Despite not being open long, much has already been said and heard about The Living Room in the heart of Milton Keynes and this was a review I approached with genuine excitement and enthusiasm. With venues throughout the country, some doing well with their restaurant, others doing better with their bar and entertainment, it will be interesting to see what way The Living Room ‘goes’ over the coming months. Their website claims they offer great food and drink, prepared simply and served impeccably.

Décor

My guest and I arrived and decided to be seated immediately in the restaurant upstairs. With a 60’s theme, you feel you are almost stepping back in time. There are padded walls, large mirrors, dark mahogany floors and nets that drape the floor to ceiling windows. Outside there is a terrace area which, despite the attractive seating and tables, does not look overly inviting.

Before moving onto the food, we need to mention the menu. You are given a book that looks like a photo album. The menus are so new that they do not stay open which was annoying and whilst they caught the eye, choosing your food was not as easy as it might have been. The text was laid out almost like a poem, with the lines of text too close to each other. Your choices of food are listed without any accompanying description of what is on offer and the same applies to the wine. Different maybe, but not ideal.

The menu also contained a “Home comforts” section with choices of burgers, steak, ale and mushroom pie and smoked gammon. Maybe I am being overly fussy here, but if I am paying good money to eat out, the thought of eating food that I could eat at home hardly appeals, so I moved swiftly on to see what else was on offer.

Food

My guest started with the Peking Duck with Pancakes, cucumber, spring onion and hoi sin sauce (£7.95). Beautifully presented, this dish was incredibly enticing to the eye, but it needed a little more hoi sin sauce and more duck. You are served three pancakes, and because these are served with the plate of food, the dish is pretty much ruined before you start. Whilst the cucumber and spring onions were amazingly fresh, the pancakes were powdery and broke when wrapped. A tasty, but far from spectacular introduction to food at The Living Room.

I opted for the Beer Battered Tiger Prawns with a sweet chilli sauce and wasabi (£7.25). We may have been disappointed with the duck, but this was a fantastic starter. You receive a large bowl of piping hot prawns which are meaty and covered with a light and crispy batter. In an instant, The Living Room had redeemed itself.

For mains I opted for the 28-day aged British ribeye steak with peppercorn sauce and chips (£16.95). This arrived with my steak half on the chips and half on my plate. I was not impressed because I dislike soggy chips and that’s what I got. The chips that were not covered by the steak were excellent. The steak (ordered medium rare) seemed to lack flavour and unfortunately the peppercorn sauce was nothing to write home about.

My guest chose the Suckling pig with spiced apple chutney (£14.95) and also opted for a side order of Potato Dauphinoise (£2.95). This dish did not look great on the eye and the watercress that sat under the pork did nothing to improve it. The pork was very well cooked with crackling that tasted fantastic and finally we had a dish that might not have looked great, but tasted great. The spiced apple chutney was delightful and the Potato Dauphinoise was exquisite – piping hot and creamy with perfectly cooked potato that melted in the mouth with a generous helping of garlic.

For dessert my guest chose Eton Mess with mixed berries (£5.25). The merengue, raspberry and pomegranates are all thrown into a bowl to create an attractive looking ‘mess.’ My guest did not enjoy this at all and when they complained it was bland, I had to try it for myself. Tasty? Not really. Bland? Quite possibly.

I opted for The Living Room Banoffee in a bag served with ginger snaps and farmhouse ice cream (£4.95). This arrived on a chopping board with a sharp knife to cut the bag open with. I was advised to cut the bag from corner to corner and this did work quite well. This was probably the best dish of the night. The toffee was to die for and the combination of flavours and textures worked wonderfully well. This is a “must try” dessert.

Service

The service was first class with a new team already working extremely well together. The waiting staff have quickly got to grips with the menu and the food they are serving and they’ve had to; with no descriptions of the food on offer, I am sure plenty of questions must be asked. We found the team at The Living Room welcoming, friendly and polite.

Atmosphere

The Living Room was busy and noisy and once the lights were dimmed and the live music began, the place had a great feel to it. Once you have finished your meal the bar downstairs awaits.

In summary, The Living Room was an enjoyable experience but it left me asking a lot of questions in terms of value. Many of the dishes seem over-priced for what you actually receive.