The Fable

A nice and modern place which looks better for a big meal than just a latte. The atmosphere and the decoration are great, the price is ok and the waiters are nice.

Went to one of the book club events, where an author comes in on a Saturday morning, and you are provided with a drink and pastries and a Q&A with the author after their talk. An opportunity to buy and get the book signed and speak to the author afterwards makes it a nice, pleasant and relaxing event run by venue, which is really beautiful, with bookshelves and walls with names of author posted on it, and one table is surrounded with a wall of books, and lots of little slogans/​messages around this very roomy, three storey open spaced venue.
What is outstanding is the Ladies, not put in as an after thought. It is just beautiful and modern, with seating at a make up bar, and beautiful hand basins patterned with worldwide skyline scenes.
Would definitely go back to try the brunch, lunch, dinner or drinks!

Spread over three floors, The Fable is a large modern restaurant with a fairytale theme. I was expecting the theme to be quite in-​your-​face and EVERYWHERE. But instead, the contemporary feel of the restaurant combined with the touches of fairytale sweetness creates a really lovely place to eat — and the floor to ceiling windows fill the rooms with light.
After checking out the impressive-​sounding dishes on the menu, I chose the Seafood Linguine — featuring prawn, squid and mussels in a creamy sauce. It was AMAZING, and definitely tasted as good as it looked. The sauce was beautiful, the pasta perfect and I loved the tastes of the different types of seafood.
We were served quickly and attentively, and I really enjoyed my experience eating here.

Visited The Fable for an event, so only had the chance to sample the food. I have to mention the chorizo scotch egg which was amazing. I’m not much of a scotch egg fan if I’m honest but the chorizo was a nice flavoursome addition and dunking chips in the gooey yolk was fab. I’ll definite visit again for a proper meal.
The interior is lovely, with interesting quotes scattered about. The toilets in particular were lovely, which is rare even in some of the nicer London casual eateries.

The Fable in Farringdon is big and brashy. It’s part of a group of bar/​restaurants conveniently located next to office types and companies full of medium to well done drinkers who love an after work session.
The Fable, over three floors, has good drinks, good food and private event facilities. It does what it says on the labelling and its because of this, you can go there and have a good and unpretentious time.
I popped in for a quick drink and bar food. I’m obsessed with bar food at the moment. It’s easy to miss out on this key ingredient when you go out drinking, which can be a dangerous thing. I’ve been checking out bar food a lot recently and few hit the spot. From dodgy microwaved mini sausages to spring rolls with raw fillings, I can safely say drink-​led establishments seldom put love into their food offering.
This is not the case with The Fable. Firstly, the staff are lovely. Having wanted to sit down for a bit in an extremely busy venue (I’m showing my age lol), they kindly let us babysit a table until its booking time, which was really sweet. Most places will just let empty spaces stay there taunting those standing by. Anyhow, we ordered champagne to celebrate many things from friends getting new jobs, to the arrival of the bank holiday weekend.
We didn’t order a banquet of bar food, but what we did order was good. They have flat breads with different toppings which is a simple and great idea. We ordered the one with British brie, rocket, parma ham, portobello mushrooms and truffle oil. Yum! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, truffle is the man I want to marry (if he was a man). We also ordered a platter with lots of goodness such as baba ganoush, olives, tempura crispy squid, prawn lollipops, grilled veg and sweet potatoes. Whilst the bits and bobs on the platter were not re-​writing bar food history they were cooked and presented well.
The Fable bar food rates a 8 on my bar food scale. I look forward to going again to try some of their other delights.

The Fable is the place to go when you don’t feel like you want to spend too much time thinking about food, just sit down with a drink and order/​eat something average.
Menu is extensive and reasonably priced. I had their vegetarian flatbread and chicken breast dish (comes on a bed of spinach and creamed wild mushroom mix) and the flavor/​price balance was just perfectly ok. If I’m ever in Holborn area and want something that is not complicated, I will definitely pop in the Fable.

The sausage with potato comes with delicious source and of course the fish and chip is nicely fried. Yum!
The environment and the overall deco is nice with a large bar section in the middle, and I love their cutie and very neat restroom.

First the biases. We were American tourists brought here as part of a tour; this was one of the included dinners. We did not choose the venue, nor did we select from the full range of the regular menu, as the tour company and the restaurant had worked out a deal on a limited, prix fixe (at least for us) menu. We were on vacation and in a good mood. The Fable would need to have fallen on its face to disappoint.
The fable (or fairytale) theme was so subtle that it could have been missed. The food was pretty tasty by our (by that time) recalibrated-​for-​London modest expectations. The fish and chips (which I had) was the best of my several samplings of this traditional dish while on the east side of the Pond. A member of our party had the bangers-​and-​mash and enjoyed it thoroughly. The Chicken Satay appetizer also got high scores.
Although it was a cool and drizzly Sunday night, the wait staff sagged under the weight of dealing with 30 of us all at the same time. The bar staff, in particular, seemed over-​matched by the onslaught. And it was not as if they had not been warned, but this could be an artifact of the business deal struck by the tour as much as a possible front-​of-​the-​house miscue.
Would we come back to the Fable if and when again in London. Yes, if we happened to be nearby. Would be travel out of our way and seek it out? Probably not.

