'Refurbished and lively, with private dining'
What used to be Balls Brothers Brook Street is now more grandly 'Mayfair Exchange' and has seen a refurbishment and redecoration. Gone are all but two of the old archway areas to be replaced by table seating but the two private dining rooms have been retained. Prices have jumped accordingly but the 5-7pm Happy Hour marks down many food items and wines/champagnes by 50% so the time to go is after work and order tactically from the Happy Hour reduced items.
The general 'cellar' atmosphere is lively and chatty with a conversational buzz. Menu is boosted with daily boards and the 'steak and lobster' option (£20) is a good dinner. The giant platters are a visual delight but somewhat madly priced. The seafood one, a stunning looking chrome bowl on spindly 'war of the worlds' legs is overflowing with crushed ice topped with prawns, crab in shell, half lobster, 8 oysters, smoked salmon pieces and dips. This makes a dramatic entrance but isn't a filling meal despite it's immediate size 'wow' impact on arrival.
The small pieces of smoked salmon in half oyster shells don't amount to much and the half lobster was too puny to make it to even the one-bite snack section of a Predator's lunch box. I ended up wishing I had ordered this for my companion on her own and had the steak and lobster option. At a normal price of 55.00 this is I feel well overpriced but with Happy Hour at 27.50 not so bad. My companion declared the prawns 'too tiny'.
My companion, a young Russian model is a very good drinker, so downed most of our two bottles. Bill including the usual 'voluntary' 12.5% was £78.. and that's WITH the Happy Hour reductions, but I ended up hungry enough to need to eat a whole meal later at home.
Having booked a 'quiet table at the wall' we ended up surrounded by a chattering office party mob 'in our faces'. To the credit of the staff we were, upon making this known as less than fun, immediately whisked off to one of the private rooms.. which made for a much more delightful and intimate evening...! read more