Family Lunch at Tate Eats Kitchen and Bar

Lunch at the Tate Eats Kitchen and Bar at the Tate Modern made for a seriously memorable family meal.

Unsurprisingly, their dishes are inventive pieces of culinary art composed with fresh, seasonal and sustainable ingredients resulting in a delicious dining experience overlooking the most breathtaking view of London.

Waiting for the food arrive was an opportunity to create art of course and kept Xander busy!

With arts and crafts a-go and baby Florence asleep, this Mama went straight for a cocktail, sipping on the Tate’s tea-based ‘Shimmer CosmipoliTEAn!’ created with on their very own tea blend and Sacred gin, and cranberry juice, served in a sprinkle-laced martini glass. Tipsy after two sips, it was my kind of tipple!

 

The bread basket arrived just in time to stop me from dancing on the table, brim with thick doorstopper wedges of homemade sourdough and granary with whipped salty butter.

The starters were equally moreish.

Peter’s ash baked leek, romesco, sour cream, parmesan, pine nuts starter was a feast for the eyes, mouth and frankly the soul. As you can see, it was essentially eating installation art.

My own starter of burrata with rhubarb and blood orange was equally striking with an original and utterly excellent flavour combination I’d never seen nor tasted elsewhere.

The sharpness of the balsamic dressing with the tart rhubarb and tangy, slightly sweet blood orange cut through the creaminess of the burrata and the seasoning was delivered with the peppery rocket.

The chunky hake goujons with fries and mushy peas got the thumbs up from the boys as their main course and the waiter Nat, thoughtfully brought Oliver (a super tall 12 year old) some sausages too in case the kids’ portion (which was suprisingly ample anyway) might not have sufficed. So kind.

Mains for we adults were delicately roasted hake with anise sauce, beets, courgette and watercress, and the delectable ‘Beef with Cornballs’ – a Salvador Dalí-inspired special to coincide with the gallery’s new Surrealism Beyond Borders exhibition which will be available for the duration of Surrealism Beyond Borders, which runs until 29 August 2022.

Wow!

The masterpiece of a meal ended with crunchy, buttery rhubarb and apple crumble, lemon meringue and espresso.

The Kitchen and Bar is located on Level 6 of the Natalie Bell Building and is open from Monday to Sunday, 12pm to 3:30pm.

Next up, we popped into the Surrealism Beyond Borders exhibition where Dali’s Lobster Telephone (Telephone-Homard), 1938,  piece was on show, a piece where dysfunction, danger and playfulness meet as a plastic lobster sits on a Bakelite telelphone.

I found the oil painting, The Ballad for Frida Kahlo (La Balada para Frida Kahl0) 1955-56, by Alice Rahon mesmerising with the cobalt blue background and gold detail, which celebrates Kahlo’s legendary Casa Azul (Blue House). Surrealists were inspired to visit Mexico after seeing her paintings in 1939 Paris exhibtion Mexique. Rahon arrived there just as war was declared in Europe. She paid tribute to her lifelong friendship with Kahlo with this piece.

Le Messager (1941) by Wolfgang Paalen is depicting a cosmic being in his wave like forms below as he as interested in the fourth dimension, a philiosophical concept.

Feeling suitably inspired, we visited UNIQLO Tate Play, Tate Modern’s new free programme of art, activities and play for families of all ages.

The boys spent hours building as Florence napped again as Peter and I lounged on the comfy sofas in the play area.

What a super family day out.