The Guardian
Grace Dent headed to a cod-Bavarian bierkeller from Mission Mars, the Manchester outfit behind Rudy’s pizzerias. Already a hit in its home city, Liverpool and Birmingham, it has now opened a vast 600-cover operation just off Piccadilly Circus. Grace knew it would be “all about fun: noisy, determined, oom-pah-pah fun” backed up by “wall-to-wall schnitzel, strudel and currywurst”. She also imagined that the food would be “like a Bavarian-themed Wetherspoons”.
A Northerner herself, she was delighted to be proved wrong: “Here’s the thing: the food at Albert’s Schloss is really much, much better than it needs to be, especially this close to Leicester Square.”
There was, she found, “a meaningful drive to establish Albert’s Schloss as a proper all-day restaurant”, with highlights including a “jalapeño pretzel that’s hard not to love”; a “schweinshaxe pork knuckle laden with a huge, crisp piece of crackling, the meat seasoned with juniper, caraway, fennel and black pepper, served with red cabbage, apple sauce and gravy”, and “a very good stacked chocolate cheesecake with raspberry coulis”.
Best of all, though, in a city that is often “expensive, exclusive and impenetrable” to out-of-town visitors, at Albert’s Schloss there’s “No booking required, no credit card deposit, no dress code, no time slot” (it’s open from 9am until 2am).
Grace Dent - 2024-07-21