A really nice decorated modern bar/​restaurant in Faringdon, and probably can accommodate for most occasions, it fairly large. The staff besides forgetting and getting our orders wrong were apologetic and helpful and gave good service. And there was a variety of interesting drinks. However with all that said, what really let down this restaurant was the food, very mediocre pub food. Myself and my party just remembering that the food was salty, and portion size was small. In particularly the steak and lobster, because the lobster was just pathetic. I would rather be served prawns.
I think if they put as much effort into their food as they do their venue, this would really be a good restaurant to come back to.

I’ve been here a few times. Once for leaving drinks, a few times for drinks after work and also twice for breakfast
I love the cocktail menu here but I suppose they are pricey and they never have any deals unlike plenty of other nice bars in the area. But they always have some funky ones in treacle jars or jam jars! And they’ve always been tasty! The menu has looked the same for a while now so maybe I’ll visit next time then change
We also went here for breakfast on a Friday before work with colleagues and the first time we bizarrely got 50% off. Apparently this happens before 9 every other Friday (which they don’t advertise) but it makes breakfasts very reasonable.
Menu quite good choice and iv had a nice yog and granola nicely presented and then waffles syrup and berries and both were tasty and fresh. Colleagues have had savoury inc eggs and California kickstart which they said were good
Coffee is nice however they have fresh juices on the menu but both times haven’t had the delivery so never able to make them — shame!
I will go back for breakfast again though
Iv had a few snacks and they were okkk but nothing amazing
Nicer than their sister the folly. Would like to go to the one in heron tower!

Staff was a bit stiff.
Decoration tried to imitate a garden but sure was a really poor one with just a few plants lying around.
I ordered a «handmade lemonade» and it came from a (two actually) bottles. I am still to know what the «handmade» stands for.
Was expecting way more.

The Fable is the most recent restaurant to be opened in the capital by Drake & Morgan who seem to specialise in theatrically themes from botanical and secret gardens to fairytales which is the chosen theme at The Fable. To be honest while it was very nice I found it a bit lacking and it could have used a little but more to give it that extra boost into something magical.
The hardest part was deciding what to have to drink! The cocktail menu here is huge with some really inventive names. I went for the Skinny Russian Rose Martini; Smirnoff Black vodka stirred with Kwai Feh lychee liqueur, ginger syrup & garnished with a rose petal which both sounded and looked amazing but sadly didn’t have the taste to match. It was very strong and left a bitter taste in my mouth afterwards so I was disappointed.
For main course I went for the special cod which if I remember correctly came with creamed leeks and mussels. This was absolutely flavoursome and I enjoyed every bite. The cod was cooked to perfection flaking beautifully with a fork and the mussels really added to it. The sauce was incredible, not too thick and didn’t overpower the fish. I finished the entire plate along with half a portion of sweet potato fries — which came in a super cute flowerpot — as well.
Undecided on what to have for pudding I went for the Mini pudding shots a smaller version of three of their most popular desserts; chocolate brownie, wagon wheel & Winterberry crumble. When they came out I was amazed at the size, these were no teeny tiny puddings but instead three sundae glasses with half-​sized desserts.
I’m not a huge fan of hot fruit so tried the crumble first and really wasn’t enamoured with it. I’m not sure what kind of berries were used but they were quite bitter although the vanilla ice cream was the proper stuff made with pods and delish.
The Wagon Wheel was probably my favourite which is strange given how much I love chocolate and was looking forward to the brownie but more on that in a bit. The Wagon Wheel consisted of toasted meringue, raspberry sorbet, shortbread and chocolate sauce all of which worked really well together although I think I would have replaced the sorbet with a raspberry ripple ice cream. The toasted meringue was the highlight for me it was squishy like marshmallow and very sweet. An all round winner for this one and my recommendation of the three.
The final pudding was the chocolate brownie which came with another scoop of the delicious ice cream but sadly the brownie itself tasted burnt even though it looked fine and was overly bitter so I didn’t enjoy it much.
The service unfortunately wasn’t great for us. We asked for tap water which never arrived we waited almost half an hour for our second round of drinks (which weren’t even cocktails) then we had to wait an age for the bill too. I think we were an anomaly though as there were plenty of groups who were there for lunch who were in and out before we were so maybe we were just unlucky. The whole thing came to just over £80 including tip for the two of us which was quite reasonable and I didn’t have to eat anything else for the rest of the day I was so full!

