Michael Caines at The Stafford

Lunch at the newly opened Michael Caines at The Stafford London hotel. Excellent food, tasty, beautifully presented and showing great technique. Good, professional service in a plush dining room. This was a great experience and a Michelin star will no doubt be on its way. And £45 for 4 courses, including canapés and a double portion of bread, was a bargain for food of this quality. Yet another easy recommendation.

An amazing dinner with friends. A hidden gem in St James. A lovely restaurant, cosy, yet spacious with an open fire in the bar area. Sara the Sommelier was incredible and even took us to her underground wine cellar. The service led by Alejandro and his team was seamless and every need catered for. The food was exquisite. The flavours, the quality of products used and the attention to detail with the presentation. Chef Michael Caines was on duty and visited the table to check on our experience. This is a dining experience you must have. Can’t recommend it highly enough.

This was everything a meal at a top London hotel should be-then more! Lunch moved gently from champagne and canapés, a cheddar gougère and a chicken liver parfait tartlet- on to an amuse bouche of crab raviolo in a lobster velouté. One went for the quails egg with Hollandaise sauce tart, two of us for the game and duck with mandarin. Both dishes delicious. For mains we chose the lamb and cod options, all outstanding. We chose pinot noir and cloudy bay Sauvignon Blanc by the glass to accompany. For dessert it had to be the soufflé, orange this week. Not able to decide between the Hungary 5 star Tokaji or champagne so we shared both between the 2 of us. The dessert wine was a better match. Staff were all warm and professional, absolutely at the top of their game, and Sarah the sommelier was fabulous and knowledgeable. The set lunch with 3 options for each course plus all the extras is an incredibly reasonable £45 a head. We had exactly what we wanted to drink so the final bill was just under £150 a head, and worth every penny.

A solid fine dining restaurant. I would expect this to get a Michelin star in the next year. Portion sizes for a la carte is were on the small side so we had two main courses and ordered some sides. Triple cooked chips were excellent. Some very good dishes but nothing exceptional. Food was well-presented. Pistachio souffle was not at the level of Pierre Koffman's and slightly on the bitter side. Service levels were excellent and the restaurant permitted corkage. The dining room is semi-open plan and adjacent to a thoroughfare to get to the hotel bar, so had a slightly strange ambience. Very old school visually but this is in keeping with the hotel.

Having stayed at Lympstone Manor, we chose to eat here prior to a theatre matinee. We opted for the three course menu for £35 per head celebrating 10 years of Lympstone Manor. The food was absolutely superb and beautifully presented, every course so well executed. It seems rare nowadays to match the service to the food, but in this case the service was outstanding. All the members of staff were delightful and engaging, totally aware of our theatre timing. The charming young French man ( I’m sorry we didn’t catch his name) was exceptional with his care and attention. Fabulous.

Food is very good. But it’s very slow. We told our waiter that we didn’t have much more than one hour. Unfortunately, one hour and 15 minutes later we only had our starters…

We had a lovely evening at Michael Caines new restaurant at The Stafford. Food was amazing and especially the scallop ceviche and lamb. The team were very friendly and the service was great! Highly recommend.

I was overcharged by this restaurant and told I’d receive a refund. For a restaurant at this level, I expected a smoother and more professional process. Instead, I was asked to email their manager my credit information, when it would have been more appropriate for them to handle the communication directly. I’ve also received unexpected phone call from them about the issue, even though we had already been communicating over email — which felt unnecessary and intrusive. It’s been 9 days, and I still haven’t received the refund. The manager has since stopped responding. Overall, a disappointing experience given the restaurant’s reputation.