The Crystal Palace Market

This place prides itself obviously on its seafood, as indicative by the food display. And as evidenced by the tasteless aubergine with goat cheese and pine nuts I had this afternoon on the app menu, it likely should just stick to the seafood. It seems unbelievable that grilling an aubergine and adding goat cheese and herbs would be bland but that’s EXACTLY what it was. Absolutely no flavor in the aubergine and the goat cheese barely added anything. What a waste of £6.25.
The service also sucked. I got seated immediately as it wasn’t too busy. And then waited for a bit. Some waitstaff saw me sitting and didn’t bother to come by– even stared at me– until I motioned for a waitress to come over. What.Da.Fuq.
Overrated to the ultimate degree.

Excellent food and very reasonably priced considering the quality.
The place has a clean and modern feel. The menu is not overtly extensive but more than enough to give you a real choice.
Definitely book in advance as some seating is not ideal for eating albeit great view of the road outside lol.

I remember when this joint used to be a noodle time. Crystal Palace was always pretty good for eating, not worth the shlep though. But since being graced by the Ginger Line, progress is happening, fast! So fast in fact it’s already happened.
The Crystal Palace Market’s interior is pretty swag for the Palais. Walls, a rather sexy hue of exhibitionist grey have been banged through, enlarging the dining space, allowing our party, loosing in a battle of audaciousness with a merry bunch of Marketeers, to have just as much of a lively time.
There’s a tantalising display of seafood at the rear. They’ve put a fish bar out back where you can choose your fish of the day and although, CPM doesn’t whore it’s posh fish out of it’s window-​front a la Prawn on The Lawn, it’s at the back and makes a statement with inviting lighting.
So us, primarily a group of foodies with a few fussy teens were well catered to, but CPM if you want to ride with the big boys then you need to know your shit. Yes I have uttered Prawn on The Lawn in the same review and you have a lot to live up to, like a live Lobster.
With Oysters on offer, I took the opportunity to flirt with chaps in white by the icy installation and engage in conversation, about the oysters that is. Ultimately I am just a geek and want to be knowledgeable about what passes my lips. Where are they from? Jersey/​France/​Devon, it matters to me! Texture man? Tell me about Texture, the Taste?!
Please sirs, what are they like, Soft and salty? Tell me more about the sole, not your life story, for the love of crying out crustaceans. Disappointingly all I got back was a blank eyed expressionless shrug, even less passionate than the dead Poisson on display.
So much has gone into remodelling this place and every person who eats is a foodie these days so tantalising us with the concept of food isn’t enough.
Restauranteurs, your audiences crave knowledge. CPM if you want to appeal to foodies then have the nous to be a able to know your stuff, should a foodie dare to cross your threshold and be fooled into knowing you might know what you’re taking about, prime your staff.
With nice ambience south of the river, sadly food service was also ill timed for us as a group. Sides came out much later than mains, some were left hungry whilst others ate. Bar staff had no idea what a Negroni was!
I imagine it’s a similar experience to a Nandos, but offers fish. Nandos is in fact up the road. Could have ended up there, the kids would have liked that.
(I wish we had, despite my reservations about Chicken Chains, a week after dining here, I was informed one of our party had suffered a very bad case food borne illness. Being nonplussed by the chef’s pearls of wisdom on Oysters I luckily avoided them.)

I had the nicest T-​bone steak I’ve ever tasted here last week… it was incredible. In fact all the food was very nice indeed.
I wasn’t impressed with the pricing though, charging you extra for the sauce that accompanies the steak is a bit unusual and seems a bit ‘money grabbing’. I also thought the service could have been better.
The food far outweighed the little niggles though, so we’ll definitely be back at some point.

The Crystal Palace Market is a fantastic place to meet up with friends over a bottle of wine or coffee.
It has a very simple yet luxurious feel. The service is certainly attentive and efficient if not a bit arrogant in that hip-​relaxed — but we’re doing your a favor — sort of way. The music is good without being pedestrian.
It’s disappointing that there aren’t more vegetarian options on the menu. Essentially they have their main day menu with a selection of burgers. Their evening Menu changes daily and is very fish orientated. With everything else seeming so fresh as a veggie you only have the option of the burger or an overpriced garden salad.
But not to be negative, I will defiantly be coming back for coffee and pastries and a lovely relaxed browse of a newspaper as a more up-​market alternative in the area.
Also — I’m not sure if you can always hear German Audio books being played in the toilets — but that was pretty amazingly weird.

