The Lockhart: serving Southern style comfort food in London


If I could, I would move to Seymour Place. There are so many great restaurants popping up in and around that area. And the best part is, they are not massively popular or trendy unlike most places you go to in Soho – so for the same quality of food or even better, there’s much less hassle making a reservation. These restaurants are central being right next to Marble Arch yet so unknown to the masses that they get to retain their local, neighbourhood feel and ..NO QUEUES! None of that “no reservation” stuff and even if you do turn up without one, they always try to accommodate you. I remember once we went to Donostia – the Basque tapas restaurant  on the spur of the moment  and were told it would be around 15 minutes and we could wait at the pub next door. 10 minutes later, one of the owners of Donostia pops by into the pub and tells us our table is ready! How refreshing is that?




And now the new kid on the block is The Lockhart. Technically not terribly new, they opened last year but the menu was totally different. It had a sort of tex-mex feel and I remember thinking it wasn’t very appealing. Well, that’s all changed now – they’ve re-vamped the restaurant, got a brand new chef and team and serving up some good ol’ Southern style comfort food – something that I’ve never really seen offered in London. I’m talking about fried catfish and gumbo, shrimp and grits – all the tradition classics from the Southern states like Louisana and South Carolina.

The fried goujons of catfish were melt-in-your-mouth delicious served with mustard-y creole sauce and the gumbo – a slow cooked stew with okra and duck and served over rice was so comforting I wished there was a bigger bowl of it. I chose the shrimp and grits as my main and I loved it. I guess the best way to describe grits would be that its like savoury smooth porridge topped with bacon and chopped spring onions and had this moreish saltiness that I couldn’t get enough of. Honestly, the grits were so good; I was ignoring the shrimp, which was actually pretty faultless.


I arrived rather early for our reservation so I whiled away the time chatting with bartenders downstairs at the bar. They have a gorgeous Mezcal bar but it was rather empty. I guess it’s so brand new that no-one really knows about it. However, the good reviews are slowly starting to pour in and I can see it gaining in popularity. Yet with its simple minimalist space and excellent service, I don’t see it ever losing its chilled out Southern charm.

The Lockhart

22-24 Seymour Place London W1H 7NL
Tel: 0 203 011 5400
Tube: Marble Arch

Lockhart on Urbanspoon


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