What is Sketch?

Sketch is a hip new restaurant in London designed by interior designer India Mahdavi and artist David Shrigley (I love his funky, humorous artwork hung all around Sketch. Click here to check out his website.) The restaurant separates into five different rooms that each has a unique theme, followed by individualized menus. So yeah... Sketch is the kind of artistic place grammers love to track down.

However, Sketch carries a disappointing truth: the quality of the food is irregular depending on which room you go to. The afternoon tea platter in the "the Gallery" or what I like to call the "pink" room was light and delectable as a tea set should be (if my memory serves me correctly as I ate this a few years ago) whereas the meal that I had this time in the "The Glade" was not great. The food was under-seasoned and lacked flavor. I really don't think Sketch is about the food though, but more about that once in a life time experience, which is why it still continues to attract a great amount of visitors.

Booking & Location

Speaking of visitors, you should book a reservation at Sketch beforehand as the restaurant is high in demand. If you go to their website, you can book according to which room you want to visit or the menu you want to try out. I have to say, their website is cute and creative, but gets pretty confusing as there is so much going on. (I wish my best to those who are trying to figure out how to book a reservation...)

The location of Sketch (9 Conduit St, Mayfair, London W1S 2XG, UK) is actually great as it is near Oxford street, one of the best places to go shopping in London. According to Google, it will only take seven minutes to get to Oxford street from Sketch—how convenient!

... so get your wallets ready for some spending!

My Experience

I guess this is the moment everyone has waited for. This time (2019), my aunt and I booked the "The Glade" room which has a fantasy, forest theme. As always, I was taken aback by its opulent and imaginative interior design.

The lights, the vivid colors, and the amazing bar display gives the room a dream like quality. I mean... how glamorous! Even the waiters had matching outfits that perfectly blended in with the theme (shows the designers' attention to detail). The beautiful, pink flowers further brought life to the table, which to be fair, should be the case as the room is technically "forest" themed. When you leave Sketch, it almost feels like you're entering another realm of the world, as your mind gets so drowsy from taking in the crazy decoration and atmosphere.

Though I did not particularly like the food, I wanted to journal my experience, so here is a quick food review starting with the menu...

My orders:

1. Poke bowl with sticky sushi rice, carrots, avocado, kimchi & cucumber — I personally found it kind of humorous that they had kimchi in their dish and was excited to judge how it went with the flavors. Sadly, I did not really like this dish as the texture of the sticky rice and the raw vegetables felt awkward in the mouth. The only aspect that helped assemble this starter was the peanut sauce. Also, for a starter, the portion was way too large.

2. 9 Conduit Street bisque, leek fondue & Montgomery cheddar— This was actually my personal favorite. The crunch of the fish and the delicious, rich sauce complimented each other well.

3. Lemon strozzapreti with cherry tomatoes, enoki mushrooms, yellow courgettes & basil - The main courses were both disappointing. Bland and underseasoned, my aunt and I had to add salt to both the lemon strozzapreti and salmon steak. Looks can deceive you! (Although to be fair, they both tasted better with the added salt.)

4. Grilled salmon steak with quinoa, mint, chives, lemon & capers

5. Side of french fries — Never fails to please. The fries stayed crispy for the whole meal (my trick in comparing good fries from bad fries—how long they stay crispy for.)

6. Sketch chocolate - I didn't try too much of the dessert, as I was extremely full at this point and distracted as I saw Pete Gardner from Crazy-ex Girlfriend. However, I found the chocolate dish pretty good (sorry, I don't have an exact description of the taste, as I am writing this blog plost several weeks later).

After my meal, I ventured around Sketch and took MANY pictures for you guys. Here is my own photo "gallery" (pun intended).

Another one of their most famous attractions is the bathroom filled with egg pods. I am absolutely in love with these innovative, futuristic egg pod toilets. See what I mean about being in a different realm?

I wasn't able to capture a picture of all the five rooms, but I hope this gives you an idea of what a cool and exciting place Sketch is. I am so grateful every time I am able to visit and will forever be blown away by the interior design. I don't think anyone could ever get "used" to Sketch. It is continuosly full of surprises.