28 Feb 2023
It’s one of St Albans’ most popular restaurants, but was James Cameron impressed by his experience?
You could not ask for a better start to a meal than the approach to Loft. Walking down George Street everything feels a bit magical already, you then turn into a little alley jam-packed with intriguing local businesses and festooned with fairy lights before walking up a small staircase to enter the loft itself, full of exposed timber beams and elegant glassware.
Unfortunately it wasn’t only the beams that were exposed, as we did find the place very chilly and layering up was needed.
Loft is certainly at the classier end of the St Albans restaurant spectrum (on a scale of Greggs to Thompsons), and the fare on offer was Modern European with some interesting twists. As it was a Monday night when we visited, and the night before Valentine’s Day to boot, the joint wasn’t exactly jumping.
Despite the absence of fellow diners, we did not feel the waiting staff were too focused on us, on the contrary at times it was difficult to catch an eye when a refill was needed.
The wine list was reasonable, full of the usual crowd-pleasers but lacking anything truly surprising or boundary-pushing.
This was better than the beer selection though, where the options were literally ‘Lager’, ‘IPA’ or ‘Alcohol-Free’. With so many great and varied beers out there it does seem restrictive to limit your pairings to such an extent.
I instead started with a cocktail, called a ‘Night Lift’ this was a surprisingly dry and sophisticated affair despite its slightly alarming bright blue colour.
Of the starters, probably the most impressive were the Venison Scotch Eggs, crunchy breadcrumbs surrounding succulent meat and a runny yolk.
I decided against the Cauliflower and Applewood cheddar croquette on discovering that it was vegan cheese, this was an error as upon trying my more open-minded companion’s dish I found it to be delightfully rich and complex, lacking the off note that you sometimes find with vegan cheese.
In fact, the vegan options at Loft were excellent, with three equally tempting starters and mains on offer.
From the non-vegan mains, the seabass was particularly delicious. This was an excellently calibrated dish, with variety in each bite coming from the crispy skin of the fish, the juicy chunks of chorizo and the fresh spinach.
The calves liver was also exceptional, no knife was needed for this melt-in-the-mouth dish. The duck was very good as well, but could have benefited from a little more sauce.
Portion sizes were well-judged, and there was still enough room left by the end to tackle desserts.
The previously well thought-out vegan menu fell a bit flat here, with the only option available fruit with coconut yoghurt, but there was plenty on offer for non-vegans.
I went for the peach creme brulee, expecting the peach to be the flavouring of the dish but it turned out to be the container. This was a lovely idea, exactly the sort of innovation that should be applauded, the only downside is that you can’t actually fit much creme brulée into a peach.
Possibly they could try it with a watermelon next time.
There were a couple of chocolate options on offer, of which the fondant was very dense whereas the pastry on the ganache tart was maybe a little tough. Another of our party
ordered the cheese board which he found pleasant, but which could have been improved by the cheeses being left to come up to room temperature.
This was characteristic of our visit to Loft. Many aspects were exceptional, but more had some single flaw or drawback that prevented them from being truly remarkable.
Possibly this was due to the quietness of the night as it must be difficult providing the full service for only a couple of tables, but the potential is definitely there for Loft to achieve greatness with some light tweaks.
