Butlers Wharf Chop House

A stunning location by the river, classic English food and relaxed surroundings The Butlers Wharf Chop House is an ideal place for lunch or dinner, especially for those with hearty appetites. London is a city that is gradually learning to use the opportunities offered to it by one of the country's major rivers, and with Tower Bridge, arguably one of the finest of its kind in the world, right on the doorstep, Butlers Wharf Chop House has not been slow to take advantage.

The spacious, airy restaurant is based on the idea of a traditional English boating house or cricket pavilion with oak lined walls and comfortable solid seating. During the summer the doors can be opened onto the riverside terrace providing outside seating and letting the diners inside benefit from the good weather too.

Head Chef Sylvain Le Gleud takes pride in making the most of Britain's natural resources and culinary heritage. The emphasis is on flavour, rather than fancy culinary furbiloes. Recently the addition of a tasty stew made with young rooks and grey squirrels has caught the public eye, but should this not appeal for whatever reason there is plenty more from which to choose.

The day starts at 8am with breakfast, ranging from kedgeree, through Loch Fyne smoked salmon and scrambled eggs to the full English, black pudding, Gloucester Old Spot sausages, or smoothies.

Much of the restaurant's trade comes through at lunchtime, but more or less the same menu serves for dinner as well and starters could include beef and onion broth with horseradish dumplings, potted Morecambe Bay shrimps, or tankards of whelks, cockles, mussels, and prawns all served in their shells with mayonnaise to hand.

Moving on, steak and kidney pudding, with or without oysters, as you prefer is a good antidote to a hard morning on the Exchange floor, with champagne to celebrate if it finally went your way. All the way from Castle of Mey comes their superlative Scotch beef, with Yorkshire pudding and roast potato to complete the dish.

From Suffolk a cut of pork loin with watercress mash and Bramley apple sauce, but few dishes seem more English than grilled sea trout with purple sprouting broccoli and English butter sauce. A fisherman's pie has a proper Cheddar crust, with mashed potatoes to fill any places the pie misses. During the game season Sylvain also prepares special dishes that offer the best of the season, each day's menu depending on what is available and all the birds used are wild not farmed.

As well as featuring British cheeses, with the Welsh rarebit as a savoury, his dessert menus do not miss out on sticky toffee pudding with clotted cream, treacle tart and bread and butter pudding with custard, with rhubarb trifle as a healthy option to all those calories.

The Chop House has a comfortable bar, which also has a food menu that features some of the classic dishes from the restaurant, and a set menu of daily specials. The bar stocks a fine range of traditional English beers including Hook Norton and Black Sheep Ale. The bar also offers a brunch menu for the weekends - what could be more civilised than sitting out on the terrace of a sunny Saturday morning absorbing brunch and the morning paper before moving on in the fullness of time for a little mild activity, defying the famous Churchill dictum.

For more information and to view The Chop House menu in full, do visit their Website.