On Thanksgiving day in London, gloriously scheduled without work calls, I decided to enjoy the sunny weather and make the hour plus trek from Belgravia down to the Southbank area. It’s the only respectable way to “win” a donut from Bread Ahead in Borough Market. After walking around for nearly three hours in the cold, donut wearing thin (ha), it was more than to sit down and enjoy a proper, war meal. In today’s special Thanksgiving adventure, this meal would be from Aquashard.

I was seated a gorgeous corner table of the 32nd floor restaurant and treated to sweeping views of the city. The restaurant was bustling with tourists and others clearly out for a special occasion. Funny crowd, thinking back to 2013 (when I stayed in London for long periods with that one guy who lived there, broke my heart, but spurred my love affair with the city) and you couldn’t score a bar seat on a Monday night. It was nice to finally see the place, though clearly it was no longer THE place.

Lovely start for a solo holiday.

The lunch is a three course prix fixe which felt right for Thanksgiving. For my starter I opted for the tomato salad, which was literally just a tomato and some very weird, smoky walnut sauce. I don’t often detest dishes as I enjoying eating about everything, but this was really horrible. My own fault for ordering a tomato salad in the winter I suppose.

For the main, I opted for the seabass, a slight incremental on the prix fixe. It came with garlic mash and MORE tomato and walnuts. (WTH). It was tasty, but the service was dreadfully slow and by the time I asked two waiters for a glass of wine and they bothered to bring it, it was cold. Also, I think it had been sitting to the side as I slowly choked down the tomato. Clearly, a mass-produced tourist experience. Again, my own fault for thinking it would be otherwise.

I will say, dessert was delicious and not a tomato in sight. Those are strawberries. Some bits of lemon cake topped with a white chocolate mousse and a couple different textures of caramel. All of my favorite flavors rolled into one plate.

With the check, they also brought me this cute plate of truffles. Nice touch.

While the restaurant wasn’t overly decorated for Christmas, it did have this fun paint can/paint brush tree. Though, I’m not sure why, it was a cool concept.

Would I return to Aquashard? No, probably not, but it was a lovely view to be mesmerized by over the course of a couple hours. I might bring people for tea or drinks on another sunny, special occasion day, but next time I’ll leave the food and service to the pros.