Restaurant Review: Crazy Bear, Fitzrovia, London

Style Points: 4/5
Price: £££
Overall: 3/5

Crazy Bear opened its glamorous doors in Fitzrovia back in 2004, making it the first London venture from the Crazy Bear group with two other venues in the UK. 

Once past the elusive exterior, this Thai restaurant is unashamedly spectacular with every aspect set to stun. The plush red velvet stairs lined with mirrors which lead down to the dazzling bar, the black mirrored tables, and even the crystal cocktail glasses are extravagant, making it the perfect place for a stylish night out.

What's on the menu?

We dined here as a group for a birthday celebration, and after having secured a table, paid the deposit, chosen a menu in advance and all arrived on time, as these are all prerequisites of booking a table here, we were finally ready to dine.

Crazy Bear serves a menu which is predominately Thai and Japanese, with inspired salads and soups, as well as sushi options too. We had already chosen to dine from the 10 plate Classic set menu, which included: 

• Steamed har gau dumplings, served with prawn and chive crystal sweetcorn and chive
• Crispy tiger prawn tempura with addictive tempura dipping sauce
• Cotswold chicken satay served with peanut dipping sauces, which were actually slightly dry
• Crispy Gressingham duck salad with pomegranate seeds, mango, apple, cherry tomatoes, roasted cashews, mint and very little duck

• Succulent chargrilled lamb cutlets with long beans, garlic, chilli and black pepper sauce
• Steamed and rather flavourless sea bass fillets with ginger, shiitake, spring onion and premium light soy sauce
• Aberdeen Angus beef sirloin panang curry with chargrilled baby courgettes, lychees, cherry tomatoes and grapes, or vegetable pad thai for non beef eaters and vegetarians
• Side dishes which included choi sum, beansprouts and jasmine rice

Although a few of the dishes were cooked quite well such as the lamb cutlets, the rest of the menu was quite underwhelming and lacked any strong taste or flavour to it. This may have been because we had been dining as a group of 6 from a set menu, but I would say larger quantities shouldn’t be an excuse of lower quality. 

Could I afford to dine here again?

Our 10 plate classic menu cost £40 per person, which is the same for lunch or dinner. There are also 12 plate menus for £50 and even a Premium set menu for £62. Although we did receive a lot of food on the table, we were let down by the flavour of it. 

Overall?

Crazy Bear has a reputation as one of the glamourous places to be seen in London. The cocktail bar was very popular and innovative cocktails and the mirrored loos with hidden doors did result in an enjoyable evening. 

However I was disappointed with the quality of the food we were served, as none of it had any stand out flavours. If I do go back I will try dining in a small group from the a la carte menu and hope that it is an improvement. 

Visit Crazy Bear Fitzrovia’s website 
Address: 26-28 Whitfield St, London W1T 2RG
Closest Tube Station: Goodge Street, Northern Line