Corner Room, 2nd Floor, Selfridges, 400 Oxford Street, London W1A 11AB

Corner Room, 2nd Floor, Selfridges, 400 Oxford Street, London W1A 1AB

06/05/2013

www.selfridges.com

She said: Though Selfridges is my favourite shopping spot in London I’ve never actually eaten in any of its restaurants and always thought of department store restaurants as a pit-stop for marathon shoppers (of which I am not one). But a quiet revolution has been taking place for a while now with department stores sharing the same realisation as museums that it’s worth throwing out the school-like canteen serving slop as there is money to be made in creating dining spaces that might be destinations in themselves. So off we went to the new Corner Room in the fashion department of Selfridges – the first restaurant of the 2012 MasterChef joint winner Keri Moss. After navigating the maze of fashion concessions on the second floor to find the Corner (which turned out to be one of the last corners we looked in) a bright, art-deco space greeted us with pale blue and blonde wood tones. The maitre-d’ was apathetic to our arrival but did his job at seating us adequately. The room is a comfortable size and the atmosphere and furnishings are equally comfortable and smart. The menu offers a good choice of British fare at prices you would expect for an eatery of this kind. I do think it is cheeky when waiters in an upmarket restaurant try to ‘up-sell’ – and my pet hate in such restaurants charging for bread but asking if you ‘would like some bread’ when you sit down with the implication it is complimentary (as it is 90% of the time in restaurants of such calibre). I’m going to call this the ‘values test’ in future – places that think they need to charge a few quid for putting some welcome bread on the table are driven by the money not the passion. I ordered the sea bream which came with a red pesto which was a decent portion and good enough but the side of greens was extremely stingy. The chocolate cake was a winner although a bit too much ice cream which then melted washing out the pure chocolate taste of the cake. Our waiter must have previously worked in a nightclub or had tinnitus given his volume and was so zealous I had to hold on to my plates and drinks for fear of him whipping them away mid-meal. I’m going to be bold and say I don’t see this place lasting if my initial observations are anything to go by; Corner Room is aspirational which is misguided looking at the casual tourists and shoppers at other tables; it has the feel of being a ‘business’ above all else and although the food was largely good and prices fine (at £70 for two for two courses and coffees), the impersonal approach left me cold.

He said: as far as food goes, it would never occur to me to go to a department store, for anything more than a snack or coffee break. It’s no different than going to a hotel, I guess, but for me it’s one of those irrational things. Maybe couch time would unearth a gruesome trauma connected to the self-serve department store meals of my youth, although I do remember those pretty fondly. If any ironic, east-end hipsters are reading this maybe there’s money to be made digging-up that particular nostalgia. So, although the food was fine, The Corner is not for me. But for ladies who lunch it must be close to ideal. It’s in the world’s best department store, the room is cosy, flooded with lots of natural light, nicely decorated in a soft, retro Scandinavian style, and the modern British menu is really well thought-through: something for everybody and all of it familiar yet gently inventive. If I actually ate dead mammals I would have found it much harder to chose. And prices are pretty good too. The things I didn’t like are minor things that you expect from a new opening and which sort themselves out over time: the service was a little off, and the maitre d’ was all wrong: I don’t think I’ve ever encountered one more sullen or disinterested; this goon must’ve been filling in. I won’t be going back because of my phobia, and because it’s not really that special, but you should try it, especially if you’re into Masterchef, or if you’re the kind of maniacal shopper who gets so caught up in the spending frenzy that her blood-sugar level drops so dangerously that immediate celebrity food is required.