Jazz Night At The Chelsea Harbour Hotel!

It’s not terribly often Jonny and I would get to enjoy an evening out in London just us, but somehow we are bookending this Easter holiday doing just that! For our first foray of the break to our capital City we hopped on the London Evening Out with Greater Anglia. This ticket costs £25 and affords travellers a return trip departing after 2pm, able to return on any train that evening or until midday the next morning. We weren’t staying over for this one so we had to be on the 10,30pm meaning it was an early supper for us but actually, that’s just how we like it!

So, staying the night we were not, but we headed for a hotel nevertheless! The Chelsea Harbour Hotel located on the overground way out West at Imperial Wharf was well worth the journey we are usually unprepared to make. It’s one thing getting to London but leaving the East, where we lived for many years, is usually a task we try to avoid at all costs. However, as I said, it is almost certainly one we’d make again for such an exquisite evening!

I love fine dining and everything that comes with it. The service, the spectacle of art that food becomes and the wine flights that go with it. To accompany Friday night at The Chelsea Harbour Hotel (which looks magnificent as you stroll up the path towards it, in this very bijou area which has an air of a new, sparkly Docklands about it) is live jazz music. A pianist and string man are accompanied by a delicate, yet powerful vocalist who both commands the room and is wholly unimposing as you eat whilst enjoying the performance. It feels intimate and word has it that listening to music as you dine enhances the flavours so a couple married in great taste I would say. As much taste as the surroundings of the hotel and the waiters, who were faultless in their service, gifted us for this special evening!

An A La Carte menu is available but we opted for the set jazz night menu (£50 per head – receive 10% off your food and drink bill on Friday Night Jazz Night at The Chelsea Harbour Hotel using code RUTH10) consisting of a choice of starter, main and dessert following warm breads and an amuse bouche of the most delicious lobster bisque I’ve ever tried. We washed this first course down with smooth Champagne which really hit the mark to toast the evening in style!

The jazz playing softly grew with the evening and as the singer moved about the tables it felt very cosmopolitan and entirely in keeping with the surroundings. The hotel is beautiful (I wish we had been staying over, I bet they have the best bed linen and they were also welcoming of children – I watched staff fuss over a family who were finishing their meal as we arrived and thought then what a treat it would be to come with the whole family – watch this space) and the ambience of music with their extremely delicious menu was one we fell softly into and felt fully immersed in the enjoyment and relaxation. Nothing was too much trouble for the waiters and I could see them being as attentive to absolutely everyone in the same effortless style which looked so easy but I’m sure actually must take a lot of skill! Our starters arrived (we had chosen the same, neither of us unable to resist a scallop – I’m so glad, they were stunning) and we sipped gloriously clean white wine with them as we chatted, tapped our feet and felt like we belonged!

The main event was on its way with red wine and though I’m not usually a massive fan I had to try the waiter’s recommendation. He was 100% right in his suggestion as it paired with both my beef and Jonny’s duck beautifully. I could have eaten this meal again the next morning it was so very well cooked and full of flavour. My only slight criticism would be that we needed a bit of greenery to accompany. The duck had some peas but there was nothing green with the beef and it could have benefitted. But only ever so slightly, this is a scraping the bottom of the barrel critique!

Of course, no meal is complete without a sweet treat at the end of the meal, and, indeed, a night cap. We finished the meal with a Black Forrest Chocolate Dome and Tiramisu – both as good as we’d grown to expect from the previous courses and with an Old Fashioned for Jonny I clincked his glass with the waiter’s recommended liqueur, or digestivo as is traditional to the Italians. I may not be Italian but I’m up for having this at the end of any meal, frankly there’s no other way to finish than with the sparkliest firework!

We had SUCH a fabulous evening. Thanks so much for having us as your guests Chelsea Harbour and thanks to our attentive and very knowledgeable waiters and musicians for attending to and entertaining us. What a treat! Don’t forget that code, if you’d like to book The Chelsea Harbour Hotel to experience their fantastic Jazz Evening on a Friday night the please do use the code RUTH10 when you book to receive 10% off your food and wine bill.

We were invited to experience The Chelsea Harbour Hotel Jazz Night as guests of the hotel.