Oblix is a contemporary grill restaurant located on the 32^nd floor of the Shard, the tallest building in London, offering panoramic views of the City for you to enjoy whilst tucking into your meal, which makes for quite the special dining experience.

Oblix comprises a smart dining room and more relaxed entertainment lounge, with Bookatable offering an immense ‘star deal’ whereby you can get a 3-course lunch and glass of bubbles for £32pp to enjoy in the lounge.

Personally, I prefer an informal setting for lunch, and think that the lounge really succeeds on providing a modern, casual and comfortable eating environment.

My colleague & I had decided to treat ourselves to a long, leisurely Thursday lunch, and so pulled up a pew at the bar before moving to our table.

The bubbles included in the star deal disappeared all too easily and, since we were celebrating a #ThursdayFunday, we enjoyed a few additional glasses of wine, including the ‘Pinot Grigio, Cesconi, Alto Adige, Italy, 2014’ (£9.90 per glass) and ‘Hof’s Chardonnay, Robertson, South Africa, 2014’ (£15.00 per glass), both of which hit the spot and eased the pain of returning to work.

As for food, the concept of Oblix is similar to that of Barbecoa, in that everything is cooked by spit roast, charcoal grill or wood-fired oven, and intends to showcase the best of British & European produce.

For starters, Magase had the sea trout, clementine and cucumber.

It was a light and refreshing dish, with the unusual combination of flavours working surprisingly well together, and a generous portion too.

I had the duck, mango and watercress salad.

Again, I was impressed by the quality & quantity of the dish, with the duck being unexpectedly far better cooked than that which Michael & I ate at Hakkasan. The salad leaves were crisp and the mango ripe and flavoursome. It was a very good dish.

For mains, Magase ordered the ox cheeks, carrots, barley and tarragon.

The meat was wonderfully tender and rich with flavour, whilst the barley still had good bite and the jus a decent depth.

I went for the salmon with brown shrimps and crispy capers.

The salmon was beautifully cooked with a crisp skin and juicy pink middle. The shrimps and capers added welcomed pockets of flavour & texture, though the buttery sauce is what tied it all together so nicely.

We shared sides of mashed potato (£4.50) and tenderstem broccoli (£7.00).

Both were excellent, although I think £7 for a basic bowl of (well-cooked) broccoli is pushing it.

We were actually pretty full (and merry) by this point, but you can’t turn down a ‘free’ dessert. In a moment of unrecognisable madness, I ditched the flourless chocolate cake in favour of the roasted pumpkin cake, maple syrup and gingerbread ice-cream.

But, as it turned out, I had no regrets. The cake was unusual and delicious and I even surprised myself by how much I enjoyed it.

Magase ordered the palette-cleansing mandarin & lemon pine sorbets with greek yoghurt, which is a dessert I would personally never choose, but went down a treat with him.

Ultimately, a very, very good meal, for a very, very good price.

The only issue we had was with the service as, although we had a lovely and attentive waitress, there was almost an hour wait between our starter and main course which, had we not been keen for a lazy lunch, would definitely have caused an issue any other day of the week.

Other than that, everything was on point, and made all the better by the clear blue skies and thus even more spectacular than usual views that we were able to enjoy.

Bookatable star deals are a really great way to enjoy fine dining or expensive restaurants at a great price, and I can vouch for the excellent value not only from this experience, but also from the meals that I’ve enjoyed at M Raw and Kaspar’s Seafood Bar & Grill.

Oblix lounge was seriously good, and I will without a doubt be returning for more.

8/10

I dined as a guest of Bookatable, but all opinions are my own.