For the hubby's birthday I decided to treat him to lunch at The Plaza. It has been a lifelong dream to stay there, ever since watching Home Alone 2 as a child! However, the price of a room was phenomenal over NYE so we opted for lunch instead. Unfortunately you cannot enter The Plaza lobby unless you are a guest at the hotel. I do understand as there are literally hundreds of tourists and real guests would have to fight their way through. It was a massive shame though to be unable to even have a peak at the luxury.
After plenty of research we decided to eat at The Todd English Food Hall. You can reserve online and I would recommend doing this as it was heaving when we arrived at 1:30pm. The hall is large and you are seated at a mixture of tables and bar stools but a reservation will prevent a potential long wait! The hall has a great atmosphere, it's buzzing with people and dishes are handed out in droves. However, it is therefore very noisy so don't expect a romantic, luxurious and intimate experience. The name is quite literal, this is a food hall and I would say less impressive than the London version at Harrods but that is just my personal opinion.
We ordered two glasses of Veuve Cliquot as we were celebrating and these were a generous size. We were then advised to order three tastings between us. There are main options if you wanted to eat an individual meal but we wanted to try a few dishes. We opted for the lobster sliders. These were three very generously filled brioche rolls with lobster, brown butter, shallots and aioli. They were beyond delicious and I would thoroughly recommend them.
We also tried the prime rib sliders and to be honest these weren't too impressive. It didn't help that we had ordered too much food so by the time these were delivered we were too full to enjoy them but they were just normal burgers. Lastly we had the mini lamb gyro, which was sliced roasted leg of lamb, tahini yoghurt and a minted cucumber salad. These were well presented and delicious, however, the salad was so cold it meant the lamb was only luke warm. If these were piping hot they would have been much better. We were recommended the parmesan fries, which was a little much for our order but they were thin, crispy and tasty.
The Plaza did plate the remaining food to go, however, it didn't heat amazingly well in the microwave so did unfortunately ultimately go to waste. I was pleased we went and did enjoy the experience but I don't think it was worth the over £100 bill we received.
If I were to go back I would either order a main each or have two tasting platters and one side between two people. Obviously not drinking champagne would reduce the cost further. I would say this is definitely more of a lunch venue, the price for dinner would be high and I think when spending that level of money you deserve something a bit more sophisticated. If you want the real Plaza experience it might be better to book cocktails or afternoon tea at one of their other venues as the food court was really designed for tourists, I doubt a single guest has ventured into the basement for this experience.
In all this was not a bad lunch, it just wasn't quite what I had in mind or expected!
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