When I hear “themed restaurant” my mind immediately goes to fancy dress birthday party’s, and stag or hen do’s. When you add into the mix that it’s a Batman themed restaurant, I lose all interest. Not that I don’t like Batman, but I’m not much into cosplay, unless it’s Halloween. Personally, I wouldn’t call Park Row a themed restaurant, I would say it’s more Batman inspired.
Walking down Brewer Street in Soho, I was not prepared for the sheer size of Park Row. Step inside the modest door and you are greeted by a lovely gentleman, dressed in his best attire, standing inside a very small living room, in character. If you’re a Batman fan, you will notice small nods to the films around the room. The gentleman then opens up a secret bookshelf and leads you to a very smokey, dark, and extremely dramatic spiral staircase. A hazard if you’re trying to film an insta story on the way down, like I was.
Once at the bottom, you walk through another dramatic doorway, into the restaurant. At first, I thought the theatrics were over, and I was in for a normal dining experience, but I was wrong.
The theme is carried out excellently and in so much detail, I was impressed. From the giant ice sculpture penguin in the middle of the room, to the Harley Quinn-esque neon lights in the bathroom, it was clear to see the thought behind every aspect in this venue. The idea is to give the customer the sense of what it would be like to be an affluent menace to Gotham’s society.
Food
As any opulent criminal would, start the evening off with caviar and oysters, after all you’re only in Gotham once! The menu is as extravagant as ever, including an entire “Gotham City Harbour Platter” consisting of lobster, scallop ceviche, mussels, spider crab and more.
The food was good, but the presentation was better. As I already mentioned, the attention to detail at Park Row is impeccable, even down to the Gotham City Gazette newspaper that the fish and chips were wrapped in, with the headline “mutated smiling fish swim to shore” making reference to The Joker.
It seems every dish has a link to the DC comic. If you can’t work it out yourself, you just have to ask one of the knowledgeable staff. The desserts were my favourite, with the “riddle me this” dish arriving with an actual riddle, and the insta friendly “kiss from a rose”, not just being a stellar track from the Batman Forever soundtrack, but it is also the rose Martha Wayne, Batman’s mum, was holding when she was killed. Apparently.
I ordered:
- Morecambe Bay Oysters
- Potato Croquettes with Lobster
- Mulligatawny Soup
- Castle Wayne Hand Dived Scallops
- The Joker Fish (fish ‘n’ chips)
- Wild Seabass
- Riddle Me This (dessert)
- Kiss From a Rose (dessert)
To add to the dramatics, you can also order something from “Amusement Mile”, which I think was the little trolley going around to different tables with smoke coming out of it. This includes nitro ice-cream, nitro popcorn and edible balloons, which honestly just looked too messy to even attempt.
I’ve written a lot about how everything looks, and to be honest, that is the main selling point here. All of the food was tasty, and there’s no doubt that the seafood was fresh, but whether it is better than any other good quality restaurant, I’m not too sure.
Drinks
The show continues at the bar, with one of the cocktails being poured out of an actual picture frame. If you want to know why, ask the bar person for the story behind it. I have no doubt there is one.
Park Row have created their own cocktail menu, with aptly given names of course. The fact that there are at least three bars (that I could count), means that they are very well stocked with everything you could want.
Atmosphere
Grandiose elegance is how I would describe the setting of Park Row. From velvet seats, to a gold stage for the live Jazz band to perform, the entire restaurant err’s just on the right side of “too much”. That is until you sneak into one of the extra rooms in the back, hidden behind velvet curtains, created for the more discrete criminal masterminds. A nice change of scenery indeed.
Price
The brainchild of DC and Warner Bros isn’t going to come cheap. Starters are around £14, mains range from £19 to £44, and the sharing platters come in at around £90. The cocktails are between £13 and £14.
I had a starter, main, dessert and two cocktails and spent £137 including tip.
If you want to try Park Row on a budget, you can book their set lunch menu, where you can have two courses for £24 or three courses for £28.
Overall
If you want to dress up as poison ivy and have a few too many cocktails, don’t come here (you won’t be let in anyway). Despite the theme, Park Row is an elegant yet slightly flashy venue to wow your friends or a special date.
Think birthday’s, anniversaries, or just a bougie Friday night. It’s definitely worth it. Find out more here.
Like extravagantly themed restaurants? Try Amazonico.
