Restaurant/ InnsThe Butlers Wharf Chop House

[bobarella, 22.05.2007] I went along to the Butlers Wharf Chop house on saturday for lunch with friends and had a great meal. If you like traditional English fare, riverside surroundings and a high level of service I'd say the Chop House will score pretty highly for you.

The BW Chop House is part of the Terrance Conran group and one of 4 other Conran restaurants in the immediate vicinity. It is housed in an old wharf building that is located about 15 minutes walk from London Bridge station and about 2 mins walk from Tower Bridge.

I often check the Conran website and had discovered last week that the Chop House was offering a St Georges day menu starting from the friday and offering a choice of 5 different british traditional pies in homage to our traditional british dish. At £9.50 per main course I thought that sounded like a good excuse to visit so I recruited some others and booked it up.

I had no trouble booking and indeed when we arrived at 1pm the restaurant was almost empty which surprised me a little. When I had last visited the sister restaurant La Pont De La Tour the restaurant was bustling by 1 but then that was a week day.

The Restaurant

We met up outside and entered the restaurant by the main entrance on a quiet cobbled street. You are led into the reception area and offered a choice of sitting inside or outside. As it was such a lovely sunny day we chose outside. Had we remained inside the layout of the restaurant was light wood panelled walls, and a quiet traditional feel generally. Nothing really stood out to me decor wise but the tables were well spaced and I'd say they could handle around 100 people if busy.
We were led out to a table right on the water front again at this point no one else was sitting out there. Although it was in my opinion warm they offered to put the overhead gas heaters on to take the edge off which was nice of them.
The menus and wine list were brought out which had the St Georges day menu inside but also you could order from the main a la carte if you prefered. A different waitress came and took our orders for water while we looked over the menu. We ordered a large bottle of sparkling to begin with. On the St Georges day menu was a choice of (taken from Conran website)

"Five different pies, each made with traditional methods and from historically derived recipes and names; from the traditional Cottage Pie to the more unusual Bloaterman's Pie made with Smoked Fish, Cream Sauce & Dill, all priced at £9.50 each"

In fact there was Cottage Pie, Shepards Pie, Bloatermans and I dont remember the other two!

I chose the Bloatermans pie and my two companions the Shepards and Cottage pies. We were informed when the waiter came back that these all came with a selection of spring green vegetables. In addition we ordered 2 dishes of purple sprouting brocoli, some grilled mushrooms and some chips (yes my friend really did order chips with a potato based pie!) but when I saw them I agree he was right to do it!

We skipped starters in favour of dessert which I will tell you about shortly.

We were offered bread from a large tray brought out by a waiter, there was a wide selection of brown, wholemeal and white, some of the whites were herby breads which were really nice, I had a piece that seemed to be rosemary.

20 minutes later our mains came out and looked fantastic. Each one came in a dish on a side plate, each one was topped with lots of beautifully creamy mashed potato that had been piped on. My fish pie was lovely just the right amount of smoked and white fish and several large tiger prawns all mixed in with a very creamy sauce. The side orders of veg were each enough for 2 people to share and the chips as mentioned above were large and thick cut and served stacked like Jenga pieces.
Im told that the other two pieces were delicious too, they certainly looked like they contained generous helpings of minced meat and vegetables.
We all enjoyed the mains and took our time over them looking out over the water and enjoying the close up views of tower bridge.
I popped back inside before our desserts and found that it had become fairly busy since we arrived, there were by now also another 3 full tables outside so maybe on the weekends the butlers wharf chop house picks up a little later for lunch, around 2 instead of 1 during the week, I'd have to pop back and check.

For our desserts we each chose; 1 lemon curt tart with honey icecream (me) 1 sticky toffee pudding which looked and smelt gorgeous, and steamed apple pudding with cinamon custard.

Mine was great, sweet, tart lemon pie filling served on a piece of thick pie pastry, there was a layer of the thinnest crunchiest carmel type thing over the top of the lemon which gave as soon as you bit into it. Just lovely. The only thing I will mark it down on slightly is that the base was just that little bit too thick. I had trouble cutting into it with a spoon or a dessert fork which isnt great, but it tasted lovely so not too much of an issue.

I was very jelous of my friends sticky toffee pudding though which came out served with a syrupy type sauce over it and I could smell it so much that I almost had to order a second dessert. Definately a reason to return to try that one.

After dessert the coffees and teas we'd ordered came out in the what I now understand to be standard Conran silver tea/coffee pots. The waiter pours you your first cup and leaves the pot on the table along with milk and sugar.
Finished off the meal nicely.

Just so you know on their normal menu these are the sorts of things you could expect to find (taken from their website)

LUNCH MENU

FIRST COURSES

London Particular soup
Wild mushroom & tarragon tart
Smoked duck, beetroot & pickled walnut salad
Roast pigeon, wild garlic pancake & home cured bacon
Severn & Wye smoked salmon, watercress & lemon
Cornish razor clams, herb crust & garlic butter
2.00 supplement
Potted Morecombe Bay shrimps
Six Colchester rock oysters

MAIN COURSES

Fish & chips, mushy peas
Fishermans pie, potato crust

Spring vegetables & puff pastery, cheddar sauce

Steak & kidney pudding
With oysters - 2.00 supplement

Roast Suffolk pork loin, watercress mash & apple sauce
Charcoal grilled 10oz sirloin steak & chips - 4.00 supplement
Roast rib of beef, Yorkshire pudding & gravy

DESSERTS & SAVOURIES

Welsh rarebit
Devils on horseback
English cheese selection, apple chutney & celery

Lemon curd tart, honey ice cream
Selection of home made ice creams & sorbets
Bread & butter pudding, custard
Sticky toffee pudding
Chocolate & marmalade mousse
Steamed apple pudding, cinnamon custard

2 courses £22.00
3 courses £26.00

Minimum of 2 courses

Cost

The total bill for the three of us came to £105 so £35 a head and this included service.

Really enjoyed our experience and the lovely staff there made it even better. I'd recommend it to any of you looking for somewhere up market to celebrate a special occasion or on a sunny day just somewhere to come and have a slap up meal overlooking the river.

Address

Butlers Wharf Chop House
Butlers Wharf Building
36e Shad Thames
London SE1 2YE

Tel: 020 7403 3403

Nearest Tube - London Bridge or Tower Hill