The Goring

The Goring Hotel is a family-run luxury hotel near Buckingham Palace, open since 1910 and London’s last hotel to be still run by the family that built it. The long-established head chef here since 1998 is David Quelch, who trained at The Savoy (where he was senior sous chef from 1992 - 1996) and Claridges (where he was executive sous chef from 1992 - 1996).

The ground floor dining room is large, comfortably seating 60 diners at well-spaced tables, and quite grand. The floor is carpeted so noise levels are low, and there are very expensive looking curtains and luxurious white tablecloths. Lighting was unnecessarily low, and I observed a diner on the next table using a small torch to read the menu. The murky lighting (hence the matching photos) seemed particularly odd given that the clientele was not in its first flush of youth; I may have been the youngest diner in the room. The menu offers traditional British dishes, three courses priced at £49.

The wine list was extensive, with almost 400 choices and extensive coverage of France as well as a reasonable selection of New World wines, though there were some limitations, with just a single German wine for example. Prices ranged from £27 to £5,620 with a median price of £75 and an average mark-up of under 2.8 times retail price, which is quite fair by London standards. Example wines included Mercurey Clos Rochette from J. Faiveley 2009 at £41 for a wine that you can find in a shop for £19, Tassinaia Castello del Terriccio 2006 at £58 for a wine that retails at around £29, and Moss Wood Cabernet Sauvignon 2006 at £94 for a wine that will set you back around £72 in a shop.

Bread was bought-in but was quite good, with a choice of white, brown, onion bread and raisin and fennel bread (14/20). A starter of lobster omelette arrived as a neatly shaped ring, the lobster tender and with a hint of mustard to lift the dish (14/20). Salmon mousse was wrapped in smoked salmon and served with cucumber and a horseradish cream; this is a tried and tested combination of ingredients, hardly the cutting edge of cuisine but none the worse for that. The mousse had smooth texture and the horseradish was nicely judged, giving bite but not being too strong (15/20).

Monkfish was roasted, with spinach, wild mushrooms and potato sauce. The monkfish had good flavour, cooked properly if a fraction on the long side to my taste, with carefully cooked mushrooms and spinach, perhaps slightly over seasoned (15/20). I tried beef Wellington, which varied a little from the classical preparation in that it had chicken mousse rather than a mushroom duxelle, but did feature very good quality beef. The pastry was a little soggy, perhaps from waiting around too long, and the sauté potatoes were a little overcooked, but there was good gravy to compensate, and nicely cooked green cabbage on the side (14/20).

For dessert, ice creams had very good texture, and chocolate ice cream was clearly made with good quality chocolate (15/20). This was much better than my apple tart, whose pastry was too hard and whose caramelised apples seemed not to be incorporated in the pastry, though they had pleasant acidity. A soft meringue on top was a distraction; an ice cream would have been a more obvious accompaniment (12/20). Coffee was of good quality, as it should be at £5.50 each.

The bill, with a classy bottle of Cuvee Frederich Emile from Trimbach 2006 at £89, came to £233 i.e. £116 a head. Clearly it would be possible to eat for a lot less than this with a more modest wine. Service was classy, with very attentive service and careful, almost over-enthusiastic topping up. Overall I really enjoyed the evening: there was a very appealing menu; ingredients were good and the cooking technique generally sound. It was a touch expensive, but all those waiters have to be paid. This was good, traditional British cooking.

Further reviews: 22nd Sep 2015