Andy Mossack eats at Lucky Cat by Gordon Ramsay Bishopsgate and revels in its first Saturday brunch service.
Saturday afternoon in Bishopsgate and the streets were deserted. That is until I got up to the 60th floor of 22 Bishopsgate where it was quite the opposite. Lucky Cat by Gordon Ramsay Bishopsgate was performing its first Saturday Brunch service and it was full-on packed.
Sadly though, London’s highest restaurant was bereft of its headline offering – the views. The cloud cover on that grey and wet afternoon was so dense it looked like white blinds had been pulled down over the floor to ceiling windows. It seems even Gordon Ramsay has no control over the weather. This didn’t seem to deter the brunch diners though, as they were more intent on downing the bottomless drinks throughout their allotted 90 minutes.
This is Ramsay’s fourth Lucky Cat, following hot on the heels of Mayfair, Manchester and Miami, continuing his successful theme of Asian-inspired small plate shared dining, raw bar and late-night cocktails.
Once you navigate the security, the escalators and the 40-second vertical thrust to floor 60 the sheer scale of Ramsay’s investment becomes clear. It is set to be a culinary hub. Lucky Cat by Gordon Ramsay Bishopsgate takes up almost the entire floor of this monolithic city tower, but there is even more planned for later this year. The Lucky Cat Terrace on floor 61 will be the highest rooftop bar in Europe and with its retractable roof in summer, will offer guests a rarefied fresh air experience.
Also on floor 60, Restaurant Gordon Ramsay High is a 12-seat Chef’s Table experience. A premium chef to customer dining experience.
One floor down at 59, the Bread Street Kitchen & Bar by Gordon Ramsay will serve its signature dishes, cocktails, and a new afternoon tea experience. And lastly, the Gordon Ramsay Academy powered by HexClad,is also at 22 Bishopsgate, where culinary enthusiasts can book cooking classes from bao buns to beef Wellington.
Anyway, enough of my musings on Gordon’s Bishopsgate empire, as the inaugural Lucky Cat by Gordon Ramsay Bishopsgate Saturday brunch patiently awaited.
Soft jazz and soulful house sounds, courtesy of the in-house DJ, greeted us as we walked through the bamboo portal and seated at a prime window table which would have been a magnificent view of London but for the cloud cover. There is no doubting this is a magnificent space designed by long time Ramsay designer Russell Sage.
It seems no expense had been spared maximising the panoramic opportunities, with lighting set for optimal viewing with no interior reflections, plus a guarantee that every seat will get the best seated external view possible.
Trendy black industrial piping snakes around the ceiling while sputnik style lighting sprouts in between the tubes. But over by the sushi and cocktail bars, the lighting and décor is something else, a blaze of burnt orange, glass and marble. It appears to me that every centimetre of this design space has been meticulously curated. Even down to the numerous versions of maneki-neko (Japanese good luck cat figurines) throughout the restaurant from the waving versions at the entrance portal to the golden chopstick rests on the tables.
The shared 7-course brunch menu set at £55 is very good value. Kyoto cucumbers with a sesame dressing, steamed edamame sprinkled with Maldon salt, a chef’s selection sushi platter, chicken & shitake siu mai (small dumplings) with pickled ginger and spring onion, egg fried rice with xo sauce and slow cooked egg, bottomless bao buns tofu & spicy avocado and GFC bao (Gordon’s Fried Chicken) with pickles, stone bass with Thai chimichurri, and finally, the lucky lollies, a pair of ice lollies on a stick, channelling Japanese lucky candies where you get a little surprise. I’m assuming the surprise here would be the flavour of the day
Even though the menu was based around sharing there was enough food to satisfy both of us. All of it was excellent but there were some memorable highlights:
The chef’s sushi platter was an impressive array of beautifully constructed sushi resting on a bamboo and reed tray, itself on a bed of ice, with dollops of fresh ginger and wasabi. Four spicy tuna maki, two duos of delicate tostadas – tuna and yellowtail with caviar toppings, and lastly, three duos of tuna, yellow tail and salmon slices from the raw bar. Delicious.
The bottomless bao buns, each cleverly emblazoned with the Lucky Cat logo, came in three tasty trios: Gordon’s fried chicken and pickles, stone bass with Thai chimichurri, and tofu and spicy avo with jalapeno sauce and spring onion. Another triumph.
The chicken & shitake siu mai with pickled ginger and spring onion are four tender parcels of mini dumplings patiently awaiting a dunking in the nearby saucer of soy sauce. Just the right size to pick up easily with a pair of chopsticks and pop them in.
By now it was late afternoon, and the DJ had upped the tempo a notch, “I always ramp it up a little about this time, so we’re primed for the evening cocktail crowd” he told me as I passed by his deck. Lucky Cat is open until 3 am at weekends, so he’s in for a long set.
I mentioned the brunch menu leaves you satisfyingly full, but we also indulged in a couple of extras from the reduced weekend à la carte menu just to compare. A show stopping chunk of seared Chilean sea bass with sesame cucumbers (£52), sensationally tinted in a burnt orange tangy crust but beautifully white and flaky inside. And Gordon’s fried chicken tempura with hot Korean miso, kaffir cucumbers and black sesame (£17) nicely crunchy with a spicy kick.
Our lucky lollies were indeed lucky for us as we both adore caramel, and these two babies were full on with creamy caramel flavour and arrived poking coquettishly out of a bed of ice.
As with all brunches, the bottomless drinks have supplements and Lucky Cat by Gordon Ramsay Bishopsgate is no different. For 90 bottomless minutes you can add Prosecco £40, draught beer £40, Champagne £80, signature cocktails £60. There’s also a 30g Oscietra caviar supplement at £60.
Lucky Cat by Gordon Ramsay Bishopsgate is not just an Asian-inspired fine dining restaurant, it is much more than that. The vision, ambition and sheer determination to pull off such an ambitious and expensive project as this proves the Ramsay light is still shining bright.
If only he could control the weather…..
All food images (C) Andy Mossack.
Tell me more about Lucky Cat by Gordon Ramsay Bishopsgate
Lucky Cat by Gordon Ramsay Bishopsgate, Floor 60, 22 Bishopsgate, London EC2N 4AJ
T: +44 (0)207 592 1617 E:luckcatbishopsgate@gordonramsay.com
Opening times: Monday-Wednesday 11.30 am -1 am. Thursday to Saturday 11.30 am – 3 am Sunday 11.30 am -10 pm Brunch available Saturday, Sunday and Bank Holidays from 11.30am – 4pm.
