Sarastro is based on Dury Lane in London's Covent Garden area. Its a well known restaurant among the theatre going community and as such is a great place to go for either an early meal pre your show (around 6pm onwards), or a late meal afterwards (anything up to 11pm)
The first thing I should tell you about Sarastro is that it is themed as an opera restaurant. Instead of normal tables in rows, when you walk into Sarastro you will see high off the ground almost ceiling level diners, who have accessed their opera box styled tables by climbing up a set of around 4 stairs and into their box. Beneath each box is a sort of cubby hole which houses another table, for those diners who either didn't book early enough to dine in a box, or who
prefer to keep their feet on the flag stoned ground. The decor is all gilt framed mirrors, velvet drapes with tassels and anything else remotely operatic in theme.
My experience at Sarastro
I ate at Sarastro pre theatre for my birthday. We had booked tickets to The Mousetrap at the St Martins Lane Theatre, and Sarastros early table was a blessing. The restaurant is very opulent, lit by candles in places, low lit by uplights in others. The music they play is purely classical music which sets the atmosphere of the place.
The food is modern European with a mixture of pasta, meat dishes, salads and sea food. As we were slightly under the cosh time wise we just ordered mains and desserts, no starters. You could get a starter from £5 and a main from £8, desserts were around £5 and up as well depending on what you wanted.
Both I and my best friend had the Lobster salad as a main course, and the two men dining with us ordered lamb cutlets. The food was all very well presented, our lobster salads were enormous with the lobster served on the half shell and plenty of delicious crunchy fresh salad. The lamb came with a selection of seasonal vegetables and new minted potatoes in a side dish for the lamb eaters to share.
We ordered the cheese platter for afters between four of us and my goodness there was just no way that 4 people could have eaten what came out of their kitchen. The board they served was actually a basket, with 6 large pieces of cheese including a lovely blue, a cheddar, brie, another soft white cheese with herbs, a parmesan (not my choice to eat raw but still) and some other soft cheese like Port Salute. This was accompanied by a selection of toasts to put the cheese on, fruit like grapes and apple to eat with the cheese and some chutney too, I think it was raisin.
We did our best but there was tones of the stuff left at the end, if we hadn't been going straight out I think I'd have asked for a doggie back, but may have looked odd turning up at the theatre with my small black clutch stuffed full of smelly cheeses!
We ordered a bottle of Verve Cliquot with the meal as it was a celebration and they served us that from a white bucket kept at the front of the restaurant, they were very good at seeing if you needed topping up.
The biggest surprise of the night was upon visiting the bathroom before we left. The entire ladies loos walls were covered with pornographic classical images from cherbs with nothing on to botachelli style robust females completely naked and showing everything they had as it were. Think the sort of love statues with enormous appendages you see on sale in Africa, or Michael Angelo's 'David' rather than playboy style soft porn!
I came back to the table laughing and the men had just discovered the same thing in their bathroom. Novel at least!
The meal came to £100 for 4 of us which wasnt bad at all considering we'd also had a bottle of champagne that cost £45.
I think Sarastro is somewhere you would love if you like flamboyant fun dining, where the food is simple but plentiful and the atmosphere is more like a cross between a theatre and a restaurant. It would be perfect for a couple looking for somewhere romantic to eat, or a group of friends or a family dining before or after the theatre, mind you I would cover the eyes of the youngest in the party if you have raised them in a sheltered way!
We just went there yesterday - and we did not like it. The food was ok. Actually planning a review on it. I should have had the Lobstersalad. Incidentally, we paid £50 without alcohol or appetizers or desserts - so it was not exactly cheap. x
shazzaspannered 04.08.2006 12:25
Oooh am planning a trip to London with my bf soon for the weekend so your restaurant reviews are providing good ideas for me! Not sure my bf would appreciate the opera styling of this place though lol
bubblegum_princess 27.04.2006 15:54
We went here for my birthday a few years ago - the best thing was my mum coming back from the loo giggling like a schoolgirl and whispering "go to the loo, now!"
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Advantages: decor is different Disadvantages: food, service, no non-smoking section offered to us, tasteless washrooms
Delicate_Orchid 24.08.2006 (24.08.2006)
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Review of Sarastro Restaurant, London
Advantages: decor is different Disadvantages: food, service, no non-smoking section offered to us, tasteless washrooms
Delicate_Orchid 24.08.2006 (24.08.2006)
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Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Sarastro Restaurant, London
Apr 1st, 2006
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