I really really liked this place! Yer, you know what… good *HighFive!
We turned up Friday lunch time for 2 people. packed, busy, and buzzing.
The restaurant is cool, to say the least. It’s airy, it’s ‘fun’, modern, and the service was good.
To start we had lollipop pop prawns (Crispy prawns on skewers) and and crispy squid (If you don’t like tales or tentacles– don’t order). For ⁵⁄₆ quid each… it’s not bad.
We then ordered cocktails= great.
And then mains– 1 x lamb burger… and a ‘Chicken in a basket’ with chilli chunky fries (apparently the Parmesan herb fries are nice too). Now chicken in a basket is NOT fried chicken in a basket. but literally a WHOLE chicken in a like a frickin’ picnic basket= OK… I can do this, cut, chop, de-​bone… but seriously maybe ask before you order to double check what ever you order.
So yer really nice, I mean the service was a little rushed and impersonal, but look Friday lunch time, in the city, absolutely packed. what do you expect.
Great place, tasty food…75 quid for two people… hmm! but what the heck it was for my birthday.
Please check out pictures :)

Wonderful cocktail selection! I must say, the cocktails are on the pricey side, but well worth it. I had a «Prince Charming» — very tasty! I also had the pleasure of tasting one of the sharing cocktails (loved the fact it was served in a mini bathtub — you can also purchase the bathtub if you so wish). The food is OK, but if you’re fussy with food, make sure you are 100% certain the waiter/​waitress knows what is on the menu (I had a horrible surprise with my fish pie when I discovered some fishy friends I’m not a fan of in the pie — despite explicitly asking beforehand). They were very accommodating however and allowed me to exchange my fish pie for a chicken dish — much more palatable. As I said, if you’re not a fussy eat — you will love the food! I will certainly go back for the cocktails and lovely atmosphere.

This is the newest addition to the Drake & Morgan family. The location is wonderful as you approach The Fable, from Chancery Lane direction, you pass over the Holborn Viaduct which has a spectacular view over the city.
The Fable is named after Aesop’s fairytales, and as such there are books and open pages decorating all three floors.
Rob (Executive Head Chef) expertly filleted, pin-​boned and created beautiful plates of ceviche, with the perfect balance of citrus but not overpowering the flavours of the fish. A delight to eat!
Whilst enjoying the canapes (ceviche, mini fish & chips, jacket new potatoes with sour cream, skin-​on potato and sweet potato wedges, hot dogs, scallops with mash on a pastry spoon, and mini cottage pies) accompanied by glasses of prosecco, we enjoyed our beautifully created surroundings. There was a well crafted sofa area surrounded by books. Loved the little touches of clay pots over the bar area, suspended floral shaped metal chandeliers and lightbulbs, and a bathtub with extracts above!

The Fable is the kind of place you REALLY REALLY want to like. Because it’s pretty and ideally located (like 2min23 from my work).
It is a huuuge 3 story bar with a wonderful promise and universe, but the dreams get shattered when you have your first experience with the overall service there.
We got there at 4pm on a Friday after work in dire need of beer, but the waiters moaned at giving us a table because they were all reserved already. Sure, that is a good sign, but the tables were reserved as of 6:30? Because yes, at this point the bar was basically empty.
After promising we weren’t going to stay too long, they decided to give us a table.
2^nd challenge was then to get a drink! We went to the bar, and we were told to wait for a waitress. And then the waitress told us to… order at the bar? After insisting again, she took our order. But what this delightful and (not) smiling person didn’t tell us, is that her shift was finished — so she placed the order, but then left. So we basically waited for 20min before going to the counter (again) and having to insist (again) to get our drinks.
Well that was a well deserved beer :)
I will blame this on the fact that the business is new and they still need to get their act together, and will give it another go. But this is regardless a very bad start to a very promising venue.

You will already be able to see a reoccurring theme in the reviews…
My experience was much the same, nice looking venue but thats where is finishes. We had a very large group 20 (ish) all food was pre-​ordered but came out at different times e.g. I got my starter at the same time someone else got desert.
The quality and quantity also wasnt brilliant, my «tempura squid» was just plain deep fried and the vegtable curry was all sauce. The chips were good though.
Overall I had a pretty good night but it was more abiyt the company rather than the food /​service.

