Restaurant Review: Paramount Restaurant London

Do the rules of etiquette go out the window when dining 32 floors up? Last night the woman at the next table to me was merrily tap, tap, tapping away, Blackberry in one hand, attempting to eat her steak with the other. Her dining partner looked on as if this was the most natural thing in the world to do.

"Maybe she is a doctor on-call", the other half said, when I pointed this out to him. The very large glass of wine she was glugging said otherwise. Surely nothing is more important that the person you are dining with?

Image Source: Paramount

Anyway, we were at Paramount, the restaurant located on the top floor of the Centre Point tower and the views were stunning. The sprawling metropolis that is London was beautifully lit-up, stretching as far as the eye could see.

The restaurant itself is impressive. The interior, designed by Tom Dixon, was slick and classy with lots of dark wood and a geometric copper bar, all of which was framed by huge glass windows making the most of the fabulous vista.

Image Source: Paramount

Oh and Paramount also does food, funnily enough, for that is why we were there, and it didn't disappoint. I had the lobster tortellini with courgette chutney to start. Tender parcels of pasta filled with melt-in-the-mouth lobster. Segments of warm grapefruit gave the dish a surprising zing.


The other-half had the scallops & chorizo, which came with a sweet potato purée with cauliflower and cumin, which he said was delicous.

The only minor niggle with the starter was the glass plate the scallops came on. Food just doesn't look nice on glass plates, I much prefer crisp white china, which allows the food to shine.

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For the main course I had a small but perfectly formed piece of seabass, which was cooked just right and was served with a very tasty truffle gnocchi, baby fennel and delicious, salty samphire. The dish was topped of with a caviar cream, which was very good but I did think the caviar a little unnecessary. 

The other half had the five spice monkfish with saffron risotto and crab spring roll. The oriental flavours of the monkfish worked well with the risotto, although I didn't get to taste the spring roll as it was demolished too quickly.

Demolishing the food wasn't particularly hard and I almost laughed when the waiter asked if we had left room for dessert. Yes, don't expect to leave this restaurant stuffed as the portion sizes are definitely on the small side.

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We did indulge in dessert and I had the brilliant mille feuille of pecan with mapled roasted apple and yoghurt sorbet. It came with a little nest of orange flavoured spun suguar, which combined with the other ingredients created a fruity explosion in the mouth.

The other half had the valrhona chocolate puddings. We learned that valrhona is a French chocolatier. It consisted of five petite desserts, of which four were apparently delicous. I only tasted the less delicous one a dark chocolate tart which tasted a bit burnt.

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Overall the meal was fantastic. The service was just the right side of attentive and the staff were happy to make recommendations or explain some of the more obscure ingredients.


After dinner we took a stroll around the viewing deck and took in the views one last time. I would definitely recommend Paramount, in fact i'd recommend it just for the views.


Paramount, Centre Point, 101-103 New Oxford Street, London WC1A 1DD. +44(0)20 7420 2919.