The Only Running Footman
our comments
Immersed in extreme wealth and lovely looking people, Mayfair is simply one of those ‘buzzy’ places in London where to spend a few hours is always a pleasure. Buy anything though and you instantly need to re-mortgage your house. The Running Footman, on Charles Street, seems to have cracked all that because it’s one of those honest places that we all love to come across from time to time, and that’s why I really like it.
The inoffensive bar, as you wander in, is certainly very charming although I couldn’t quite work out the wallpaper on one of its walls. Very puby-esque they offer a typically British food menu all day that suggests healthy portions of all the classics – South Coast puff pastry fish pie, Beer battered fish and chips, with ‘proper’ mushy peas, The Running Footman Pie of the Day, to name just three.
Upstairs however, things get slightly more serious. The first floor houses the newly ‘re-furbed’ à la carte restaurant. It’s plush, but not intimidating. I firmly suggest asking for the table in the corner next to the fireplace though. That looked the best. Our waiter (he was French) forgot to inform us of the specials until the dessert card was offered, but that didn’t matter, because up here, off the beaten track, you find yourself peacefully left alone to your own devices, which is kinda nice nowadays.
The food is leaning towards Mayfair prices though which is fine but given the options literally a five minute walk away, you do wonder if you’ve made the right choice. We had. We devoured a Jerusalem artichoke with French bean, thyme and garlic salad, soft poached egg and a mustard dressing and a delicious red onion tatin with golden cross goats cheese. The mains were gorgeous too – a loin of venison, with a turnip gratin, braised red cabbage and a black pepper jus, and the Gloucester Old Spot slow roast pork, potato and apple galette and creamed spinach – a complete bargain.
For dessert, we simply had to try the sticky toffee pudding, but it was so rich, especially after what we had enjoyed before, we couldn’t eat it – sorry guys!
The wine list borders on the safe side but intriguingly suggests that someone who knows a little bit about food and wine matching has plainly had some fun putting this together, or was that the suppliers – a few of the ‘bigger boys’ have certainly muscled in already – Bibendum, Enotria, Mentzendorff? At least it’s fairly priced though.
Displayed in taste styles as opposed to price, ie: ‘light and fresh’, ‘medium to full bodied’ etc, there really is no need for a sommelier, and there isn’t one, as plainly the guy I asked really didn’t know what he was talking about. There is also a fine wine section that highlights a few ‘gems’ – Jaboulet’s iconic La Chapelle 1990 (a Parker 100 point wine) for example is brilliantly priced at just under £200
We opted for the wines by the glass throughout our meal and weren’t disappointed. It’s great to see a Grüner Veltliner from Austria alongside a Verdejo from Spain as only two of the seven choices, and lovely they were too. The Crozes-Hermitage, Domaine Combier, Rhône, France worked wonderfully with our mains, and I firmly suggest you go along just to have a glass of this alone. Finally, the dessert wines, always hit and miss as you never really know how long the bottle’s been opened for. In this instance we plumped for the Muscat de Rivesaltes, which always seems light enough and less icky to intrude on the rich flavours of the pudding, and it was – relief!
I must say though, finally, if you keep going up, there’s a private function room, perfect for wine tastings (note to self), and up again you reach the cooking classroom. Brilliantly set-up around a central block where you can all have a go at the same time whilst watching the next ‘celebrity chef’ in action.
T.K-S. - February 2008
your comments review this restaurant and win a bottle of champagne
I so love this pub and highly recommend it to all. Friend hired the top floor for a private party with the chef cooking in-front of us - the food was wonderful and obviously the company was outstanding!! As for downstairs, well I have never eaten there, but menu looks great! Visit regularly, as around the corner from the office, for several glasses of wine and you can guarnatee a great, buzzy atmosphere and they have a fab wine list (not that I know that much, apart from if it is red then I will probably love it - not great seeing I have done a Christie's wine course!) Staff have always been very friendly and helpful, I have never needed to wait long to get a drink! Enjoy
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Overall rating 
Food 8 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 8
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
I think that whoever has written the last couple of reviews must be writing about the wrong place??!!
We came to The Only Running Footman for a private function with friends. We started in the main pub area downstairs and in the very first instance loved the atmosphere - casual but chic, relaxed but elegant. The bar tenders were fantastic, knowing their wines from top to toe and had been trained well enough to know when to be on hand and when not to be. A delicate border line in which most other restaurants in the Mayfair area tend to get very wrong - they're either too overpowering or too laid back leaving you, the customer, feeling a bit irritated. Not here though.
Our private party was fantastic - a birthday bash and the waiters could not do enough. The food... food is a very personal thing and I would only say this is an experience you must try. It's really really great.
There are very very few places in the surrounding area, if any at all, that can provide a pub / bar / fine dining / cook school (yet to try) in the same building and hit every nail on the head at a reasonable price. Brilliant job!!
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Overall rating 
Food 9 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 9
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Looking for a Sunday lunch venue with family and overseas visitors, we selected The Only Running Footman. Greeted warmly, the ambience and atmosphere was just perfect for out of towners to enjoy one of London's best gastro pubs. The standard of food was that of a Michelin starred restaurant but without the pomposity; I cannot recommend it highly enough and would encourage locals and visitors alike to give it a try
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Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 9
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
I treated my mother to lunch at The Only Running Footman and what a treat it was. We dined upstairs, as it was very busy in the bar-dining area, and I'm so pleased we did. The room and the service were fabulous. We had a glass or two of champagne and then a very fun and delicious lunch (particuarly the crab - amazing!). I was very pleased that I had chosen to eat here as London can be so hit-and-miss and this was just brilliant. My mother felt spoilt by me taking her to lunch and also by the waiter being so very well mannered and knowledgeable. Superb.
