Lucy the Labrador and I were in London to enable me to go to see Kenneth Branagh’s King Lear at the Wyndham Theatre. When in the capital I like to stay close to Euston Station so that I do not have to try to transport Lucy around the city. This time we were staying at the really rather excellent Renaissance Hotel at St Pancras Station and, having arrived there, it seemed like a good idea to have the set lunch on offer in the hotel bar/dining area, Booking Office 1869 - £30 for two courses or £40 for three. Not bad for London.
Dining in the restaurant is spectacular with its ceiling so high above the diner it might as well be in the stratosphere and the moody lighting and smartly clad waiters efficiently and quietly going about their work. Oh! and it has palm trees. It’s probably the closest thing to dining in a cathedral (save, I suppose, English cathedrals do not usually have palm trees). Quite-breathtaking and with the added bonus that dogs can accompany their owners while they dine with kind front-of-house staff bringing them bowls of water.
One really must dine here if only to experience the combined thrill of sitting at a table there and relaxing in the luxury of it all. The food is more of an after thought but much too good value not to sit back and enjoy. I chose the ‘Classic set lunch’ though I wouldn’t really describe the choice of cheeseburger and pumpkin and sage tortellini as ‘classic’ English lunchtime fare. That said, I enjoyed the three dishes served to me but sitting with the dog in this very grand restaurant certainly was the sugar that helped the medicine go down.
I chose cashew hummus with harissa and seeded crackers. The hummus was subtly flavoured and the crackers were tasty and crispy and the accompanying pickled carrots livened up the dish. No complaints. My cheeseburger, which surely could not have caused offence to any of the many Americans staying at the hotel - and doubtless they were greater aficionados on the subject of burgers than I will ever be - as my burger was cooked precisely as requested and adorned with reasonably crispy bacon, cheese, pickled cucumber, something called St Pancras sauce though I wasn’t really aware of the presence of that particular entity at the time and accompanied by some very well cooked chips. If I must have a burger for lunch then this was an enjoyable burger and consumed in a very simpatico setting.
Of the two choices of dessert I opted for coconut and mango mousse with ‘exotic sorbet’ which was pleasant enough though it was never going to set the world of pastry cooking on fire.
I enjoyed the meal and it delivered what it promised to do. But far more memorable was the setting for the meal. Highly recommended as an experience.
Rating:- 🌛🌛🌛🌛
Afterwards, off to the Wyndham Theatre for another notable experience to see Kenneth Branagh in his trimmed down version of King Lear, set in the New Stone Age, characterised by an initially bizarre declamation - about ten words per minute - by Branagh in an unconvincing attempt to present himself as a very old man. Fortunately things picked up and in the end the visit to the theatre was rather like lunch at The Booking Office - an experience I wouldn’t have wanted to miss.
Lucy and I said farewell for the present to the Renaissance Hotel the following morning. It’s a very pleasing place to stay. In the corridor along which our bedroom was located were a number appealing works of art illustrating servants in the hotel dressed probably as they would have been in Victorian or Edwardian times including one or two involved in preparation of food at the hotel.
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