Covent Garden, British, Traditional Restaurant Guide

“What’s not to like about the oldest restaurant in London?” – in continuous operation on the same Covent Garden site since 1798. Of course, it’s “popular with tourists”, but its “quintessentially British” style makes it an “old favourite” for many Londoners too, and it provides “a beautiful, traditional experience”. The atmosphere of the beautiful dining room is “exceptional” and the “old school cuisine, with an emphasis on meat and game”, is very dependable; and backed up by an “extensive, if quite expensive wine list”. Top Menu Tip – “lovely steak ’n’ kidney pie”.

This legendary temple to roast beef (opened in 1828) closed in March 2020 and has yet to re-open. In August 2023, the Savoy (of which it’s a part) auctioned off many of the antiquities relating to the site, including fireplaces, furniture, crockery and its renowned carving trolleys. It has also posted on its website its ‘intention to announce a re-opening date in 2024’. Clearly it will be a new non-heritage-based departure for this famous name, so, watch this space.

A two-month closure facilitated a ‘Gatsby makeover’ this year at this elegant and famous grill room, which for the last 20 years has been part of Gordon Ramsay’s culinary empire. (It now incorporates a chef’s table, and a walnut wood-lined wine experience room for eight). With its Beef Wellington, Dover Sole and Lobster Thermidor – plus also a selection of steaks from now de rigueur charcoal grill – fans say it’s “superb all round for celebrating that special occasion”. Doubters, though, continue to focus on its “extortionate prices and very uninspired menu in this newly redecorated Art Deco space”.

“A secret, below-ground escape from the mayhem of Leicester Square” for more than half a century – this “well-hidden”, “old-school” wine bar has “only got better” over the years, first under founder Don Hewitson and latterly under Will Clayton. Top Menu Tip – “share the ham and cheese pie (it is absolutely enormous)”, and has sold around a million portions since 1971.

A “long-established cafeteria” in the beautiful, brick-vaulted crypt of St Martin-in-the-Fields that’s a useful venue for daytime and pre-theatre refuelling – “cheap and tasty and near the National Gallery”. In summer, they open a ‘Café in the Courtyard’, too.