Friday Night Dinner: Rockwell
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.. articleMetaData::
   :Where: 2 Spring Gardens, London, SW1A 2TS, United Kingdom
   :Date: 2025-11-21 16:30 Europe/London
   :Tags: fnd
   :Cuisine: Mediterranean
   :Short: rockwell
   :URL: https://trafalgarstjames.com/rockwell/
   :Costs: Small Plates: £6.5-£12.75; Wines from £38
   :Rating: 2.5
   :Author: Derick Rethans

Rockwell is a bar/restaurant on the ground floor of the Trafalgar St. James
hotel. They specialise in small plates, and also have some Wagyu beef dishes
on their menu. The recommendation was "two to three plates each". For once, we
followed this, and it was spot on.

We selected six dishes between the two of us. The Ibérico ham croquetas, which
were served with a saffron sauce and some pecorino shavings, showed up first.
These were served hot with the ham joined by a flavourful cheese sauce within
the croquette, covered by a thin, crisp shell. At the same time we also
received the gnocchi with beetroot. These were adorned with hazelnuts,
beetroot cream, and rainbow chard. The flavours worked well together, and the
sauce was scrumptious. The fried potato terrine with aioli were soft and
butter on the inside, with nice crisp edges which added a lovely texture.

A little later the other three courses turned up. The zucchini fritti were
well-made, but were a little dry and could have done with a sauce. As my main,
I chose the crispy sea bass with Salsa Verde. The skin was crisp, the fish
flaky and moist, and the Salsa Verde added a little acidity. My wife preferred
the Wagyu rosemary grilled bavette steak. Unfortunately, that was the real
disappointment of the meal. It was dry, and, given it was allegedly Wagyu,
criminally tough. It did have an interesting marinade, but this overwhelmed
the flavour of the beef. If you're serving Wagyu, the flavour and texture of
the meat itself should be the highlight, but I think the chef missed that
memo.

The wines start a bit on the expensive side, so instead we had a carafe of a
tasty Prunus Dão Tinto from Portugal. Curiously, this was presented by pouring
500ml out of a bottle into a carafe at our table, but the bottle itself did
not appear to be listed on the wine list.

Just like at Theo Randall a few weeks ago, on Friday evening there is
entertainment. This time, in the form of a jazz singer, who proceeded to
“reinterpret” aka massacre well known tunes, by artists including Michael
Jackson, Bryan Adams and Maroon 5. However, unlike at Theo's, the music was at
a conversation stifling level. It also involved the singer walking around the
restaurant. As an observation, it was probably not entirely the singer's fault
as the restaurant generally had terrible acoustics. It was quite difficult to
hear our conversation over the table before the music started.

Rockwell was an intriguing experience. The food was generally good, but the
music too loud, and the criminal treatment of the Wagyu beef a let-down.

.. carousel::
   :name: rockwell
   :directory: https://s3.drck.me/derickrethans-images.s3.uk.io.cloud.ovh.net/friday-night-dinners/
   :rockwell-1: Ibérico Ham Croquetas
   :rockwell-2: Gnocchi with Beetroot Salad
   :rockwell-5: Crispy Seabass with Salsa Verde
   :rockwell-6: Wagyu Beef Bavette Steak
   :rockwell-3: Fried Potato Terrine
   :rockwell-4: Zucchini Fritti