One of the many things to be grateful for in life are unexpected glimpses of pure pleasure, and last Saturday we were very grateful indeed. The glimpse referred to came via an invitation to dine at The Grill at The Dorchester from Head Chef Tom Booton.
We had published the announcement of Booton’s appointment back in July as the youngest head chef in the restaurant’s 88 year history. A few weeks ago, when the invitation arrived, we accepted and looked forward with great expectations.
Great expectations came from our experiences over many years of frequenting The Dorchester Collection’s Coworth Park. Coworth Park like The Dorchester is part of The Dorchester Collection, and has looked after the H&C News team and our friends across the industry on many occasions, and we became used to and very appreciative of their ‘perfect hospitality’.
So, with great expectations we arrived at 53 Park Lane, Mayfair to sample Booton’s fare.
Before you get anywhere near the restaurant The Dorchester welcomes you, it just does. On arrival at the restaurant you are greeted by the front of house team and taken to your table. It doesn’t seem like any effort, but every effort is put in to make it so.
The restaurant is striking, a mix of dark timbers and gold set the scene, it is immediately relaxing. A waitress with a charming French twang explained the menu options as we considered our choices. It is always a good sign when choosing is made so difficult by what is on offer.
The biggest challenge was the first course and torn between – Scallop ceviche, chestnuts, orange granita, oyster leaf – and – Cumbrian beef tartare, radish, oxtail jelly, yesterday’s bread, beef fat yolk- the later won the day.
A big fan of beef tartare this was the first challenge to get the measure of where we were. As you will see in the image below presentation was sublime, and the dish tasted every bit as good as it looked.
For second course Prawn Scotch egg, warm tartare sauce, pickled gherkin was selected, again the presentation was exceptional. The egg in the centre really was cooked to perfection, an easily used term but not used lightly here, the sauce had to be mopped up with bread, every single last morsel of it.
From our recent reporting on the restaurant main course chose itself, Beef Wellington. If you like us are fans of Beef Wellington just one piece of advice, get yourself along to The Grill at The Dorchester soon. We selected pink, it was again fabulously presented and again tasted as good as it looked. We have used one of the shots of the Beef Wellington below from previous articles, as our phone shots used in all the other images here, just didn’t do the dish justice, we were guilty of being too eager with the gravy.
The dessert choice of Soft serve fig leaf ice cream, doughnuts was a little bit disappointing, too much ice cream for me, but possibly too much to live up to from the first three courses.
After lunch I popped into the kitchen to meet Tom Booton and thank him for the meal. Not too much chatting took place as he was preoccupied with getting everything ready for dinner service. The kitchen was getting primed for another fully booked service, and I expect that trend will set The Grill at The Dorchester as – Park Lane’s latest destination restaurant.
The experience we enjoyed is one that I would happily highly recommend.
On social media the team at The Dorchester Collection refer to it as one of those #DCmoments, thank you Tom and team for our recent #DCmoments.