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We’ve never been able to review Carousel restaurant for the simple reason that it is not a restaurant. Not in the conventional sense. Instead of having A Chef, it brings in a succession of chefs who do dinner residencies lasting anything from a few days to a few weeks. The chefs are not ‘slebby names but their CVs have a tendency to include hotshot restaurants all over the gastro-globe. And they are a diverse bunch, everything from Middle Eastern to Mexican and with loads of hybriddy hijinks going on as well.
There’s a single sitting at dinner for a fixed four-course menu. Some chefs dish out pre-dinner snacks, some dish out extra courses. Doors open at 7pm and things normally wind down by 10pm or 10.30pm, but lingering is allowed.
A ride on the dinner carousel costs £35 plus £2 booking fee. Go to the website to buy tickets or ring 020 7487 5564. Officially tickets are non-refundable, but if you have a genuine reason for not being able to make it, they are reasonable people. Wine starts at around £20, cocktails are all £8.50. Around 20-30 percent of customers are repeat visitors; following international coverage, they’re also getting people from overseas.
And if you don’t want dinner, they have recently started doing something totally outlandish by their standards: having lunch cooked by the same people every day they’re open (Tuesday through Saturday). That means we can review them after all. And you know what? We may well do just that. Watch this space. Until then go try it for yourself and let us know what you think.
In other culinary news, the Queen's head has been turned into a chocolate lollipop.