Restaurant Review – The Gilbert Scott, St Pancras

Posted on May 22, 2011 | Leave a comment

The newly refurbished St Pancras Renaissance hotel – a building world famous for pretending to be King’s Cross in the Harry Potter movies – is the perfect place for nostalgic dining, and sure enough the surroundings of the Gilbert Scott definitely evoke a certain romance.

The loving and painstaking refurbishment of the building is inspirational, and the restaurant itself with its booths and retro lamps has the charming feel of an early 20th century VIP station dining room. It seems ideal for a brief encounter with someone you shouldn’t be seen with, before they guiltily depart on a steam train.

In keeping with the nostalgic theme, the menu is largely hearty, traditional fare, but with a modern approach to seasoning and presentation. I expected my crab salad starter to be the usual refreshing but slightly drab crab affair – but instead, flavours made my tastebuds sing in a glorious three-part harmony.

A pigeon main course was complimented astonishingly well with the intense sweetness of prune, and a taste of my husband’s rabbit and prawn pie revealed the kind of perfectly judged pastry British matriarchs were famed for making a couple of generations ago.

Even the side dishes – a weak point in many restaurants – were carefully prepared, with roast potatoes to die for and a cauliflower cheese that warmed the cockles of your heart.

One pet hate of mine as a non-drinker is when restaurants lace desserts with alcohol to make them more ‘grown-up’. Here, although alcohol was listed in many of the desserts, it was always subtle, and you don’t get less grown up than selections such as Manchester Tart, Jaffa Cake and Kendal Mint cake. These school dinner staples were assembled in a modern, intricate fashion. My Kendal mint cake choc ice zinged with fresh mint while still managing to evoke childhood memories.

It would have been faultless culinary experience – if the service hadn’t been so haphazard. Staff didn’t keep track of our booking and direct our group to the right place as they arrived. Having to wait an age to order your food then having to ask to order is never good news. Side orders were missed and mixed up, drinks didn’t arrive. Despite the standard 2-hour sitting, we were there for close to four hours and not by design, though in truth we didn’t seem to notice until we left.

The evening was saved with free cocktails for the drinkers and extra desserts to try, and a tour of the kitchen where we said hello to chef Marcus Wareing. But being apologised to once is acceptable, hearing it several times on the course of an evening becomes, well, wearing.

Hopefully the Gilbert Scott will address these issues which I shall put down to teething trouble. They only served to make astonishingly good cooking into a merely good overall dining experience. For now I shall just shut my eyes and remember how it all tasted. Great Scott, it was amazing.

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