Located in the heart of London’s business district, the Andaz Hotel’s Eastway Brasserie boasts a crowd made up of tourists looking to stay close to the TFL sanctuary of Liverpool Street Station, and well-heeled professionals doing lots of handshaking and careful folding of receipts. When my sister and I paid a visit though, we weren’t here to do business (well unless you count price negotiations over parental Christmas gifts), and we certainly didn’t have a trip to Madame Tussauds on the horizon. No - we were here to eat, and boy, eat we did.
Sweeping views straight into the restaurant's bustling kitchen.
A classy Manhattan-style space complete with dark woods, plush leather chairs and a long sweeping marble bar, we settled ourselves into a window seat with a prime view into the buzzy open kitchen. Taking note of the reasonable happy hour (buy one, get one half-price), we opted for a peach bellini (£13) and a red passion (£12) - a fruity vodka, Cointreau and strawberry puree concoction best-suited for those with a hankering for a sweeter sip.
As a hotel restaurant, this place dutifully offers hearty dishes such as prawn and crayfish linguine and wild mushroom risotto, no-doubt catering for weary travellers in need of a carb-loaded cuddle. Knowing we were here for the long-haul though, we decided to kick things off lightly with a vegan-friendly avocado garden and roasted baby beet salad (both £10). A millennial mirage; my avo arrived with its stone replaced by a dollop of home-made hummus and atop a bed of quinoa, pomegranate seeds and coriander, which was punchy but not overpowering (and this is coming from someone who was once part of an ‘I hate coriander’ Facebook group, yes... it’s a thing).
Piers Morgan, what say you?
Feeling suitably virtuous after our veggie entrées, we moved on to mains, my eyes darting straight to the menu’s grill section. I opted for a juicy tuna loin (£21) served with a side of sauteed spinach and shallot butter (£5) and a humble heirloom tomato salad (£5). A hunk of fish complete with clip-art worthy sear marks; the steak melted in the mouth and was perfectly paired with the bowl of creamy spinach, the portion size of which must have equated to a month’s worth of iron intake and would have likely satisfied Popeye himself.
A pool of gravy richer than the Kardashian clan's combined wealth.
But when my sister’s feast of braised beef short rib (£20) served on a creamy throne of blue cheese mash, wild mushrooms and watercress arrived, I’ll admit, there was a small pang of food envy. Luckily (due to the fact our relationship is now beyond politeness and that she needed to nip to the bathroom at one point) I also enjoyed my fair share of hijacked mash and beautifully tender short rib, too good to be missed.
Overly full and with my sister none-the-wiser as to why, I managed to squeeze two scoops of passion fruit sorbet (£3) before finally raising the white flag, sighing that perhaps my appetite ‘just isn’t what it used to be…’
The DesignMyNight Digest
Oozing Mad Men vibes, Eastway Brasserie is another perfect example of hotel dining that goes above and beyond an impressive buffet breakfast (although if their DIY Bloody Mary station is anything to go by, they seem to nail that too). With mains not dipping much below the £20 mark though, we’d recommend bringing a corp card, or, better yet, an unknowing older sister.
Eastway Brasserie is located at 40 Liverpool Street (EC2M 7QN) and is open 7am-11pm on weekdays, and 10am-11pm at the weekend.
