RestaurantsLondonMayfairW1

survey result

Summary

£196
£££££
4
Very Good
4
Very Good
5
Exceptional
* Based on a three course dinner, half a bottle of wine, coffee, cover charge, service and VAT.

“The interior is so magnificent, it feels like eating in Versailles!” at this “beautiful” chamber, which many cognoscenti consider to be “the most attractive dining room in London”. If you are a natural traditionalist and have money to burn, “this is the restaurant in London for that special meal” because “every time you go it feels like a perfect, memorable occasion” (and “thankfully a dress code is still in force!”). Under John Williams and his team, “absolutely stellar ingredients are superbly cooked with sensible updating of classic dishes; all combined with immaculate, polished silver service”. It’s “undeniably expensive, yes”, although fans feel it’s “worth every penny”. In fact, some of the fooderati feel that “surely two Michelin stars are warranted”: “I just can’t see why the Guide only gives it one star, as it’s so much better than some of the Gallic three stars not that far away!!”. Top Menu Tips – “The langoustines à la nage are perfectly cooked with magic flavours. The foie gras is perfection. The pigeon de Bresse utterly amazing – so hard to cook immaculately as it is. Don’t start me on the truffle jus!”. And “there is usually some theatre when someone has ordered the Crêpes Suzette, cooked at the table, apparently with a healthy slug of booze, and with flames shooting up every so often around the room!”

Summary

£196
£££££
4
Very Good
5
Exceptional
5
Exceptional
* Based on a three course dinner, half a bottle of wine, coffee, cover charge, service and VAT.

“Like a holiday in heaven!” – this “simply wonderful” Louis XVI-style chamber is known for its “OTT but magnificent” decor, and creates an “unbeatable location” for a special celebration, particularly an important date. John Williams commands a brigade of 60 chefs in the kitchen to provide “absolutely wonderfully executed, classic dishes, some using gueridon service – so rare now – and always adding a sense of occasion”. It’s “some of the best cooking in London”, and though “horrendously expensive” is justified by the “utterly sensational” all-round level of performance, which also includes “professional and kind” service and a wow of a wine list. “The Ritz is unusual in still having a jacket-and-tie dress code (about the only time I wear a tie these days!)”. “A band provides music, for dancing, at dinner on weekends (although there is a significant supplement for this)”.

Summary

£116
£££££
4
Very Good
5
Exceptional
5
Exceptional
* Based on a three course dinner, half a bottle of wine, coffee, cover charge, service and VAT.

“A wow all-round that will live long in the memory” – this “dreamy” Louis XVI-style dining room is renowned for its “magical” décor (a rival for any Disney castle) and has long been a top choice for an ‘expense-be-damned’ celebration, particularly a romantic one. But, these days, many feel that “the mindblowing food can match it too!” While the classical cuisine has long been respected for its consistent quality, its current performance is notably “at the top of its game”. “John Williams’ masterful orchestration of his very fine kitchen, produces some of the best and most interesting food in London”: “perfectly executed luxury dishes” with spoiling ingredients and “with sauces to die for”. “The outstanding flavours will have you running out of superlatives and there is the added bonus of theatre via cooking at the table” (“the crêpes are pure visual and gustatory pleasure!!”). “Immaculate service” is “silky smooth” too and arguably “it is a mystery why Michelin award it only one star as there are many worse two and three star restaurants in the UK”. It is mightily expensive, of course, but “sometimes it is worth forking out for a truly fantastic time”. It is also – with its regular dinner dances and strictly enforced dress code – a bastion of how to celebrate in traditional fine style: “How marvellous to dine to the sounds of a live pianist or band, and in a dining room where everyone has been forced to dress properly. Tie-less slobs are still turned away!” and “not a pair of jeans or trainers in sight!”

Summary

£116
£££££
3
Good
4
Very Good
5
Exceptional
* Based on a three course dinner, half a bottle of wine, coffee, cover charge, service and VAT.

“By far the most attractive dining room in London” is a regularly made claim for this uniquely “romantic” Louis XVI chamber: “one of the last places in the country (sadly) where proper silver service of the traditional, gueridon variety is delivered; and with faultless aplomb; and also (mostly) without pomposity”. Even those who say “the food is ultimately secondary to the amazing ambience of the room” often note “it’s still very delicious”; and quite a few reporters feel John Williams’s “classic French cuisine with top quality ingredients and superb sauces” unfairly risks being overlooked (“super-refined and exceptionally beautiful – my guest was a little less excited by the flavour combinations than I was, but, on the whole, dishes lived up to their appearance, and I felt it was almost worthy of a second Michelin star”). “Not cheap, but you get what you pay for!” (and that includes the weekend dinner dances).

