28-50 Wine Bar & Kitchen Fondue Festival | Review

Both Dann and Jupiter went to a Fondue Festival at the 28-50 Wine Bar & Kitchen, who do yearly Fondue Festivals in London. These take place each Tuesday through February, March and April. We’re not sure if Festival makes a lot of sense in this use, as it’s not really a Festival and more of a sit down dinner but only there for a limited amount of time. Dann really wanted to go, so we both grabbed up some tickets and figured we’d see what happens. Neither of us had been to 28-50 Wine Bar & Kitchen, nor had we had Fondue before, so it was an interesting time.

The first thing worth noting is that you are going to need to go to the Fondue Festival with a friend, as it’s a minimum of two people per fondue. The price is set at £34.95 per person, stacking as you add more people to it. The festival tickets include a set menu – we weren’t even shown a normal menu – which you get to eat from. The venue itself is very upscale, we were quite under dressed, and is a dark and moody place.

We started our meal with a glass of Kir each, but you could choose to have a glass of Chateau de Candie Viognier wine. Kir is a French cocktail made with creme de cassis and then topped up with white wine. This drink was good, not too dry. We also got water for the table of course. After a bit of time and conversation, we got our starter. This was a rocket and walnut salad with a balsamic dressing. The salad was good but small, even though it’s meant to be split between two people and we found it quite refreshing in taste and compared to the massive amount of cheese we were eating that evening.

The Fondue Savoyarde includes beaufort, comte and abondance cheese which is melted in apremont wine and kirsch. The fondue when it came to our table was pretty separated and never seemed to fully come together, having a sort of soupy-watery top that wouldn’t stick to anything dipped into it. This was kind of a disappointment, as it become a challenge to dip items into it and the cheese needed constant working to make sure you didn’t just get a soupy mess. When we did get cheese, though, it was fantastic.

To dip into our cheese, we had a charcuterie platter with loads of thinly sliced, cooked meats and some gherkins. We both agreed that having thicker cuts of meat would have made them a bit easier to dip and some of the meats were quite greasy, but it was a good variety. We also got a big basket of bread and a medium sized bowl of potatoes. These roasted potatoes were the real highlight of the fondue – they were buttery, coated in herbs and went so well with the fondue. Dann really enjoyed the bread, but it wasn’t Jupiter’s favourite. Our Fondue Festival time was quite long, as we stirred, talked and dipped. It’s a very fun experience to do with someone, especially as someone needs to keep an eye on the cheese pot.

For dessert, we shared a tarte tatin which they covered in alcohol and lit on fire. It came with a side of some sort of vanilla creme. This dessert was very delicious and felt good at the end of a very cheesy meal.

We both felt that, for the price, the fondue festival was lacking. The amount of food was very small considering the price and there wasn’t enough refreshing bits to break away from eating a literal pot of cheese. We both also wished that the herbs on the potatoes were also served on the side, allowing us to add them straight to the cheese, as they really improved the flavor. 28-50 Wine Bar & Kitchen is an upscale place, so you are definitely paying for the atmosphere. The service was very nice, with perfect checks on our table, though!

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