Sunny Sundays are currently a rare breed in London, but when the sun is out it’s an entirely different city. Always looking for an excuse to wear high heels and sip cocktails Lauren and I headed high above the city to spend our Sunday.
We arrived at the Heron Tower ready for a Sunday feasting skipping roast for sushi.
In a matter of seconds we whizzed from ground level to 38 floors above in a glass lift that reminded me of the famous Willy Wonka lift. Feeling excited and my vertigo kicking in we crept through an ambient corridor with moody tones creating a mysterious impact, before heading into an open bar space with tonnes of natural light pouring in.
We arrived at Sushi Samba the fusion restaurant combining Japanese, Brazilian and Peruvian food.
The bar interior was filled with splashes of blinding colours; full length panoramic windows displaying views of the city below. We were escorted to our table that had a window view and watched the world go by from high above.
We sank into our comfy leather brown chairs, nicely detailed with a leather buckle strap on the back.
The glass windows were clad with a bamboo lattice structure that swept up from one side of the dining space and disappeared into the ceiling creating gaps between the bamboo for views outside.
The ceiling had hundreds of industrial bulb lights hanging overhead and was displayed at different heights all in slightly different shapes. On the other side of the dining space greenery trailed against the full height windows.
After soaking in the atmosphere and staring at every detail of the interior we felt thirsty of course and helped ourselves to some cocktails.
I opted for the Watermelon Baha cocktail, with chunks of watermelon floating inside. Lauren picked the Smoked Plum Negronia a whiskey based cocktail that had a very punchy taste to it. Ironically the cocktails arrived in little and large glasses to suit us.
The waiter ran us through the menu and suggested some of his favourite foods. We greedily studied the menu carefully deciding our choices.
Starting with crispy tacquitos filled with yellowtail avocado and roasted corn miso, which arrived with an intriguing foamy dip.
Before Lauren got stuck in I had to take a snap.
And then the mess began.
Pretty tasty, and fairly satisfied we were ready for our next surprise.
Prawn tempura served with peas, spicy mayo and black truffle vinaigrette and green bean tempura with black truffle aioli.
Both were delicious and the aioli with the beans was so good we almost licked the dish clean.
Spotting iconic buildings like Tower Bridge that looked like a model village from our seats with the Thames wrapped around it.
Next up we were presented with the beautiful samba London rolls. The rolls were a mixture of crab, tuna, salmon, white fish, prawn, scallop, wagyu, avocado, tempura crunch and a dash of wasabi mayo.
They looked too good to eat, so we admired them for about 30 seconds before battling who had what. Starting to feel full we relaxed and sipped more cocktails giggly away to each other.
Then El Topo rolls arrived; a combination of salmon, jalapeno, crispy onion and melted oozing mozzarella. Which were recommended by our waiter and man alive he was not lying they were delicious and really unusual flavour combination that against all odds worked perfectly.
The battle of the chopsticks commenced as we dug in. One thing I hadn’t realised about Lauren was her undying love for sushi, she’d barge any small portions aside and fight with strings of mozzarella just to get to the largest roll. Don’t be fooled by that sweet face. I sat back and let her attack.
The El Topo rolls topped our favourite choice from the menu and we wondered how anything else would top them.
But the fusion food gods had more in store for us, black cod skewers served with Peruvian corn also recommended by our waiter. The lightest meatiest fish I’ve ever tasted that melted in our mouths and got the approval of the £17 price tag they came with.
Not letting our sweet teeth down we chose passion fruit cake for desert. The cake was accompanied with green tea, white chocolate ganache, raspberry sorbet, raspberries and passion fruit.
Which Lauren almost demolished whilst I yelled ‘don’t touch it’ I managed to snap away.
3, 2, 1 go.
And it was gone almost that fast too.
Feeling like puffer fish in a high-rise tank we chillaxed soaking up the London skyline. Eventually we stepped onto the roof terrace, pointing out iconic buildings and balancing on the wobbly floor slaps in our heels.
We sat by the window in the bar, which had bursts of colour splattered across the walls and cool lighting installations hanging above.
Feeling well acquainted with our new friend Gherks, we sipped on mango and passion fruit cocktail and Lauren’s Kaffirinha.
^ When Lauren got hold of the camera, she decided to check out the view below. Typical!
Being so high up seemed to have an effect on us and we started acting even sillier than our usual strange behaviour.
As the sun was still shining we thought we’d let someone else get up close and personal with the gherkin and headed onto the roof terrace.
In the centre of the roof bar was a huge structural orange tree with twinkling lights that represented an earth to sky motif.
I popped to the bathroom that had a similar ambience to the corridor with dark red tones and copper piped tapware.
After a great afternoon in the Heron Tower we piled into the lift for our drop 38 floors down under.
I made sure I stood facing the window, holding on tightly and possibly with a squeal or two we flew down in seconds. Fascinated by how fast we moved, we watched the lift ascend and descend in seconds from the exterior of the tower.
An amazing afternoon with delicious food if you’re into the fishy kind, incredible views of London, quality sister time and plenty of interior inspiration with the bold mix of styles working to create a fun and luxurious atmosphere.
Check out Sushi Samba you know you want to have a cocktail overlooking Gherk’s.
