Grafton House Restaurant and Bar
our comments
Who designs crockery and cutlery that’s unfit for purpose? At home we once had a set of knives that were so handle-heavy they would somersault off the plate, and often right off the table, unless laid down with infinite care. Here at Grafton House the bowls our soup and pasta come in also have built in weirdness. Every time I put my pasta fork down to reach for the wine, the fork swings around the plate and into the pasta. The wife’s soup spoon does the same thing and submerges completely. After a bit we’re eating with one hand and drinking with the other. What would Nancy Mitford say?
It’s a very good pasta though, quite excellent and the best I’ve had for a long time. In the adjoining bar the roar of Friday night local young professionals off the leash is incredible, the noise coming straight through the plate glass separating bar and restaurant as if it wasn’t there. I’m so happy with this starter of perfectly cooked linguine tangled around confit rabbit studded with roasted chestnuts, seasonal broad beans and chervil that I don’t care. Aside from her submerging spoon, the wife also loves her broccoli and stilton ‘soup of the day’ but comments that the wide bowl is letting the soup cool down too quickly.
Grafton House certainly suits its area – young and hip with an open kitchen that says confidence in chef. The lighting is subtle and the customers relaxed, good-looking and comfortably off. I’m sorry that I spoiled the otherwise 100% strike rate with my wrinkles and fat. The menu is short and sweet, although it’s disappointing to find the kitchen has no Jersey Royal potatoes right in the heart of their season. Maybe the menu has been too rigidly laid down to allow chef such flexibility.
Hankering for comfort food I had the deep fried plaice with chips and pea puree, which hit the spot but was slightly off the bulls eye. Plaice fillet is too delicate a fillet to deep-fry without a sympathetic batter and I would use Plaice goujons and a tempura batter myself and not the heavy coating employed here. Chips were great though, none of that ‘skin on, roasted in the oven’ nonsense which is just lazy. These were golden and crispy and not too big. The pea puree was a bit too sweet, but the tartare sauce was generous which was just as well as I love the stuff.
Sea Bass needs to be the thick part of the fillet, not the thin tail end as served here. That bit is best used in some other dish. The thinness meant the fish got a bit overcooked and that, plus a sooty topping of shrimps, helped make the dish look like it had just been rescued from a small house fire. Not a great success overall. The spatchcocked chicken we saw going past looked far better. Oh well, buyer’s remorse.
Only one of us had dessert: Dark Chocolate tart with raspberries and a white chocolate ice cream. Oddly enough despite the chocolate on chocolate action, it didn’t actually taste much of chocolate. It was perfectly okay, just not all that exciting.
All in all Grafton House seems ideal for the under 30 market and with reasonable prices to draw them in. Offering the pasta and risotto mains as optional starters is a very good idea as I suspect these are some of the best things on the menu – simple, honest and very enjoyable. I’d have a rethink about those soup bowls though.
N.H. - May 2008
your comments review this restaurant and win a bottle of champagne
I went to the Grafton on friday night with my friends. The food was good and the service attentive if a little slow. The bar and restaurant looked fantastic and provides a good chilled out atmosphere.
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howard
Overall rating 
Food 8 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 7
Monday, August 18, 2008
Somethings seems to have gone horribly wrong at Grafton House. I ate there last night and the food was terrible. The hand cut chips were straight out of a freezer bag and the spatchcock chicken I ordered came to the table under cooked twice at which point we gave up an went home. 12 months ago, I would have highly recommended this place, right now, don't waste your money.
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John
Overall rating 
Food 0 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 4 | Value for money 1
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Nice food, poor service. They had run out of several items on the menu, we were overcharged by 10%, and staff were unimpressed when we raised our concerns. I
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Overall rating 
Food 6 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 4
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
I was told about Grafton House by a dear friend and co worker from back in the day, he informed me it was a classy venue with a good atmosphere and perfect for someone like myself to dissapear under the radar of paparazzi and still have a great night. He was not wrong, lovely venue, located away from the hustle and bustle of the main stream bars and hang outs that clapham has to offer. The music was acceptable although seemed a little dreary sometimes as the evening went along, maybe needs just a tweak to take it a bit more up tempo towards the end of the night. The service and treatment in the bar was excellent, polite chatty staff, clearly competant and keen to provide a great service, the restaurant service was just as sharp, food on time, well prepared and presented and absolutely delicious. I would recoment Grafton House to anyone looking for an enjoyable night on the town without the usual dregs of society hanging around causing nonsense! I will definately be visiting the next time I'm back in the uk.
