Thursday 24 December 2015

Dairy & gluten free? Why you won't be left feeling blue at Indigo, One Aldwych

It's not often that The Hub and I get to go out without the kiddo. If she knew she'd be furious! 

It was my birthday and The Hub urged me to meet him for lunch in London... no jeans allowed apparently! 

It soon became clear that he had something special in mind. It turned out to be the restaurant at One Aldwych which we had heard of via the Twitter grapevine. Actually, One Aldwych is the name of an hotel - immediately opposite the Lyceum theatre. The restaurant, Indigo, serves everything completely dairy and gluten free! It sounded amazing, but of course the proof is in the pudding - or the consumption of it anyway, so off I hopped to London.


You could walk past it and miss it - the building used to be a bank!

The restaurant itself is on the first floor, accessed via a very snazzy lift. Lit in pink, would you believe?? We were quickly seated and service did not take at all long to begin. Samphire and Onion bread accompanied by rapeseed oil soon made an appearance. Strictly speaking, it was slightly more like a scone in texture, but it was absolutely delicious. I loved it!

I actually ate it all, but remembered to take a small quick shot, before it completely disappeared!

There was a Set menu that looked very reasonably priced but I ordered a starter from the A la Carte menu. 

Cured Loch Duart Salmon

That was followed by Rhug Estate organic lamb (accompanied by a side of new potatoes) which was probably the best lamb I have ever tasted. It was necessary to order the side of potatoes, but The Hub chose Monkfish, which came with a bowl of rice and chilli crackers.

The lamb was full of flavour and cooked to perfection.

Proof may be in the pudding, I was just happy to have a pudding at all. Usually one is offered sorbet, if anything, and THAT is just too acidic for my stomach, but actually I had a list of five desserts from which to choose. Torn between a chocolate mousse and figs in mulled wine, I opted for the latter, which came with a scoop of hazelnut ice cream. It was gorgeous!! 


Normally fruit is NOT a dessert, but these figs in mulled wine passed my test ;)

My only criticism is that I might have liked a slightly bigger scoop of the ice cream, but really that's because I enjoyed it so much it left me wanting more! And also, truth be known, I am a little bit of a piglet anyway.

The food certainly wasn't cheap - the main was £23 in itself, but then located where it was, right in the heart of London, it was certainly reasonable for the location and being free from the usual gluten and dairy, it was worth the extra as a wonderful birthday treat. If you can get there, I'd definitely recommend it! It was the absolute best dairy and gluten free food that I have ever tasted, whilst eating out!


For further posts about Eating Out see here.


Please note: 

This post is not an advert. I have not been paid to write this post. I am not sponsored in any way, even by advertising. I do not receive products free to review, although I have often been offered them. This is to try and maintain an unbiased approach. All views expressed are my own (unless I've asked for The Hub's or Kiddo's).