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The Only on King
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English
July 30, 2013
From OpenTable:
The Only On King opened its doors in the heart of historic downtown London, a stone’s throw from Budweiser Gardens and the Covent Garden Market where the casual dining restaurant sources most of its fresh ingredients.
Chef Paul Harding is serving sophisticated but approachable French and Italian cuisine.
The menu, which also features ingredients purchased from local...
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menuism
May 12, 2013
The Only On King opened its doors in the heart of historic downtown London, a stone’s throw from Budweiser Gardens and the Covent Garden Market where the casual dining restaurant sources most of its fresh ingredients. and Italian cuisine.The menu, which also features ingredients purchased from local southwestern Ontario farmers, boasts several dishes that are priced $29 or less.Located in a... more
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opentable
October 14, 2008
The Only On King is proudly opening its doors in the heart of historic downtown London, a stones throw from Covent Garden Market where the casual dining restaurant sources most of its fresh ingredients.
Chefs Jason Schubert and Paul Harding are serving sophisticated but approachable French and Italian cuisine. The menu, which also features ingredients purchased from local southwestern Ontario...
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foodpagesca
Add your review
Murray Stickler
December 04, 2010
Matthew JHL
February 12, 2009
Diner1
February 12, 2009
Reviews [3]
English
Tarragon Carpet Bomb
Some great elements to the meal, our table of eight ordered a number of dishes and sampled freely. The prosciutto and foie gras were superb. The food cooked in house however was decent though difficult to tell through the carpet bombing of tarragon throughout. All in all an o.k. dining experience, to much pretense, probably won't go back
Hee hee hee
Never ate ther, but looking at the reviews below, the last user has a point - notice how every former review was written at the same level of diction and utilized similar catch phrases? These reviews were indeed all by one individual (I'm a student of such things); "wine pairings" and "tasting platter"? Not only does the repetition suggest one individual but implies a lack of variety in their imagination, which would most likely reflect in the food. "Inspired chef", and "best food in London" are repeated in different fashions as well... This poster is desperate and frightened.
Pomp with NO Flavour
Instead of the obvious shill reviews posted previously allow me to provide a truly honest, independent review.
First, I was seated for my reservation at a back table by a wall near a corridor. There was a draft and, seeing that the restaurant was empty thus far but for a few tables, I politely asked to be moved to one of the many empty tables. The hostess flat out refused, saying that the manager pre-plans the seating plan. I looked around at all of the empty seats and re-iterated that I was uncomfortable at that table, and I could not understand why I could simply not be moved to one of the many empty tables. At this point the manager got involved and said "we like to think that one table in our restaurant is no better than any other". Then with a roll of his eyes and a huff, he said "Do you REALLY want to move?" and I was able to move.
When we were seated, our waitress was extremely attentive and knowledeable, and delivered perfect service throughout the meal.
THE FOOD:
We both ordered the cheddar soup for starters - very nice, delicious in fact. Great wine selection, but I chose an organic English ale that was wonderful.
My friend ordered the "Boneless Crispy Skin Cornish Hen" and I ordered a Beef Steak dish that came with greens and blue cheese. It was one of the worst meals we have ever had. The title of my friend's Cornish Hen dish included the words "Crispy Skin"...the skin was anything but crispy...it was soggy and rubbery. The pompacity of the "chef" was obvious when I asked my beef to be Medium Well. The waitress hesitantly responded with "our chef prefers not to go above medium rare". I simply instructed her "I prefer medium well, thank you". My dish came and I'll describe it as best I can: A small round plate, pieces of cut up, practically raw beef lining the bottom of the plate, with a COLD field-greens salad heaped on top like an ugly weed mountain, with a slight smattering of dry blue-cheese crumbs. The meat itself had been cooked to barely a "blue rare" level. It was warm and slimy in its raw state, and I felt I was eating raw seal-meat in an inuit restaurant. The cold field-greens neither complemented nor added to the meat, and beef is best served with a blue-cheese butter, not these dry hard crumbs. Both my friend and I agreed that the meals were flavourless. We questioned between us whether this restaurant might have a policy against the use of seasonings or even herbs - the food was extremely bland.
OVERALL OPINION:
In its own description above, the restaurant describes itself as "sophisticated but approachable". I did not experience either. Many new upstart restaurants feel that they can simply clad their staff in black uniforms, have tasteful decor, and have (what THEY consider) some unique menu items, and boom: we're a sophisticated restaurant. This is, at best, a fad restaurant. Organic / Local grown is a fad. The "wholesome", or "natural flavour" approach - lack of seasonings, spice, or even salt - is a bad fad in the hands of incompetent chefs, but can work well in the hands of competent ones who really understand the interplay of flavours and understand herbs and spices.
Why is it that I can go to a fine restaurant like Winston's or the Four Seasons in Toronto and get a steak made to order, and yet this pompous chef at a little upstart London, Ontario restaurant "refuses"? The reason is that a talented, competent, and confident chef CAN make a steak to order, and a bad chef masks their inability with pomp. I mean really, what self-respecting chef would allow their "crispy skin" cornish hen leave the kitchen with rubbery wet skin?
And from beginning to end, The Only on King is pure pomp and nothing more.
(A note to the owner: The next time you're going to post your own reviews, don't make it so obvious)
Other Reviews from the web
English
June 09, 2015
Went on a date here last night and felt I needed to do a review on this place...
The restaurant was small but pleasant and didn't feel to stuffy, the way they layout the tables has a good flow to it. Our waiter was very nice, he started us out with some ice water followed by wine, which was delicious, I had the white Sauvignon blanc( New Zealand) I would highly recommend this one if you are a...
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yelp
April 20, 2015
We came here today (group of 5) for a friend's birthday - our goal was to find a fancy tasty dinner with good atmosphere. After trawling through Yelp reviews, we decided on The Only On King.
Service: 4/5
While many reviews here actually have negative comments about the service, I felt ambivalent about it. Their service definitely wasn't bad - the reason for the 4/5 is because it took far too...
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yelp
January 02, 2015
Let me start by saying that the food here is excellent, healthy and provided in good portions. The toffee cake is to die for and, in and of itself, is worth the visit to The Only. Ingredients are fresh and sourced locally and I like the idea of a menu that morphs on a daily basis.
Service is not so great. Two of my colleagues and I were in London for work so we gave this place a try as it came...
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yelp
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