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anonymous
Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 7
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Went with parents-in-law for a mid-week dinner and have to say the experience was overall very good. Food was delicious, service good if a bit surly and surroundings very stylish. Had read a review that music was too loud - this wasn't the case in the restaurant on a Wednesday night - maybe this is just a weekend problem? Experience was good enough to merit another visit in the future.
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Overall rating 
Food 8 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 7
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Went for dinner on a Saturday night a couple of weeks ago....have to say that we were unimpressed. Ended up only ordering one course as it took an age to get the waiter to come back after giving us the menus. And yet we were still in there two hours!? Cocktails were enjoyable, food was good but expensive given what it was and service was awful although the waiters did seem very nice with their incompetence. An example - we decided not to have any bread - but along came not one but two orders of bread and olives........
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Sara
Overall rating 
Food 7 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 5
Thursday, June 07, 2007
We eat at this 'local' restaurant often, and the food is routinely and consistently marvellous. The menu is interesting without lapsing into the ridiculous, and the price is less than one would expect for this level of quality and the chic and roomy ambience. But of dear, the service, always slow, lost of mistakes with bookings, orders etc. No organisation (passing the table 5 times without removing empty plates etc etc).
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Andrew
Overall rating 
Food 8 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 7
Thursday, June 07, 2007
The restaurant at the back of the bar is fantastic for an evening meal or lunchtime meal, the service is great and the food is out of this world and at a reasonable price.
However the bar itself is a different matter.We arrived to be told that they any cocktails that rhubarb were off the menu fair enough as rhubarb is not your everyday cocktail ingredient.
When I asked for a different Vodka to the one there promoting I was told that it was not available and that the 42 whatever it was called was the only one they had.
I then asked for a bloody mary only to be told they were out of the mix, call me a cocktail snob but any barman worth his salt should not need to have a ready made mix to make a bloody mary !
The drinks we did get contained flat mixers and when the bill for over £28 came through for 4 drinks 9 one a £4.50 glass of wine ) we though it was bit steep.
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Overall rating 
Food 9 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 8
Friday, June 01, 2007
what a wonderful place to enjoy a night out.There is a big reception at the entrance where people can enjoy a drink by the Bar or even on the sofa at the same time you can listen music where is a plasma to view any importante game or just the singer/band.Finish my drink I can look at the massive glass window and see how busy the restaurant is .Now there are people without maners and want a table at any cost desrespeting the workers and the people dining.that's why I can find sad comments.Lovelly ,tasty and well presented plates wonderful service and gorgeus list of wine is my opinion towards the team.Congratulations keep going to the sucess of this place.About the wine cooler keept on the side of my table with my botles is just to give space for food to run bettween me and my gests about the wine a I have got lovelly waitress looking afer me.
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cristina pinto
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 8
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
After reading reviews from some of the other diners I felt compelled to write a review of my experience there.
This used to be my favourite restaurant in Clapham, we moved to the Clapham area last year and my partner and I loved trying out all the many different restaurants and when we found Grafton House we thought this is it... then they changed management and that horrible, arrogant manager appeared.
The manager seems to be trying too hard and getting it all disastrously wrong! I ordered dauphinoise potatoes and he was obviously in a hurry to seat the other customers who had just arrived that he forgot to order my side dish with the main course. If he concentrated on what he was doing in the first place, which was taking our order none of this would've happened.
When the main course arrived I tested my theory that the manager forgot to order the potatoes so my partner and I waited 10mins for our side dish, by this time my face was like thunder!!! It was the chef that prompted the manager to see what was wrong with our table as we had not touched our plate.
I told the manager that we are waiting for our side dish and he scampered off to the kitchen. He came back and said the chef forgot our side dish and as it would be about 5mins would we like to keep our main courses warm under the hot lights? 5mins later he came back with our main courses and placed in front of me 'mashed potatoes' (which he called dauphinoise potatoes to my face!!). I was furious that he thought I can't tell the difference between dauphinoise potatoes and mash potaotes - any fool can tell which is what, which made me think does he think I am a fool?!?
I obviously complained and after hearing it was my birthday the manager gave my partner and I a glass of house champagne on the house, the food is great, atmosphere is good, service from waiters and waitresss is good, shame about the manager.
Doubt I will go back to Grafton House unless the manager changes to a back of house role.
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Sarah
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 5
Monday, May 28, 2007