Why did I wait until this evening to try the truffle burger??? What have I been doing with my life up until now?! I swear I didn’t speak a word while eating that thing. It’s just perfection.
It was so good in fact that I changed my answer on my profile for ‘Last Meal on Earth’ — go on, have a look! It was my mother’s home made lasagne, but this burger tops even that! (sorry Mum!)

I have been coming here on and off since it opened. Although at first I could never get a table until i booked via email, so that is a top tip if you are going there for an evening meal book your table in advance!!!
I have sampled the breakfast and dinner menu, once i have sampled the lunch time menu I will add that to this review.
The breakfast menu consists of your eggs Benedict, toasts, teas and the such like all cooked well and served well by the staff on shift. It is a good venue for a relaxed breakfast or even as a venue for a breakfast meeting. The pricing of their breakfast falls in line with the quality of what you get and matches up to the prices of other restaurants within the Crystal Palace Triangle. So no surprises there.
If you can get a table in front of the kitchen in the evening you can see the chefs hard at work making your meal. Not to mention if you are a fan of sea food you get to see the lobsters mooing around whilst they are waiting to… well we know what happens to fresh lobster in a restaurant!
The range of cocktails is good and one in particular they renamed as they felt the name not appropriate for the venue. If you have had that martini cocktail which comes with passion fruit and a shot of champagne you will know its true name. The Old Fashioned is a made well and goes down a treat.
They have an extensive sea food menu which features the afore mentioned lobsters and a variety of fishes, monk, sea bash, lemon sole and so the list goes on. For the meat eaters their is a choice of steaks for you to sink your teeth into. Originally there was a burger on the menu but I did notice its absence from the menu the last time I went here, if you ask they may still do it.
The venue is fine if you have teenage children, not sure how younger children or the staff would cope with each other but I have seen teenage children in there and observed no problems.
The service is very good and when things do go a little off script they actually do take notice and do their best to correct it.
So all in all if you are in the Crystal Palace area this is a restaurant to try, food is good environment is good and the food is good.

Just popped in for breakfast and it was great. Nice surroundings, fantastic coffee and good eggs benedict.
You can even watch the chefs preparing your meal so you know it’s all fresh. I want to try this place out for dinner now.

New onto the block of the Crystal Palace triangle of restaurants this is a welcome addition to the group.
Located a little out of the way of the others, it has fast become popular with a ‘you have to book’ status. Not a large restaurant but cosy and friendly with the staff having a ‘here to please’ approach.
You are greeted as you enter and we were seated very quickly. We kicked off the night with a couple of cocktails which were very tasty. One of which which was not on the cocktail list but they were happy to make up what we wanted.
Fresh fish is its speciality I think given all the seafood on view from oysters to salmon on display in front of the open kitchen so you can see your food being prepared also.
We were sat very close to the seafood counter and the open kitchen, close enough to see the poor lobsters sitting there waiving at us. Needless to say, I did not opt for the lobster!
I had the lemon sole which was served on the bone and cooked well. The flesh was moist and was served with tasty well cooked chips.
Chocolate fondant was served with the melt in the middle sauce.
Food was very nice however I felt we missed some bread with the starters. Not sure of the criteria to get the bread, as we watched it coming out to other tables, it was a bit hit and miss as to who got these.
All in all, the food was nice and of decent serving size. Staff were very friendly and made you welcome. As I walked out I felt I would definitely want to come back and, if there was just a bar area, would come back just for that due to the great ambience of the place.
Additional little perk of free wi fi also.

This place is new to Crystal Palace. It used to be an old Chinese restaurant which wasn’t very good at all!
BUT
These guys have moved in and changed the whole thing! We grabbed brunch in here and it was fantastic! I had the salmon with scrambled eggs which was nice. Also a really good proper cup of Earl Grey which always goes down well with me!
I will definitely come back here for lunch or dinner — they do amazing seafood which they were just putting out as I left.
Only small bad point was that the service wasn’t amazing but you know what…
for a place like this,
new to Crystal Palace,
I can get over that!