Connaught Hotel

There is a beautiful sunny, window walled room at the front of the hotel called The Gallery. Huge baskets of orchids are everywhere, and candles are scattered around in profusion on side tables at night.

George greets me with a smile, and ushers me into the room, offering me my choice of tables. There is a moss plant on each in a square pot.

Linen and sheer drapes decorate the windows. There are white tablecloths, and comfortable upholstered chairs. Genuine silverplate silver by Arthur Price is on the tables, and there are silver salt & pepper shakers, as well as a silver pepper grinder.

On a glass tray, there are seven different sealed miniature preserves. Honey, strawberry, raspberry, apricot, gooseberry and orange marmalade, with tiny silver spoons.

A silver basket lined with a napkin holds two delicious, warm and perfectly flaky large, freshly baked croissants.

There is a small glass pitcher of freshly squeezed orange juice, although it doesn't really taste like the orange juice does at home when I cut and squeeze it.

Pats of butter come in a lovely Wedgewood, white cream-and-gold china dish.

The two eggs over easy are perfectly cooked, as is the side of crispy bacon, and the plate is garnished with a pair of cooked cherry tomatoes.

Breakfast each morning is excellent, and the waiter remembers what I like.

I did not have an opportunity to try the hotel for lunch.

The Afternoon tea tray looked quite good.

I did try a Caesar salad one night after dinner elsewhere. Don't. Both the lettuce and the dressing were sub-par.

Sascha, the hostess manager, was very charming on my last night. We were discussing various restaurants, and she suggested that next time I am in town, she may be able to get me a reservation at Petrus for dinner :)

The chef gave me a lovely garnishment tray one evening with every imaginable fixing for some beluga caviar that I had brought in from Fortunm & Mason's, and it generously was on the house.

Loving Annie
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Loving Annie - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Thursday, April 03, 2008

Another fantastic meal at the Connaught. Everything about it is faultless: the service, the quality of the food, the wine list, the size of the portions. I cannot rave enough about it. The only slightly negative comment I have is regarding the atmosphere - if you want trendy, you're in the wrong place; but if you're happy with quiet and soberish then this is your place. I've eaten both a la carte and from the set menu (which is superb value), and was thrilled with both. Go there – have the taste sensation of your life (or at the very least, of your month)!
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CNI - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 10
Tuesday, January 09, 2007

An absolutely gorgeous evening. The perfect mix of style and ettiquet whilst also being the most relaxed and least stuffy hotel restaurant meal I have ever had.

We started with a Sweet Manhattan and a Vodka Martini in the bar, then a second as we moved into the restaurant. Even before the amuse bouche, the bread and 'dips' set the bar for the evening. A pumpkin mousse, great colour, great taste, great texture. The sommellier brought us a lovely (and relatively cheap) bottle of Chablis, which was light and chalky and to all intents and purposes, perfect. To commence we had Scallops and a ham hock and chicken terrine with the cutest quails egg you've ever seen. Entree we had Venison and Halibut. Where she gets the fish from I do not know, but it is superb.

Desserts were raspberry souffle and hot chocolate soup. Back to the bar for a whisky and coffee from the most lovely silver coffee pot I have ever seen.

With service added, the total was £225, that lovely sommellier had forgotten to add the wine to the bill - brilliant!!

Carriages at half eleven. Would love to go back with everyone I know. Would also be thrilled to get the chance to stay there!
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Tom Attwood
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 9
Tuesday, November 14, 2006

My daughter had just graduated so deserved anywhere in London. She choose the Connaught.

From the start, we were continually pleased, delighted and thrilled. The staff seemed so intelligent and caring. We had true respect for each person.

On the taster menu, each item was an education and provoked interesting debate. Some items were more perfect than others.

Having never been to the hotel before, there was an intriguing balance between the old Victoriana and the new designs. This was brilliant.

Somewhere in the background, a very intelligent mind was organising everything.

At £220 for two, it honestly was good value because it met my requirements - to create a lifetime memory.
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Jeremy Baker and Pamela Baker
Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 9
Thursday, August 24, 2006

We went for our anniversary on Fri 23/6 to the Menu.

The Taster menu has changed since Mr Goodman's review in May & has clearly improved! We found all 8 courses a delight with the duck, orange glazed chickory & mustard fruits main course a revelation along with the Chocolate creme brulee with roasted peaches, raspberry & black pepper sorbet.

Highly professional service. Attentive but not intrusive.

The somnellier was supportive providing, at my request, a series of choices for accompanying wines. They were all excellent.

At £240 we were happy with the entire evening, a tad disappointed that Angela wasn't there but delighted that the kitchen standards didn't appear to suffer as a consequence.
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John Peters
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Friday, June 30, 2006

We went for our anniversary and we were very impressed. Angela Hartnett is Gordon Ramsay's protege. Ramsay is still the undisputed king of british cuisine, and the student has not yet surpassed the master.

If she is inferior to her teacher in any way, it is that she does not have the same levels of creativity and innovation. The menu is quite traditional and uses more traditional flavour pairings. This might actually appeal more to some diners.

The most adventurous dish on our taster menu was a seabass with a grapefruit relish. It worked but did not blow me away.

Apart from that it was fairly traditional. A bit of foie gras, beef potatoes and horeradish main course.

The food is however all cooked and presented exquisitely and Angela is well deserving of her one star. She still has some way to go if she wants two or three, in my opinion.

The service was very professional. Attentive but not intrusive. All the courses arrived exactly when you felt ready for them.

The room and the hotel are decorated in an amazing Art Deco way, and the total experience was wonderful. All in all I felt that the final bill of £240 still wasn't bad value for money.
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Peter Goodman
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 8
Thursday, May 25, 2006

Monday 22nd May. We were all looking forward to a fantastic celebratory dinner in a private dining room, with food prepared by a renowned chef. What a dissapointment; the canapes were average cocktail party stuff, althought to be fair the champagne was fine. This should have told us something. The first course was a "pate" which without the menu, would have been unidentifiable. The main course consisted of a miniscule piece of cod, resting on (I think) spinach and mashed potato. The dessert (when mine finally arrived 10 minutes after everyone else') was a tarte au citron which might well have been purchased from M&S. This is of course a compliment to M&S. The service was good, until they were unable to count how many plates of tarte should have left the kithchen - certainly not what I expect from a restaurant with this reputation and price tag. Altogether a hugely dissapointing experience. I'll take the Orrery every time!
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Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 4 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 2
Wednesday, May 24, 2006

We were looking forward to dining at "Menu" at the Connaught but must admit to being disappointed. The best end of lamb main meal in particular was inedible as it came up almost raw and hard to cut. This was sent back but later returned in a not very edible condition. The same dish was returned from other tables so there was obviously some problem with this particular dish. Overall we were not impressed and nowhere near the standard of Gordon Ramsey at Claridges or Lanes at the Four Seasons Hotel. This is one restaurant with a big reputation that failed to deliver. We know this is a French restaurant but portions were still extremely small for the price. On the plus side we could not fault the dining room itself or the service. We will not be returning the Menu in the forseeable future.
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Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 4
Thursday, April 20, 2006

Very old school but still the best restaurant in London. Grilled Foie Gras, Brill and excellent deserts. The best of the Ramsay restaurants!
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Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Monday, March 27, 2006

Oh Yeah!
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Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 7
Tuesday, February 14, 2006