Rarely has the City been a destination for diners. Sure, it’s convenient for workers whose offices are nearby, but to make a journey there specifically for lunch or dinner and the venue would have to be pretty special. Ekte is not. It’s meant to be a showcase for Nordic food and has credibility in being backed by the owners of nearby stalwart 1 Lombard, but much like Scandinavia in general, your reviewer was left feeling cold by the whole experience.
Ekte’s location doesn’t do itself any favours, being part of the behemoth that’s the Bloomberg Arcade; just one restaurant in a lengthy parade of venues, each adorned with an identikit sign (presumably courtesy of the US data provider). Tall skyscrapers lour overhead. All the table talk is of deals and bonuses, or a lack thereof. Inside Ekte, it doesn’t get much better. Even if the Scandis may like minimalism, it is taken to an extreme here. The walls are black. The staff’s general demeanour seemed influenced by this colour choice too. Fortuitously we sat outside where there was a semblance more of ambience, although it was hard not to notice that diners at nearby Brigadiers seemed to be having much more fun.
Our server offered no suggestions as to how we should set about deciphering the menu. Fortuitously, my dining comrade had spent a long time in Stockholm and so steered us away from the range of open sandwiches (and suggested aquavit pairs – an unnecessary novelty if ever there were one) towards the range of more conventional starters and mains. Pricing is fair – especially by City standards – with the former at around £10 and the latter roughly double. Salmon Gravadlax (pictured) followed by a guinea fowl main were both executed competently and were hard to fault, but it felt like this was dining by numbers; food off a metaphorical conveyer belt, delivered with zero panache or passion.
When it came to drink, Ekte really excelled itself – in a bad way. With aquavit at lunch being a step too far, we stuck to wine. I selected an Alto Adige Pinot Noir from the decent enough list. Our server brought it and I highlighted the bottle was too warm. No problem, it was taken away. Ten minutes later (by which time our starters had almost been and gone), the bottle returned. Still too warm. We were told it would come back next time chilled. It was not. A second bottle was eventually opened and our server departed knowing a little more about appropriate serving temperatures for different varietals. This was not an experience I would ideally like to repeat.