Upper House
Fine Dining Restaurant
181 Upper St, Islington, London N1 1RQ
££
Upper House is described as “Fine dining, cocktails, performance and live music in a Victorian townhouse with whimsical style.” I was, therefore pretty surprised when I entered an empty, cold and slightly shabby (without the chic) bar, which still smelled of last night's jager. “Hello! How are you?” I asked, only to get a bemused and stand-offish stare from the 4 bar staff who looked like they had woken up about 5 minutes ago. I was the first to arrive and was seated in the back of the ground floor, in the dingiest and darkest corner that looked absolutely nothing like the pictures on the website, despite the restaurant being completely empty. When the others arrived, we asked to move. This was more difficult than it should have been – eventually the manager came and spoke to us saying it was fine, so the three of us moved to a 4-seater nearer the window and front of the restaurant.
So, why Upper House? I hear you ask. Well, Time Out had an offer on for bottomless brunch for £20.00 – that’s half the usual price and is inclusive of a brunch main, side and 2 hour Prosecco. Pretty sweet deal, undoubtedly. Especially when it’s coupled with delicious food pictures and described as ‘fine dining’. I was expecting to have hit the jackpot with the hype this place was getting online - "one of Islington's coolest spots". We were eventually given our first drink 30 minutes after arriving. They had run out of peach – so our welcome bellini was pear flavoured, not a problem at all in my mind, but an added stain on the already pretty dirty carpet.
For food, we all went for the chicken and bacon waffles with golden syrup (£9) and a selection of sweet potato fries (£4), halloumi (£4) and original fries (£3.5). It was decent, but no more than that. The chicken wasn’t quite crispy enough and the waffle was cold and a bit too dense. The halloumi only came with two slices, a bit stingy, whilst the fries were so colossal we didn’t finish them. Due to the shit service at the start, we thought that getting our regular refills was going to be a problem, but it was actually fine and we weren’t ever kept waiting more than a few minutes for a top up. I’m pretty sure we even went a good 30 mins over our allotted time, due to befriending the manager (sort of) who was trying to be funny but was sometimes borderline offensive.
Bottomless brunch isn’t something I want to pay the usual £40+ whack, however, after having done three of these cheaper Time Out brunch deals, I’m not sure I’d do more of those either, as they’re always in out of the way locations (Hoxton & Fulham being the previous endeavours). Upper House, however, was by far the most disappointing of the trio. I’m not sure what the venue is trying to be – a club, a bar, a hotel, a restaurant? It doesn’t really cut is as any of the above. Whilst the staff ended up being friendly enough and got into the swing of things an hour or so in when the place got busier, it was still a pretty off and slightly uncomfortable atmosphere that I wouldn’t recommend and I won’t go back to.
OVERALL RATING: **
https://upperhouseislington.co.uk/
