Food feedback
Published: 23 September, 2010
Coverpoint’s Jonathan Doughty serves up his regular shopping centre foodservice review. This month he travels to Slovakia to visit Leblon at the new Galleria Eurovea in Bratislava.
It has been six months since phase 1 of Galleria Eurovea, Ballymore’s 2.5 million-sq ft mixed-use development, opened on the banks of the Danube River in Bratislava. Having worked on the project for several years, we took the opportunity to experience the centre on a warm and sunny day, while visiting the Slokavian capital.
The development is truly mixed-use, with a Sheraton Hotel, nine-screen cinema, residential apartments, office accommodation and significant retail, the majority of which is located below a stunning glazed roof. However, for us, our eyes were drawn to the riverside restaurant cluster where we saw some exceptional examples of external terrace seating areas in terms of presentation and fit-out. The majority of the terraces are built onto raised wooden decks, allowing services such as power, heating and drainage to be incorporated – no ugly mushroom heaters here.
Additional touches included beanbag seating areas for relaxing in the evening, great attention to detail in table presentation and three seating terraces on jetties that sit over the Danube itself - al fresco dining at its finest. It got us thinking that, if this can be achieved in Bratislava, with hot summers but cold winters (with the added wind chill factor off the river), why aren’t we presenting external terraces in the UK in a similar fashion? True, it will be interesting to see how the terraces work at Eurovea in the winter, but, from chats with the operators, glass wind screens will be erected around the terraces for protection.
Our restaurant visit was to a newly opened Brazilian Churrascaria, Leblon, where we (over-filled) on a well presented salad bar and grilled meat, carved from skewers at the table by our extremely pleasant and knowledgeable server. Washed down with two local beers, the total bill came to just short of €40. The quality of the design of the terrace was carried through to the unit itself with a contemporary fit out, theatre window looking into the kitchen and private dining area.
A very worthwhile visit for any UK developers who want to see something a little different.
