The Gallery at Fortnum and Mason

The Gallery at London's iconic Fortnum and Mason department store is a wonderful place for lunch, and I was lucky enough to find myself there with my two favourite people on Sunday. Just up the stairs from Fortnum's amazing food hall, The Gallery focuses on seasonal ingredients for menus that highlight foods available in the Fresh Food Hall.  


Their menu has lots of variety and caters for just about every taste, and they also offer a spectacular afternoon tea. We chose from their lunch menu and were very impressed by the dishes that were on offer. 


My husband and I both ordered fish. I had one of their daily specials - loin of cod on a bed of cannellini beans - and my husband had a wonderful fillet of John Dory served on a bed of shaved yellow and green zucchini in a light lemon sauce. 

Loin of Cod on Cannellini Beans

John Dory

Our son chose the rib eye steak which was served with a herb butter and chips.

Sadly he was not given a steak knife, and unfortunately he did need one. The flavour of the meat was nice but the steak itself was on the tough side. The chips, on the other hand, were wonderful.


We also ordered a side salad and some sauteed spinach, both of which were lovely. There is a superb wine list and wines are available both by the bottle and the carafe which I always think is a nice touch as sometimes a bottle is just too much at lunchtime. We shared a beautiful Sancerre.


It did take us rather a long time to order our desserts after our main course plates were cleared away. I am sure there is no way we can have offended our waiter as we were very enthusiastic about the food and incredibly polite, but he became utterly distracted and at one point stood and stared off into space ignoring all his tables while other waiting staff flew around him. When we finally managed to discreetly attract his attention after about twenty minutes we were able to order some lovely desserts and very refreshing coffee.


I chose a Tarte Tatin - which was listed as apricot, but as they did not have enough in season apricots I was served the traditional apple variety. (The waiter did tell me this as I ordered.)

It was outstanding - perfectly caramelised and not too sweet. My husband chose the raspberry Eton mess. 

A glorious retro fuschia, it tasted lovely (he shared) with a perfect balance of tart fruit and sweet cream. I was also allowed to taste this beauty ordered by our son.

A brandy snap with cooked cherries served a la mode, this was one of those 'why didn't I think of that' desserts - simple but spectacular. The cherries were neither too sharp nor too sweet - in fact they were the perfect flavour and texture. Even my husband, who is not a fan of cherries, really loved it.


We had a wonderful lunch at The Gallery. I would not recommend their steak, but everything else was absolutely scrumptious. All the dishes were beautifully presented too. The service was rather hit and miss, but I'm hoping that it was just a one off, and I will definitely be returning to find out!