London has no shortage of great restaurants, it’s true. Tucked away to the edge of Green Park, Seven Park Place at the St. James’s Hotel & Club Mayfair may well be a little off the main drag and therefore not an obvious first choice for dinner, but it’s definitely worth adding to your little black dining book.
With William Drabble at the helm - who earned his first Michelin Star at just 26 - Seven Park Place has the honourable accolade of being London’s smallest Michelin Star restaurant (awarded a mere year after opening, no less), making it an intimate experience with exquisite attention to detail from the restaurant team. His years of seasonal cooking honed since growing in Norfolk means a menu full of inventive dishes utilising the best of British produce combined with French cooking techniques. Newly-renovated with interior design by the award-winning Russell Sage Studio, next door also sits the re-launched 1857 bar, a celebration of the hotel & club’s rich history and specialising in port; the ideal location for a post-prandial tipple. In fact, the bar serves the widest variety of port found in any London bar, including limited, rare and unusual wines, aged tawnies, single quintas and vintage ports, and the oldest wine in the UK to be sold by the glass.
The seven course Menu Gourmand tasting menu, priced £105 a head) is full of delicate dishes that are big on flavour. Three wine pairings are available from £85 each, so this certainly isn’t your run of the mill casual supper; special occasions take note. After an amuse bouche including a smoked salmon blini and a tiny tasty burrata and a comforting smoked chicken consommé , the first course arrived; melt in the mouth griddled monkfish with rock samphire, morels, salsify and a champagne sauce, swiftly followed by a baked fillet of red mullet with citrus butter sauce and blanched fennel.
Seared foie gras was served with rhubarb and gingerbread, the fruity sweetness cutting perfectly through the rich pâté in an unusual yet lovely pairing. Roasted Atlantic Skrei cod arrived with spiced cauliflower and cauliflower purée. The pièce de résistance however was a pan roasted loin and braised bad of beef, served with salt baked celeriac and madeira jus and utterly stupendous crispy fondant potatoes. Sublime. Puddings were almost unnecessary at this point yet we soldiered on with the passion and mango with coconut sorbet palate cleanser before the dark chocolate creme with blood orange finale.
The food is, without question, fantastic and a fine line of classic favourites and inventive flavour combinations means the menu never felt boring; a delicious treat and with everything served with a flourish by our fabulous Italian waiter, it was quite the evening.
Open Thursday - Saturday 12pm-2pm for lunch (last seating at 1.45pm) and 6.30pm-10pm for dinner (last seating 9pm).
