• Home
  • Cocktails
  • Culture
    • Dance
    • Opera
    • Theatre
    • Outdoor
    • London Sights
  • Featured
    • Books
    • Home Delivery
    • Recipe Kits
    • Giveaways
    • Homes and Gardens
  • Recipes
    • Meat
    • Soups
    • Lunch
    • Starters
    • Mains
    • Sides
    • Desserts
    • Cakes and Sweets
    • 5:2 Diet Recipes
    • Fish and Shellfish
    • Meat
    • Poultry
    • Vegetarian
  • Restaurants
    • Bloomsbury and Fitzrovia
    • Bermondsey, Borough and London Bridge
    • Chelsea
    • Camden
    • City of London
    • Clerkenwell
    • Covent Garden
    • Docklands
    • East London
    • Kings Cross
    • Knightsbridge
    • Kings Cross
    • Kensington
    • Marylebone
    • Mayfair
    • Oxford Circus
    • Oxford Circus
    • Paddington
    • St James
    • Soho
    • South Bank
    • South London
    • The Strand and Embankment
    • North London
    • Victoria and Pimlico
    • West London
    • Out of London
    • Miscellaneous
  • Travel UK
  • Travel Europe
    • Belgium
    • Croatia
    • Czech Republic
    • First Visit
      • Bulgaria
      • Netherlands
      • Poland
      • Romania
      • Slovenia
    • France
    • Germany
    • Greece
    • Italy
      • Sicily
    • Ireland
    • Portugal
    • Spain
    • UK
  • Travel Other
    • Caribbean Travel
      • Antigua
      • Barbados
      • Grenada
      • St Lucia
    • Ecuador
    • Egypt
    • India
    • Qatar
    • Mexico
    • Oman
    • Rodrigues and Mauritius
    • Sri Lanka
    • USA

London Unattached - Luxury London Lifestyle

Luxury London Lifestyle for Metropolitan Singles and Couples - food, travel, restaurant reviews - London Unattached

You are here: Home / Restaurant / Out of London / The Reach Bar and Kitchen, Gallion’s Reach

The Reach Bar and Kitchen, Gallion’s Reach

February 19, 2014 by Fiona Maclean 18 Comments

Tweet
Pin
Share
Flip
Share

Last Updated on June 26, 2016

Reaching into East London:

My lack of any sense of direction is legendary.  It was perhaps foolish to rely on being able to use the GPS homing device on my phone to home in to the Reach, and even more unwise to rely on google maps (though I did clutch a rain soaked printed sheet of A4 which should have helped).  Particularly as the website for the Reach Bar seemed to show the area with an altogether different topography.  My tip of the day – the Reach Bar website is really rather more accurate in this case than google maps.

The Reach - Oysters

Of course it was cold.  Of course it was wet and windy.  And dark.  That sort of night when you REALLY don’t want to walk three times widdershins around East London’s largest and bleakest roundabout, approaching any passer-by with what must have seemed an inexplicable despair.  Perhaps twitter isn’t the ideal way to communicate with  would-be dining companions either, though they both tweeted back intermittent messages of support and encouragement.  Hindsight is a cruel mistress at times.

In the end two helpful students, perhaps noting the despair on my face and fearing I might throw myself into the Thames, walked me through a very unlikely scrubby path to ‘the only pub they knew in the area’.  Thankfully I’d arrived at the Reach to be greeted with a warm welcome and a chilled glass of fizz.  The world was alright at last.

Was it worth the trek?  Well, we were unlucky to have picked a particularly inclement night.  And, the ‘astonishing views over the Thames’ were shrouded by the storms.  I suspect for that reason The Reach Bar is a better destination venue when the weather is better.  But the staff were friendly and helpful (I arrived to be greeted by the owner at the door just back from venturing out to try and find me).  And the food and drink was well beyond the average London ‘gastro-pub’.

So, we ate well, though perhaps not as amazingly well.  My soup was pleasant, well flavoured and rich with a good ‘home-made’ texture,  but I was just a little bemused by the balsamic glaze decoration around the bowl.

The Reach - Soup

Fresh Atlantic prawns were peeled but left with heads and tails on for easy eating.  Served with Aioli and Salad it made for one happy woman across the table from me.

The Reach - Prawns

And the Oysters Gratinee (grilled with a cheesy topping) were reported to be excellent by Tasha from FoodIFancy.  They did look like the star number.

I was looking for comfort food and a burger seemed the most promising of the main courses to deliver.  With chips of course.  Again, very prettily decorated with a balsamic glaze.  The burger itself though was a satisfyingly unpretentious patty of good quality beef served up with a salad garnish, home made bun and a generous topping of melted cheese.  The Reach promises to use local ingredients where-ever possible – and has a freezer-free commitment, so you are guaranteed fresh food every day.

Burger - the Reach

My friend’s lamb (chops rather than cutlets) were subjected to the balsamic pen again, here perhaps for the first time the most convincing and legitimate use.  The lamb was tender and melting, in a rich balsamic gravy.

The Reach - fish and chips

Even the fish and chips appeared on a plate decorated with a balsamic glaze.  Perhaps the chef was trying to send us some kind of subliminal message?  For whatever reason,  the food was unaffected.  The batter was nicely crisp and golden, well cooked and well presented and the fish inside perfectly white and flaky.  I rather liked the presentation of the salads too, generous portions in small oblique bowl which allowed the content to be nicely dressed.

the Reach Crumble

Although I wasn’t particularly hungry dessert beckoned! – for me more comfort food in the form of apple crumble, which was delicious and appeared with ‘proper’ custard.