The Fable is a beautifully designed trendy restaurant bar that has the ability to stage everything from small 2 persons visits to giant corporate events across it’s 3 spacious floors.
A lot of thought has gone into the décor. Everything has a modern polish and shine to it. The place is clean as a whistle as you’d expect. The luxurious purple blankets for seating outside don’t go unnoticed either. This is a place that sets a high standard for décor.
However from there the stars just fall away. Yes, the staff are really nice and pleasant, but despite there being a lot of them, the place is just so big it’s hard to get the attention of staff. Plus if you ask something of a member of staff doing drinks, they’ll apologise, and tell you they’ll send a waitress to your table, if they remember that is. Communication is hard. And when this place has corporate events going on, loud. Noise level is decent on a normal night, when the place can pretty much be a ghost town. It’s heaving at the latter part of the week though.
Food itself was nothing special either. Prices are extremely reasonable, but is akin to average quality bar food, nothing close to a good gastro pub or food dedicated place. Drinks are impressively presented. Get a sharing cocktail and it’s served in a cute table bath and decorated with a rubber duckie, that you’re reminded was sterilised before entering the food chain. Nice touch.
So in all, this place is definitely style over substance. Service is pleasant, but can be slow during busy periods. Food isn’t great. Drinks aren’t great (despite looking great). Décor is amazing. If you want to impress somebody with the atmosphere and they appreciate interior design. This place is perfect. If you want a slightly more comfortable place to enjoy good food and have a quiet chat. You aren’t finding that here, at least till all the corporate functions have left.

The Fable is one of those restaurant you go to when you want to ‘wow’ someone or just want to be in a wow factor restaurant with a bunch of friends and a few round of drinks. It was like stepping into a typical New York restaurant– a big 3 floor venue where the ground floor was primarily used as the main restaurant area where the kitchen resides and when that fills up the top floor and the second floor will also be used. Each floor has it’s own bar area and the second floor is available to hire out for events and parties too. I don’t think one will ever have a problem making a booking here. As you can see I went a bit crazy with the photo taking as every angle had it’s own amazing factor. It was nearly impossible to capture it all on camera unless you go there yourself.
It’s a place i would recommend for drinks only as sadly the food wasn’t great. I think it goes for all chain bars where the menu is too varied and there’s not enough focus. The crispy calamari wasn’t crispy at all and the flavours weren’t really present. Our biggest hope on the Borough market flatbread was a let down as the base was too dry and grainy and did not go well with the chorizo. It also lacked a sauce or a cheese to bring the topping and the base together as it really felt they just threw a bit of chorizo and rocket on a large piece of wheatbread.
Trio of chips sounded like a great novelty order but they turned own dry and weren’t fluffy at all. The flavours were also bland and I rather have the katsu sauce and the cowboy sauce separately if it didn’t meant the chips being damp and barely taking in the flavour. The roman chips were more successful but the flavours only came through towards the bottom of the pot. These chips just need more time to be seasoned.
Mac ‘n’ cheese was more successful, a nice layer of breadcrumbs, sticky yet moist and cooked to al dente. The bacon and leeks really added to the flavour of the dish.
Farm reared chicken breast was a mix bag. The sauce was amazing, thick and strong in mushroom flavours, seasoned well with the nice addition of spinach taking up the sauce. I was even dipping my chips in it. However the chicken itself was too dry and mushy and that was the main deal.
The lamb burger was very average but I liked the soft brioche bun. We were disappointed that you couldn’t pick how rare you would like your burger as it came well done and that dried out the burger and took the sweetness of the meat away. Flavours were not apparent enough either.
To make things easier we finished our meal with blackberry and apple crumble and mini pudding shots which had the three other dessert options. So basically we had all the desserts offered. The highlight for most was the white chocolate crème brûlée. It was more thicker than the usual due to the white chocolate and was really smooth and creamy. Nice to have in small bites to just let the flavours melt in your mouth. I personally preferred the knickerbocker glory. I enjoyed the different textures coming together. There was a nice crunch of the honeycomb falling into the creamy chocolate ice cream before the burst of sweetness you get from the macerated cherries. It was goood.
The brownie was very average and forgettable but the biggest disappointment was the crumble. It was so bland and dry that it was begging for custard to save it. It needed something sweet and thick to hold it together as the apples and berries were bland. The ice cream was too small to do anything and once melted became too runny to hold the dish together.
If I was to suggest anything about the food to the Fable Bar I would say focus in the burgers, the sides and desserts as it has the most potential there. Their drinks menu and their creativeness would be the only thing bringing me back to this place as I do love the venue. It is a place I would suggest to go at least once just to see the beauty of the place but no more as there’s better options out there.

This is a new, beautiful looking restaurant that seems to have a lot of potential. The ambiance is awesome and the location is good. However they don’t have their stuff together yet. I was seated in the bar and then the waitress proceeded to ignore me for 15 minutes before I walked out. The table next to me was also complaining. Considering the high prices, you would expect more. Time to staff up guys!