Inside the Runnymede on Thames Hotel sits the Lock Restaurant. The location is pleasant, the surroundings nice and the area stunningly beautiful.
The lovely setting, in trendy surroundings, with views of Thames, sets things off nicely. There is a huge outdoor terrace with patio heaters and nice wooden garden furniture. The atmosphere was light and cordial, and everything was set for a nice dinner.
The Lock serves an a la carte dinner menu, which we had while there. It’s a mix of dishes from around Europe, including plenty from England, using locally sourced ingredients. Service was reasonably fast, with waiting staff always seeming busy. We weren’t kept waiting for long, before, during, or after our dinner.
Our starter was spinach soup with crème fraiche and nutmeg with pastry straws and courgette and pea risotto with parmesan and basil.
The soup was warm, rich and very flavoursome. The nutmeg gave the flavour a nice bite, and the pastry straws added calm to the mix. The risotto was a nicely cooked, green dish. The courgettes and peas were obvious in their flavour and texture and worked well within the dish as a whole.
Main course was fillet of sea bass with spring onion mash, tender stem broccoli and sauce vierge. We also had Cotswold lamb rump with buttered spinach, grilled comfit potatoes and Provencal sauce.
"Just enough of everything to satisfy, but nothing that would blow you away."
The sea bass was lovely and meaty. It was well cooked and still very succulent. The spring onion mash was very summery and worked will with the broccoli and the vierge. The lamb was juicy, pink, hot and tasty, just the way we like it. The spinach and potatoes were both rich and tasty, grounding the lamb nicely in every bite.
Desserts were rhubarb and vanilla panaccotta, crème brulee, chocolate orange cake and champagne jelly. We were in a sweet mood, so indulged a little bit on dessert.
Each dish was just the right measure of sweet, being lightly balanced and great on the palate. The rhubarb was just the right level or tart, the crème brulee was just crispy enough on the top, the chocolate cake had just enough orange, and the champagne jelly had just enough fizz.
That about sums our meal up really. It was just enough of everything to satisfy, but nothing that would blow you away.
The Bill: £35 per head
