The Midland Grand is an opulent dining room with food to match - Review - London - The Infatuation
"Victor Garvey At The Midland Grand is one of the few London restaurants where a frilly collar wouldn’t go amiss. It’s a French fine dining restaurant attached to the St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel that’s as regal as a National Trust home and serves a flaming seafood boudin noir fit to ascend the throne. There are plenty of chi-chi fine dining restaurants in London, but few serve food as good as this one. By early evening this opulent room is full of disposable income and a legion of staff ready to try and accommodate any request. A menu that’s strictly tweezer-y, new-age French fine dining could make for a snoring combination with an affluent crowd, but is avoided thanks to the lights seductively dimming, the champagne trolley rolling, and explosively delicious dishes like native lobster with a faintly Thai-inspired bisque. photo credit: Jake Missing video credit: Jake Missing photo credit: Jake Missing Pause Unmute You can stick to a la carte or twist on two tasting menus. Either way, you’re unlikely to be getting out of The Midland Grand in under a couple of hours. The carpet is too plush and the seats too easy to sink into. A devilishly simple snack of a slice of tomato with sorbet and gazpacho consommé sets the tone for what’s ahead. Still, elegantly cutting a firm tomato with a spoon is no mean feat. We showed our lack of finishing school by getting the bread knife involved. If you aren’t one for vinegar foams or the occasional tableside flamethrower silliness, then The Midland Grand will probably still fall into the stuffy category for you. It’s not somewhere you can let loose (even if Gothic Bar next door sounds like it’s pumping on a Friday night) but it’s something that’s even rarer these days: a three-figure restaurant experience that’s worth every penny. Food Rundown Menu Experience This smaller seven-course tasting menu is likely to change but here are a few highlights that we ate: Le Tourteau A bowl of green sorbet and pistachio-coloured foam should (rightly) strike terror into anyone after a good meal, but this bowl of crab is one of the most delicious and creative fine dining dishes we’ve eaten in a while. The sweet pea sorbet is gentle, the Devon crab buttery, and the seaweed vinegar foam gives a subtle bit of zing. photo credit: Jake Missing Le Homard The Thai-inspired lobster bisque is the highlight of this plate. It’s got an ocean’s load of depth. Although the seafood boudin noir (a sausage made with the offcuts of lobster and scallop) that’s set on fire beside you is close behind. “Careful” the server will say, “that’s a hot rock”. PlayMute video credit: Jake Missing L’Agneau A single lamb chop that seems to channel the flavour of every bleating lamb the world over, this is another dish that results in every last smear of sauce being wiped up. photo credit: Jake Missing L'Opera If we were in the kitchen, we’d throw in the towel and slice up a Viennetta at this point. Not here. It’s a mixture of rich 80% chocolate, coffee, and almond. A classic combination that comes in the form of rich glistening spheres, smaller creamier ones, a quenelle of ice cream, and hours of painstaking technique that we demolished. photo credit: Jake Missing" - Jake Missing
