Review: The Trading House

The Trading House – Tradition in the City of London:

When Catherine and I were invited to review The Trading House we were told by the PR to meet at one of the exits at Bank station where we would met by a mobile bar. I was expecting a stretch limo and Catherine something involving pedalling and margaritas being mainlined into our veins.

I was genuinely thrilled when our mode of transport turned out to be an original 1906 horse-drawn Omnibus that used to run on the Euston route.

Even better news was the fact that our barman Ricardo was insisting that I try a watermelon martini.

The Trading House is spectacular new pub just opened on Gresham Street in the heart of the City of London. Decorated with quirky Victoriana (don’t we all have a stuffed albino peacock at home?), it’s located on the site of the former Bank of New Zealand building dating from 1912. The food offer is ‘inspired by the deli, rotisserie and BBQ’ and the drinks list mines the area’s trading heritage with a selection of spiced-twist cocktails, a traditionally British G&T list and an extensive range of global craft beers presented in a rather natty booklet.

I sank a couple of well-blended Cardamom Old-Fashioned  (£8.95), one of the spiced cocktails, whilst we checked out the menu. The food offer has a wide variety of options ranging from starters/nibbles to deli boards, the exciting sounding ‘hanging kebabs’ as well as dishes from the rotisserie and BBQ.

Drinking without eating is always a bad idea and as I was on my 3rd cocktail some herby olives (£3.25) and ‘Salt and Pepper’ onion petals (£3.75) helped soak up the excess alcohol. The onion petals were more chunky than the name suggests but still good!

Prawn cocktail (£7.50) was a pleasant deconstructed version of the classic and Calamari (£6.25) were crisp and hot from the fryer.

For our mains both my hake fillet in parsley sauce (£13.25) and Catherine’s  pan-fried sea bass (£14.95) were a little overcooked but the sides of mash and the little gem salad (with oh-so retro salad cream!) were both robust and tasty.

For our dessert we shared an excellent sticky toffee pudding (£4.95) which had lots of flavour and some decent vanilla ice cream. Coconut and banana kebabs were fun if slightly silly!

With live music every night The Trading House is a great place for a date or a post-work social with lots to keep you entertained. The team behind it have made a real effort to honour the building’s Victorian history and created something quite idiosyncratic  that makes a pleasant change from many of the identikit new city pubs that are springing up. Well worth a visit.

The Trading House
89-91 Gresham Street,
London EC2V 7NQ
020 7600 5050