Covent Garden, British, Traditional Restaurant Guide

“Proper old-school dining and a style of service rarely found nowadays” maintains the highest enthusiasm for London’s oldest restaurant: on this site in Covent Garden since 1798, and with “beautiful olde worlde decor” that looks like you’ve just “stepped back in time” to the era of Dickens, complete with “lovely wood panels and old paintings adorning the walls”. Of course the tourists flock, especially Yanks, and have for decades – get over it: it’s still an annual “tried and trusted” treat for many locals who “make an annual pilgrimage and hope the traditions remain for the next generation”. Its “seasonal, rich and wonderfully hearty British cooking” has proved of remarkably enduring quality over many years: “the beef pudding with an oyster? yes please, it’s is as good as it gets” (“superb, suet-encased, served with extra gravy”); and “the game in season is always good if a bit expensive” (e.g. “half a tender and flavourful roast partridge with bread sauce”). Top Tip – there’s also “a super bar upstairs that too many customers ignore”; “a favourite spot for a proper Black Velvet: that magical mix of champagne and Guinness devised during the time when Queen Victoria was in mourning”.

Autumn 2024 has become autumn 2025 when it comes to the projected launch date of this hotly awaited debut… if one can use such a word for the resurrection of this celebrated temple to roast beef on the Strand (est. 1828) which backs onto The Savoy (same owners). Restaurant supremo Jeremy King has partnered with Fairmont to rescue this “last of the ‘grande dame’ restaurants” and few openings carry such expectations and potential. The astonishing mediocrity of its traditional fare over recent decades has – notwithstanding its period charms; ongoing fame; large size; relaunch after relaunch; the huge surge in interest in dining out; and rising esteem for British cuisine – become an ever-more-obscure anachronism. King has said he envisions “a big-theatre brasserie”, but one that would “very much hark on its tradition” (“I want people to walk in there and say, ‘Oh good, they haven’t changed it’, although it will have changed”). Even if they have auctioned off the famous beef trolleys, if anyone can do it, it will be King… it could be so good.

A prime power-dining scene of yesteryear (where Lady Thatcher and her favourite tycoon, Lord Hanson would wine and dine in the 1980s), this panelled Art Deco chamber just off the foyer of the famous hotel remains a favourite with expense-accounters: “it’s definitely a restaurant to take guests who need impressing, with lovely, well-spaced tables and banquettes”. Run by Gordon Ramsay for most of the 2000s, its “first-class” traditional cooking is “wonderful” according to fans, but even they acknowledge that “it does seem to be overpriced for what it is”, and for a large band of critics it “doesn’t really deliver on its promise”. Top Menu Tip – “excellent Beef Wellington”.

“Hidden away in a basement at the side of Leicester Square”, “a marvellous little subterranean wine bar with a decent selection of mid-range wines that are not too overpriced for central London”. A “wide-ranging” food menu (including the famous ham-and-cheese pie that has been on the menu since 1971, of which about 1,000,000 portions have been sold) makes it a “great pitstop in tourist central – happily off the radar for most of them”. “You can’t drink in this place without feeling part of the iconic venue’s history”: its “tried and tested reputation” was established by founder Don Hewitson and is maintained by his successor Will Clayton.

The intriguing and enormous brick-lined crypt of St Martin in the Fields, right by Trafalgar Square, provides a self-service canteen for church or concert goers, and anyone else in the West End who happens to be passing. The simple food is not art, but it is cheap and the venue “makes a change from all the chains of coffee shops in this part of London”. Top Menu Tip – “good pizza”.