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Philippa
Overall rating 
Food 9 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 9
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
A friend and I decided to dine in the bar area here on Friday night. I have been here before and eaten in both the bar area and the upstairs restaurant and haven't been disappointed, until now. We started with the special of mussels in coconut milk and ginger, which although very tasty, did have a larger number than I'd hope for of unopened ones. I then moved on to one of the other "specials", slow roast leg of pork. When it arrived, I was shocked at how amateurish the presentation was. Basically it was piece of meat that resembled a pork chop with a pile of tinned sweetcorn on top. Seriously, there was about half a tin of sweetcorn just poured over it and that was it. I've seen more inventive student meals. I tried the meat and it was like eating a piece of MDF, it was so dry. I actually had to take a drink in order to swallow. I tried another couple of mouthfuls and these were the same. I ended up leaving the majority of it. I pushed the plate to one side and got engrossed in conversation with my friend so actually failed to notice the waitress come over and remove it. She didn't ask if everything was OK, as I would expect on nearly a full plate. When I started it, I did look around for one of the waiting staff to complain to, but they had all miraculously hidden. Probably after knowing what I had ordered.
I have since complained in an email to them, but they haven't responded. It will be interesting to see if they do. On this experience I very much doubt I will ever return considering the amount of other places in the area that are more reasonably priced and serve far better quality food. I do not recommend going.
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NeilM - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating 
Food 1 | Service 4 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 0
Monday, July 07, 2008
I am writing with regards to the appalling service we received at The Only Running Footman.
We were a party of 7 arriving at the restaurant at 12.30pm. We were in the top floor private dining area. We were served by a very lovely but completely incompetent waiter who had only been there 1 day and although he did his best it was a complete disaster.
We ordered a bottle of Pino Grigio, but they didn't have any. So we chose an alternative bottle of wine. The orange juice that someone ordered took 20 minutes and 3 reminders to get. We then had to pass around our own bread since it had been left on the side table and not distributed by the waiter.
The we ordered. Some of us ordered a starter and a main course, some just ordered a main course and planned to order a dessert later. After about 15 minutes following placing the order, the waiter came back up and said that he thought there might have been a problem with the order and started going through everything one by one. There was a couple of incorrect orders so he went back down to let the kitchen know. Finally 45 minutes after we had arrived we were told the starters were on their way. 4 of us had ordered the mains and 2 of us had to leave in 45 mins time so we asked if our mains could come out at the same time as the starters, and they came out about 10 minutes after the starters. 15 minutes later the two people who hadn't ordered starters but did order main still had not received their mains. We asked the manager and she said that we had only asked for 2 main dishes to be speeded up, but we said that that was simply because we had been there for an hour but still nothing had arrived and we had to go back to the office. We then had another person come up (who we assume is the manager) and spoke to us about the situation, but instead of understanding our situation and sympathising with us, he argued the point and was very rude. What happened to the saying that the customer is always right? We were then still charged for everything we had (which was 2 bottles of wine, 4 starters, and 2 mains) and it came to a total of £133! They didn't even offer to give us a discount due to the disastrous service.
I can assure you we will NEVER be going back there and will advise everyone we know of their totally unacceptable service and attitude.
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Aimee Watson
Overall rating 
Food 2 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 2 | Value for money 0
Friday, April 18, 2008
A rather mixed evening to be honest.
Firstly, the positives. Lovely little dining room, comfortable seating, pleasant staff. Some of our meal was pretty good (monkfish for mains was a bit dry but lovely with the jerusalem artichokes). Chips were delicious, puddings pretty tasty, good wine list. Great bloody mary too.
Now for the negatives. Avoid if you're vegetarian. There were no main vegetarian dishes only main sized portions of veggie starters which were.....wait for it, risotto and goats cheese tart. Oh, for a bit of imagination! The herb risotto was (and tasted by all in attendance) brutal. The fish soup at £10 didn't really live up to expectations either.
Avoid the bar downstairs on a Friday night unless you want to bag a charming hedge fund manager.
At £75 a head (admittedly plenty of wine, aperitifs and digestifs) it wasn't cheap, albeit we took a good three hours over the meal and were never rushed by staff.
With a bit more imagination in the kitchen I would consider going back. Having a pub downstairs does take away from the experience (e.g. the restaurant's toilets were all being used by the pubs customers and hence were in a right state).
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Conor Hoey
Overall rating 
Food 4 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 5
Saturday, November 10, 2007
We didn't venture into the rather expensive first floor dining room, but instead stayed on the rather more modestly priced pub on the ground floor. It's worth noting that tables are on a first come, first served basis but when we turned up at 1pm there was plenty of space left although it filled up rapidly after that.
Nice buzzy atmosphere and well thought-out decor. Very good food (one of the best Sunday roasts I've had in a while) and friendly service even if it's not entirely smooth as yet. For example, we had to ask for bread a couple of times (although when it arrived, the cheese one was fantastic), and waited a good 30+ minutes for the food to arrive.
Five of us had main courses, and then 3 puddings between us - mostly soft drinks but a couple of alcoholic ones - and the bill came to £24 including tip. Not bad at all we thought, and we'd certainly go back.
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Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 8
Monday, September 24, 2007
