Harrod’s Food Hall
Red Velvet Cupcake
Banoffee Cupcake
Carrot Cake Cupcake
Sea Salted Caramel Brownie
Black & White Cronut with Speculoos
Fruit Scone / Chocolate Scone
Deep Fried Butter Croissant
Undoubtedly a touch touristy given its historic stature and always chockablock full despite its seemingly endless size it should go without saying to anyone who has even heard of Harrod’s that the store itself is site to be seen, and with Restaurant Gordon Ramsay having served a luxurious lunch several hours prior to the cross town spectacle of John Cleese & Co. at The O2 Arena it was to the fabled Food Hall that I turned – a bounty of provisions gathered to both proceed and follow the show. Bold in scene and in scope with over a million square feet offering “all things for all people” yet mostly featuring items best suited to the ladies sporting Burberry Prorsum in the Knightsbridge streets suffice it to say that as much as the fashions may indeed shine, for many patrons the focus of a visit to Harrod’s falls squarely on the food; an all encompassing collection of items ranging sweet to savory, hot to cold, familiar to foreign, and prepackaged to fresh prepped. Perhaps a bit over-focused on quantity over quality but certainly not for lack of both it was with an admittedly leery eye towards how well meat pies and scotch eggs would hold up to the rush-hour tubes that I perused the Hall’s wide selection and although disappointingly quite sparse in British sweet specialties it was still at the boulangerie and patisserie that I invested my funds, a tally of eight items from which an oily sugared croissant would quickly end up in the trash while the others would largely prove pleasant, the gooey brownie with a river of caramel and sticky-sweet banoffee cupcake far exceeding the rest, though neither showing as well as the pastries from Fortnum & Mason or the Maison Laduree under the same roof.
RECOMMENDED: Banoffee Cupcake, Salted Caramel Brownie, Chocolate Chip Scone
AVOID: Deep Fried Croissant (not to be confused with the cronut which was actually quite decent.)
TIP: With no dedicated seating in the food hall for persons not dining in one of the restaurants be sure to request your items be carefully packed if you are planning to travel any distance, otherwise take note and try to find a spot amongst the droves seated in the square outside watching various street performers sing and dance.
www.harrods.com/food-and-wine
