Toast the City: Why High Timber is a Square Mile hidden gem

Thursday 29 Might 2025 6:04 pm

In a brand new sequence celebrating the folks and locations nominated for our Toast the Metropolis awards, Steve Dinneen visits one of many Sq. Mile’s greatest hidden gems, Excessive Timber, a riverside restaurant and wine bar with a vibe like no different.

What’s it? Regardless of being one of many Metropolis’s most established eating places (it’s 17 years previous and I first wrote about it 15 years in the past), you’d be forgiven for overlooking this little gem nestled on the North Financial institution, not least as a result of you need to navigate the impenetrable Higher Thames Avenue to get to it. When you make it there, nonetheless, you’re greeted by certainly the best river view in all of London, with Southward Bridge to your left, Millennium Bridge to your proper and Shakespeare’s Globe and the Tate Trendy straight forward.

Excessive Timber – to not be confused with English glowing wine model Nyetimber – is a proudly South African owned and operated restaurant. Founders Gary and Kathy Jordan run the Jordan Wine Property – no stranger to the world’s most prestigious wine awards – whereas the face of the restaurant is Neleen Strauss, a fellow South African with a wickedly dry sense of humour and an encyclopaedic information of wine.

Why go? Apart from the booze, there’s severe meals on provide. From South African classics similar to biltong croquettes and droewors (South African dried sausage) to seasonal dishes together with asparagus and smoked Lincolnshire poacher, there’s depth and high quality to this menu. For mains, nonetheless, look no additional than the meat. The steak – imported from South Africa, naturally – is superb and provides you an excuse to order a glass or two of pink, even in case you’re eating within the baking summer time solar.

When’s greatest to go? For a protracted, lazy lunch because the solar is setting. The terrace is a suntrap within the hotter months and, on Friday afternoon, our solely firm was the occasional jogger and the sound of the waves lapping in opposition to the financial institution of the river.

When you’re planning to pattern a good quantity of the great things, I’d suggest making this your final appointment of the day so you possibly can actually lean into the epicurean delights Excessive Timber has to supply. 

Who to take? Wine buffs. Excessive Timber’s cellar is spectacular, particularly in case you’re inquisitive about South African wine. Even when, like me, you’re extra wine-curious, Strauss will gladly take you on an oenological tour of South Africa. My choose of an admittedly lengthy record of sampled wines was the Lismore Cape South Coast Chardonnay 2021, a wine so advanced it makes you wish to take out a pen and paper to attempt to clear up it, selecting out the punchy citrus and tropical fruits, the toasted brioche and honey, all laid on a basis of inflexible minerality. Great stuff.

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