Eating At A Steakhouse in London
London is not known for its fabulous restaurants. The Brits don’t do food well. It is hit and miss, regardless of how much money you spend. To elaborate the first two meals while in London were at high end, expensive, nicely located, steak houses. Both were quite expensive and stuffy, but only average. Both are now on my ‘you can do better’ list.
Our first dinner out was Gillray’s Steakhouse located inside the Marriott Hotel’s County Hall. They are not affiliated.The experience was so bad it was almost comical. The portions were tiny, the kind of tiny commercials make fun of. The website photos look persuasive. Don’t be persuaded.
The boyfriend and a long time colleague and friend “shared the scallops”. The huge plate came out with three tiny scallops. The server managed to present them with a straight face, and they were apparently delicious. But I was mortified watching these two men cut a scallop in half and each eat one and a half. It wouldn’t have knocked the server out to inform us in advance that their portions are unusually small. Just giving us an option of ordering more than one appetizer would have been better. But not a word.
I had two mini filets for my meal. My first mini filet showed up looking like a tiny, shriveled turd. Clearly NO quality control. Just to show that I had made an effort, I cut into it. With the consistency of shoe leather and no pink anywhere, I didn’t dare attempt to choke it down. Knowing this is a steakhouse and the kitchen must know what cooking something medium means, I sent it back. The server had bothered to ask me my cooking preference and I had bothered to answer. And shoe leather was not the consistency I was after. There was simply not enough liquid in the restaurant for me to safely gag the thing down. The boyfriend’s steak as well as our guest’s steak were not much better, but they carried on like good soldiers not wanting to make more of a situation by sending their meat back as well.
I just cannot spend any time talking about trying to order my meal having an allergy. These servers were not equipped to handle anything out of the ordinary. If you had any special requests, issues, or needs they were not in a position to help. All of the sauces are prepared with a flour base. The kitchen is not prepared to deviate from that. Other options for steak sauce consist of catchup, mustard, salt and pepper. Even the horseradish isn’t an option because they have turned it into some kind of a glutenous contamination. I of course am used to the salt and pepper option. They just were not used to, trained, or able to be helpful.
And by the way, we got to the restaurant at 6:15 pm. It was not too crowded but not empty either. So there was no excuses about kitchen help or a rush. There was plenty of time to get our orders correct. They apologized all over themselves for the state my steak was presented and the second steak came out looking much better and more palatable. We arrived as I said at 6:15. Dinner ended at 10. Good thing we enjoyed the company.
Don’t go there.
The next meal was at the Caxton Grille located inside the St. Ermin’s Hotel. The hotel is eclectic and charming. The Grille is decorated beautifully. The food is average and overpriced. Again the portions are small and the quality is not good.
We were hosting clients at this meal. Our guests both chose the ravioli which is not a difficult dish to prepare or serve. Usually at an Italian restaurant you would receive a robust portion, so much that you would be compelled to take some home. Not so at this Grille. When presented, the plate was enormous, with a tiny center cutout bowl; inside the cutout was a small portion of ravioli. The ravioli was not properly cooked and one our guests needed hot tea to wash it down.
I ordered the grilled fish plate with vegetables. On the menu it suggested that the fish was white fish. Since I read English, am in another English speaking country and tend to believe what is on the menu, I figured I was getting white fish and grilled vegetables. Oh no, I got a small sliver of white fish. The rest of the plate was prawns, octopus, salmon, other various sea creatures, and unrecognizable, bitter, cooked vegetables including kale (who cooks and eats kale at a restaurant?). Do we have to be weird and so off menu without at the very least describing what is going to appear on the plate?
When talking to Dan Scholz about these food experiences, he said “British food, bad and expensive.” We had both bad and expensive the last two days. But alas! Our dinner tonight was delicious. We found a place that was worth sharing. Stay tuned.
