Last night I attended Ben’s surprise birthday dinner, organised by Michelle and held at the Rocket Restaurant (Riverside). This bar and restaurant overlooks the Thames and is within walking distance of the Putney Bridge. It’s excellent location means that any sunset on a summer evening is going to be spectacular, assuming that the day is not suffering from London’s typical drizzle. The restaurants has seating both inside and out, but the most eye-catching seat in the resturant is the clam shaped, circular seating into which we all crammed ourselves in last night.

Food at the Rocket Restaurant is best classified as modern cosmpolitan, serving a wide variety of pizzas and calzones, as well as steak, tuna, sashimi and dinner salads. They also have a small number of starers, an excellent selection of side dishes but the size of their main meals do not warrant one. They also have a pretty ordinary dessert menu, with each item offered at £5. Although I did not have any, I was told that the strawberry chesscake (lavishly drizzled with strawberry juice and built up on a mini circular biscuit base) was excellent.

I had the vegetarian pizza served with lots of fresh Mozzarella was huge and extremely tasty. I ended up giving up a lot of it as it was so big and had ordered a side of Zucchini Fritters as well. The small individually battered zucchini chips were served on a decently-sized plate, and the naturally sweet flesh of the zucchini, well balanced with the light, crisp and saltiness of the batter was well received by everyone who had a taste.

Details: Rocket Restaurant (Map)
Found on: Brewhouse Street, Putney Wharf, Putney, SW15 2NS
Contactable via: 0208 789 7875
Highlights: Food quality was pretty good. Decently sized meals. Wide variety of side dishes and salads
Room for improvement: No drinks menu, service was shocking.