The Clocktower
The Clocktower has been on my list for a while and was a former 1 Michelin Star restaurant a few years ago. I ended up circling back to this restaurant because we’re desiring to eat as many baked Alaska places as possible. It’s interesting to see how many permutations of this dessert exists. We were able to book a reservation for 2 for a Friday evening without issue. The restaurant is located inside The Edison hotel on the second floor. There are some not-so-clear winding stairs that lead up to the restaurant, or you can take the elevator. In the second floor, we arrived on time for our reservation, but there was no one to greet us nor escort us. It was a confusing entrance.
Ambiance & Service
We were seated in a room where there were a lot of pictures posted on the wall. The ambiance was quite dark, but you had a clear view of the tall, expansive wine closet. In some of the other rooms, there was a bar and a billiard table.
The service was speedy partly because we had an early reservation and the ratio of servers to patrons was very good.
Food
The Camille Mélinand ($21) came from gamay grapes from Fleurie, FR 2020. This red wine was a medium body wine that had an interesting flavor that was unlike many red wines I’ve tasted. This has bold berry flavors, noticeable tannins, with good acidity. It’s definitely dry and is a beautiful match with the burger that I ordered.
The Not-A-Colada ($20) came with Tito’s vodka, coconut, caramelized pineapple, spiced syrup, and velvet falernum. This was smooth and not too sweet.
The Bread was very warm and served with creamy butter. It was delicious, and if you wanted, you could order seconds.
The Scotch Egg ($14) came with cucumber raita. They took one scotch egg and cut it in half. The scotch egg is a British delight, which is typically a boiled egg wrapped with sausage meat and coated in bread crumbs. It was OK, and it certainly was not a must order.
The Dry Aged Burger ($32) came with bacon, cheddar, churchill sauce, red onion, and chips. The burger was quite good. It came medium rare, and the toppings were quite good. The chips were decent.
The Tandoori Chicken ($33) came with coconut basmati rice, almond, pistachio, raisins, and cucumber cilantro yogurt. The chicken was quite tender and plentiful for the price. We ended up bringing part of this back home for left overs.
The Warm Sticky Toffee Pudding ($18) came with crystallized pecans, toffee sauce, and bird’s custard ice cream. This was pretty good and slightly on the sweeter side. The toffee pudding was a nice texture though.
The Baked Alaska for 2 ($24) came with black forest, kirsch, and candied croutons. My partner did not like the middle as much because it had apricot flavors in it. Also, they didn’t burn the kirsch entirely, so it was a little strong for them. Overall, the taste of this baked Alaska is respectable, but it still doesn’t conquer the baked spumoni that I had at Carne Mare.
Final Verdict
The Clocktower’s baked Alaska falls short of my expectations, but the food here is pretty reasonably priced and good. I can definitely see how the food here was a former Michelin Star restaurant, but the hype has significantly fallen post-pandemic. Nevertheless, this is still a very accessible restaurant that you should give it a try if you’re around the area if you’re into British food.
Yelp Jabs
But to our surprise, we were not offered the restaurant week menu until requested. Moreover, none of the recommended/signature dish is in the restaurant week menu. So we decided to go with the regular menu.
Usually for restaurant week, most restaurants will not offer their signature on the restaurant week menus especially at lower prices. Also generally, the options on the menu are not that great, so it’s still better to go to a restaurant for their normal menu. The only exception would be if their restaurant week menu does indeed offer the normal items as options.
Restaurant week is a great time to try new places.
No, it’s not. You need to be careful which restaurants to try since the menus can be a deceiving value proposition.
Revisions
- Sep 6, 2024 - Initial revision.