For 33 years we've been curating reviews of the UK's most notable restaurant. In a typical year, diners submit over 50,000 reviews to create the most authoritative restaurant guide in the UK. Each year, the guide is re-written from scratch based on this survey (although for the 2021 edition, reviews are little changed from 2020 as no survey could run for that year).

Have you eaten at The Ritz?

150 Piccadilly, London, W1J 9BR

Restaurant details

Yes
Highchair,Menu
Yes
8
Jacket & tie required
90
Yes

The Ritz Restaurant Diner Reviews

Reviews of The Ritz Restaurant in W1, London by users of Hardens.com. Also see the editors review of The Ritz restaurant.
S R
Great room, great style and exceptional foo...
Reviewed 1 months, 27 days ago

"Great room, great style and exceptional food. Quite expensive but worth it. Definitely something for a special occasion. "

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Tim W
A fantastic experience all round. This wa...
Reviewed 6 months, 21 days ago

"A fantastic experience all round. This was a real treat and nowhere matches it in London for sheer indulgence and wonderful friendly service. Old fashioned but in a classy way. Rod Stewart dining with friends in one corner!! To add old school glamour on top of old school glamour - expensive but also manages to feel generous with a multitude of small classy touches - "

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Edwhite P
An amazing room with traditional service an...
Reviewed 8 months, 7 days ago

"An amazing room with traditional service and excellent food "

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What the Newspaper Critics are saying

Evening Standard

In a week when ‘fine dining’ emerged as a coincidental theme for reviewers, David Ellis was clearly in the mood to celebrate his elevation to the role of the Standard’s chief restaurant critic with a visit to the best restaurant in town (he had a further reason to celebrate, his partner, Twiggy, having accepted his proposal of marriage). 

“The Ritz is the restaurant I routinely name as London’s best, because it is,” David declared. “Only no one ever believes me, on the grounds it’s too preposterously obvious to possibly be true. But it is. Accept no substitute, not even the afternoon tea.”

The restaurant scores on every front, he says, from its “cartoonishly grand” pink and gilt Louis XIV interior, via the well-drilled but resolutely un-stuck-up staff, to “food that leaves me fog-headed with pleasure”, gasping “did human hands really do all this?”

Executive chef John Williams has revolutionised The Ritz over two decades, so what is apparently old-school is now “anything but dated. He has bear-hugged tradition but created a sense of timelessness. Can there be cutting-edge classicism?”.

David Ellis - 2024-09-29

The Times

In the third episode of his search for the holy grail of ‘fine dining’, Tim Hayward doubled up with former Sunday Times and Guardian critic Marina O’Loughlin for the second of this week’s mob-handed reviews, of a seven-course ‘Epicurean Lunch’ at The Ritz – erstwhile stomping ground of Auguste Escoffier, the chef who, as Tim reminded us, “wrote the book on fine dining”.

The pair agreed on their shared disdain for the present state of the genre – the “absurd menus of flash ‘nibbles with narratives’” paraded by young chefs around the country via “the echo chamber of ‘Chef Instagram’”, and the resultant “total loss of deliciousness”. Marina dated this disenchantment to her second visit to El Bulli, and the “tortured and denatured” food she ate there.

The meal started with an amuse bouche of Coronation chicken that “dabbed every cliché” of this reviled modern gastronomy with “every kind of twattery required, deconstruction, a ‘witty narrative’, a pointlessly novel presentation of a weary classic”… But – and there had to be a ‘but’ – “Also, frustratingly and thanks to the talents of John Williams (MBE), a classically and fully adult chef, it was bloody gorgeous.”   

The rest of the meal lived up to this elevated standard, delighting both critics despite their initial reservations. By the end, Tim was left wondering what exactly “fine dining” is these days. Marina suggested a working definition: “Tweezers, multiple complex techniques and hushed reverence.” 

Tim Hayward - 2024-10-13

Prices

Availability 2 courses 3 courses coffee included service included
Lunch   £89.00
Dinner   £182.00
Pretheatre    
SundayLunch   £182.00
  Cost Availability Courses
Menu1 182.00 Always available 5
Menu2 202.00 Always available 7

Traditional European menu

Starter Main Pudding
£46.00 £63.00 £27.00
Drinks  
Wine per bottle £58.00
Filter Coffee £9.50
Extras  
Service 12.50%
150 Piccadilly, London, W1J 9BR
Opening hours
Monday7:30 am‑2 pm, 6:30 pm‑9 pm
Tuesday7:30 am‑2 pm, 6:30 pm‑9 pm
Wednesday7:30 am‑2 pm, 6:30 pm‑9 pm
Thursday7:30 am‑2 pm, 6:30 pm‑9 pm
Friday7:30 am‑2 pm, 6:30 pm‑9 pm
Saturday7:30 am‑2 pm, 6:30 pm‑9 pm
Sunday7:30 am‑2 pm, 6:30 pm‑9 pm

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