The Reach - Chocolate Brownie

The rich, sticky chocolate brownie came similarly garnished and accompanied.

All very delish.

The Reach Bar provided an excellent evening of beyond normal pub food.  I’d love to have this place on my doorstep.  While for me, the food isn’t sublime enough to make me want to take the journey of over an hour on a regular basis, I can see that it would be a great destination pub for a Sunday lunch or a summer evening meal with a group of friends.  Oh and TRUST the website directions rather than google maps!

 

We dined as guests of The Reach Bar

The Reach Bar
Gallions Hotel
Albert Basin Way
E16 2QZ

T: 020 7476 8689
info@thereachbar.co.uk

 

Filed Under: Out of London, Restaurant Tagged With: East London, gastro pub

About Fiona Maclean

London based freelance writer and marketing consultant. I edit London-Unattached.com and write for a number of other publications. With a music degree and a background in marketing across many sectors, my passions include all types of music, food, restaurants, wine and travel

Comments

  1. Teresa Sheldon says

    April 13, 2014 at 10:39 pm

    Thanks for a good review this looks really great and interesting and we hope to visit it soon

    Reply
  2. Jeanne Horak-Druiff says

    March 4, 2014 at 7:21 pm

    LOL – you were literally on my doorstep 🙂 I live just down the dock so this is one of my locals. Missed the launch but will definitely have to check it out!

    Reply
    • Fiona Maclean says

      March 4, 2014 at 9:16 pm

      let me know if you need the pr contact jeanne and I hope you are healing up well!

      Reply
  3. Stevie Wilson says

    February 25, 2014 at 1:55 pm

    I hate it when google isn’t correct or the instructions I have been given require another “head” to even GET there
    annoying and frustration abound — but sounds like the food was awesome!

    Reply
  4. Janie says

    February 24, 2014 at 1:36 pm

    Corrr, you had me at those oysters! They look bleddy ‘ansum 🙂
    Janie x

    Reply
    • Fiona Maclean says

      February 24, 2014 at 2:03 pm

      I could see us all hanging out there for an evening;)

      Reply
  5. Morgan @ Peaches, Please says

    February 22, 2014 at 8:29 pm

    I don’t understand, where was the balsamic on the desserts? I mean, come on, why wouldn’t you make fancy balsamic designs on a brownie? 😉

    Reply
  6. Bintu @ Recipes From A Pantry says

    February 20, 2014 at 10:45 am

    Funny about the balsamic glaze overuse. Maybe someone had just learnt about it?

    Reply
  7. Sylvia says

    February 20, 2014 at 8:44 am

    Desserts looks delicious but I’m also up for prawns and chippie!

    Reply
  8. Pamela Morse says

    February 20, 2014 at 4:21 am

    Finally arriving does sound like a relief. The soup look like my style, and I wonder too why balsamic drawing is so popular there..

    Reply
  9. Heidi Roberts says

    February 19, 2014 at 10:36 pm

    You are lucky you got food! We arrived at 8:00pm and by 10:30 we left having ot been served tapas and not even had our starters!

    It was hard to find and out of the way. The food we had was nice but not worth the journey!

    Reply
    • Fiona Maclean says

      February 20, 2014 at 8:05 am

      I think you went to the launch party though Heidi? This WAS a meal review

      Reply
  10. Karen says

    February 19, 2014 at 6:55 pm

    Sending balsamic greetings Fiona, and as usual, a well thought out and informative review, Karen

    Reply
  11. Glamorous Glutton says

    February 19, 2014 at 3:04 pm

    The food looks delicious but I’m bemused by putting sticky balsamic on the edges of the plate, strikes me as fancy schmancy for the sake of it. GG

    Reply
    • Fiona Maclean says

      February 19, 2014 at 5:29 pm

      it did seem a bit bizarre – but the food itself was great! I guess we all just got a bit fixated with what else would have the balsamic

      Reply
  12. Alison says

    February 19, 2014 at 1:52 pm

    I am so glad its not just me that has a terrible sense of direction. The food looks gorgeous

    Reply
    • Fiona Maclean says

      February 19, 2014 at 5:27 pm

      it WAS funny! And I really should have thought in advance!

      Reply
      • Fiona Maclean says

        February 20, 2014 at 9:50 am

        it was a cheffy trend over here;)

        Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




Follow Us

  • Bloglovin
  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • StumbleUpon
  • Tumblr
  • Twitter

About London-Unattached

  • Enquiries/PR
  • London Unattached Contributors
  • London Unattached Privacy Policy
  • Media Pack

London Unattached Newsletter

Sign up for our newsletter here. We promise not to spam - and you can unsubscribe at any time

Recently Published

  • Emilia’s Crafted Pasta – Wood Wharf
  • Lotus Beauty – Hampstead Downstairs
  • Ivy Asia Magic of the Blossom Dragon Menu and Beyond

The Frugal Flexitarian

Looking for more recipes? Check out our new site, The Frugal Flexitarian, for easy, cost effective recipes to enjoy at home.
Find My 5:2 Diet Recipes quickly and easily

Find Us

blogl
VuelioTop10Badge2020

Copyright © 2022 · Magazine Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in