This Glamorous New Opening Brings Manhattan To London
Just like in politics, the food worlds of London and New York have found themselves increasingly aligned. NYC style pizza has overtaken Neapolitan as the choice du jour, prices are verging on the truly ludicrous, but the big, bold, brash brasserie hasn’t really taken off on this side of the pond as of yet. Nomad’s newly refurbished Twenty8 restaurant might change that.
What is a New York-style restaurant? Nuance is gleefully abandoned, and it’s as much a place to be as a place to be seen. The Nomad hotel in London was the brand’s first outpost outside the US, so it makes sense as a flagship, and a lot of work has gone into the most recent redesign to make it feel exactly that.
What sets it apart?
The new design comes courtesy of Martin Brudnizki Design Studio, who have also done up Broadwick Soho, Annabel’s and Soho Beach House in Miami, building upon the original design by Roman and Williams back in 2021. There’s more light, warmer tones, lush vegetation and a new triple-height ceiling installing a serious sense of grandeur.
The atrium-style dining room is like equivalent to a Chevrolet: roomy, luxurious, and. Aesthetic influencers include The Great Gatsby and Oscar Wilde, and it’s clearly trying to tap into a hedonistic vibe, one where another martini is always a good idea and, being a hotel restaurant, bedrooms are always tantalisingly close by.
There’s more light, warmer tones, lush vegetation and a new triple-height ceiling installing a serious sense of grandeur.
What we ordered
The revamped menu leans all the way in on New York brasserie style, with some quirky twists. There’s a deconstructed prawn cocktail, which we didn’t order were intrigued by, and a guava and cheese pastry negroni. First, however, you really have to head for the martini menu. If ever there was a place for it. House versions include a strawberry vesper martini and a dirty martini with blue cheese-stuffed olives, and you can order a miniature version if you’d prefer to remember the meal.
The menu is large, offering a pre-starter option of a raw seafood bar featuring razor clams, oysters, and live scallops. We opted for a couple of oysters, but groups might want the theatre of a whole seafood tower. Then came fluffy, truly delicious flatbread with peach and burrata, and a slightly anachronistic portion of mussels that came in a green curry sauce and a side of roti. You could question it’s inclusion on the menu, but you’ll have a much better time just enjoying it.
For mains, the lobster pasta was a glossy plate of pure, buttery indulgence, meaty chunks of lobster in a peppery, creamy sauce. Then a choice of steak. Groups can go for a giant Galician Ribeye, which for £110 would probably feed three. A more sane option is the steak frites, a guaranteed winner of a dish of sliced sirloin in a tangy peppercorn sauce with the sort of chips you could spent three solid hours eating and not get tired of.
The lobster pasta was a glossy plate of pure, buttery indulgence,
If by some miracle you have room for dessert, it’s full of crowd pleasers – exactly what you’d expect at Like the prawn cocktail, the New York cheesecake comes deconstructed, a slather of vanilla cake topped table-side with berry coulis, and biscuits on the side.
Verdict
You’ll struggle to find a better looking opening this year – the interiors really are stunning. Yes, it’s a hotel restaurant, something which still doesn’t carry the same weight this side of the pond, but this is destination dining, an extravagant midtown-Manhattan muscle-car of a spot.
where: 28 Bow St, London WC2E 7AW
website: www.hilton.com
