Sunday Times, 13 August 2107

TABLE TALK: ED BALLS REVIEWS ZOBLER’S, CITY OF LONDON

It's thirty-three years since I last walked into the ornate Lutyens-designed Midland Bank headquarters, in the City of London, above Bank station. Just 17 years old, I had been summoned down from Nottingham by the Midland for a university scholarship interview. It was my first trip to London alone.

I arrived at St Pancras, bought a copy of the Financial Times newspaper which I knew my Norfolk bank manager uncle read daily, and rode the Northern lines to Bank station. I remember a posh gentleman warning me loudly to “mind the gap'.

Decades on, the old banking hall is airy and magnificent, with huge marbled pillars. But so much else has changed. I'm 50, the Midland Bank, which sponsored ne through university, is no more and what was once a place to cash cheques is now one of London's smartest hotels.

A joint venture between London's Soho House and the US boutique hotel group Sydell, The Ned is part hotel and part members club, with nine restaurants ranging from steak and an Italian to chichi Californian and Asian fusion. But I've chosen Zobler's, a New York Kosher-style deli, named after the Sydell chief executive, Andrew Zobler.

I've spent a lot of time in Jewish delis recently. During the Strictly season, Judge Rinder and I used to go down to Delisserie on Borehamwood's main drag for chicken soup and bagels. We'd talk about politics, the law - anything other than the cha-cha or paso we were performing that night. (We thought we were slipping away unnoticed like naughty schoolboys, but we found out afterwards the BBC producers always had close tabs on exactly where we were.)

So I'm intrigued to see how Zobler's measures up, and I've invited along a stalwart of the London Jewish community and an expert on all things kosher. I'd rung ahead to book but was told there was no need, so after a quick prosecco in the buzzing lobby bar, we saunter through to the restaurant, with its large central communal lunch counter, lots of tables and an open kitchen surrounded by bagels, tomatoes and platters of smoked salmon.

But getting a table proves rather more of an obstacle course than we expected. Having looked in vain for a host, we ask at the reception desk and are pointed towards a menu stand. Still confused, we grab a waiter and finally work it out: you look at the menu, go up to a side counter to order and pay for your order and then sit anywhere.

My companion is in raptures at the menu, then disappointment strikes. Zobler's is a kosher-style deli, but it doesn't serve any kosher food. 'We're looking into it for the future', the nice counter waitress explains. 'Not to worry', Karen laughs. 'I'll go vegetarian and you can eat pastrami for me.' We wildly over-order because Karen is intrigued to see - if not taste - how things come out. We also order two glass of a light provençal rose - from a list that’s much more expensive than the very reasonable food prices - and, clutching our glasses, go in search of a table.

It is noisy but not too loud, a mix of couples, families and people having a quick lunch alone. When a waiter in a smart white coat and black bow tie arrives with water, my friend squeals. 'It’s just like Bloom's' - a famous old-style Jewish deli in Golders Green, sadly now closed.

Our food arrives quickly, but annoyingly all in one go. Perhaps we should have ordered a course at a time, but that would have meant repeated trips to the counter. My companion starts with a latke, a deep-fried potato cake that she says should taste great on its own, before concluding this latke needs its sour cream and apple sauce accompaniment. My chicken soup, on the other hand, is superb: a rich stock, lots of chicken pieces, crunchy vegetables and spongy but not too heavy kneidlach - Yiddish for matzo ball dumplings - which she says look just right. Judge Rinder would approve.

By this time, we yearn for another glass of wine, but can't be bothered to make the trip. So, we turn to our next course, for Karen a cheese sandwich on toasted challah bread - ‘proper comfort food’ though the cucumber salad is unappetisingly drowned in yoghurt. But my beef hotdog looks fabulous – sprinkled with crispy onions and poking out of its bun - and tastes even better, with a perfectly judged tomato-sauce and mayo relish that has my kosher companion salivating.

And still we are not done. My friend samples a deli stalwart, delicate smoked salmon, tomato and not too much cream cheese on an oddly pungent onion bagel which she eats with her hands, as is apparently the traditional way. Not being a big pastrami fan, I wolf down half a Reuben corn-beef sandwich: rich sweet meat, crunchy sauerkraut, mild cheese and a pickle on the side. 'It smells so good' she pines.

My companion claims to be full, but no proper Jewish deli meal-goer can ever skip desert, apparently. So we return to the side-counter to order that much-missed second glass of wine, plus rugelach, a sweet pain-au-chocolate style pastry (which, like the bagels, hails from Carmelli's in Golders Green), and a fluffy baked New York cheesecake with a tart cherry and raspberry compote.

Zobler's is not a place for a fancy business lunch or romantic dinner. But it's fun and very good value. Even without kosher options, Karen says she will definitely return and bring her mum. I have one gripe: it would have been so much better if we could have ordered drinks and desert at our table, rather than having to making repeated trips to the till. T

he Ned is fancy, but relaxed and welcoming and, surprisingly, not full of City types. As we walk back to the lobby, a piano player starts tinkling dreamily from a dais where a live band plays in the evenings. This very special old building has a new lease of life.