The Wolseley in Piccadilly

By Allan Yap & Nigel A. Skelchy

Gerry and Henrik suggested brunch at The Wolseley, a single star Michelin restaurant. Since we had already planned to go to Ubon by Nobu on another night, we weren't too enthused seeing as food in London is extremely expensive. Especially, Michelin starred restaurants. We were having visions of a bill of about £50 PER PERSON. G and H assured us that that was true usually but The Wolseley was different in that it was very affordable for great food. On top of that, it's a place where celebs like Rupert Everett hang out. With that recommendation, it was hard to say No. Hey, as a tourist, in for a penny in for a pound. I'm not a celeb watcher usually, but when I'm on holiday...what the heck.

The Wolseley was originally a car showroom for, you guessed it, Wolsely cars. The pencil and ink drawing above tells it like it is. That central section between the pillars is now home to a sectioned off sideboards with seating in the centre of it. The floor is now all carpeted. It's a beautiful building but photography is NOT allowed inside. When asked if I could take a few pics, our waitress, Apsara, who was half Singaporean, gave me a blink and said "I haven't seen a camera but if someone catches you I'm going to say 'gasp, omigoodness, NOOOO you must NOT take photographs.'" She was lovely!

I had a salt beef sandwich but Gerry and Allan had burgers. Very basic food but beautifully done. The Salt Beef was tender and salty mitigated by tart, bitey english mustard and home made crunchy pickles. I had a bite of Allan's burger and it was yummy. Even at medium it was juicy and beefy.
And the capuccino was obviously made with Lurrrvve. The bill eventually came up to just £30 or thereabouts for the 3 of us. Amazing!
After brunch we headed out to the new London Abercrombie & Fitch store. It's one of their flagship stores and the face that you first see is the one below. More specifically, the guy on the right. But then again with bodies like that, haircuts like that and low cut jeans, they'd probably all look the same to me. ;-) Who cares about the rest of the store.