long ,relaxed lunch. So should you need a long break between courses, you will feel all the relaxation and hospitality expected at the Jumeirah residence. This is just as well, as you need to feel figuratively “at home” (minus the sweat-pants) to allow for the Mascarpone Cream, Roasted Banana and Chocolate Delice with Salted Caramel and Rum Jelly. Presentation is executed to perfection, and qualitative ingredients make these desserts as fulfilling as they are tasteful.
Several hours and an overstayed welcome later, we decide to leave for the evening and although neither of us would admit it “retreat to bed.” As we walk out, my ears perk up with one last hope, in anticipation of Al Pacino’s voice saying something to the tune of “Tell my father, I wish to be his son” but in its absence, I acquiesce that stepping into a scene from the Godfather, will have to wait for another day.
