Food, glorious (Michelin-starred) food

A deliberately provocative guide to dining at The Goring

Breakfast

You look hungry. We can help with that. Like any sensible person, you must start with breakfast before being expected to speak / form opinions / sign anything important. Of course, you could go classic if you wish. Avocado on toast here, buttermilk waffles there, a fruit salad to cleanse the palate etc. And while it’s poor form to show off, the word we have heard whispered around town for The Goring Breakfast is ‘legendary’. Shut your eyes and picture crispy bacon. A succulent herb sausage. Earthy mushrooms. Sweet tomato. Iron-rich black pudding and eggs swinging from the chandeliers (when we say you can have them any way you want, we mean it). You are now ready for your day.

Lunch

One of life’s most important lessons is that nothing stays the same, a philosophy very much adhered to by our à la carte and set menus. They follow where the season’s best produce leads under the watchful gaze of The Dining Room’s alternative collection of oil paintings (if you find yourself looking at one of them thinking, ‘Gosh, that charming portrait looks just like Peter the doorman’, it’s because it is Peter the doorman). Discuss this over your oyster starter / The Goring’s signature Eggs Drumkilbo / a hearty Longhorn beef sirloin if you are here on a Sunday (vegetarians and vegans, we see you and you are of course magnificently catered for too). You must also try our new Illustrious Potato – a classic jacket potato given The Goring treatment, with a plethora of fillings that include caviar and bone marrow fat. Outrageous.

Afternoon Tea

Check your watch. Is it time for tea? Need you even ask. Please take a seat in The Veranda where you must and shall be served Afternoon Tea. Delicate sandwiches meticulously prepared with coronation Devon White chicken or John Ross smoked salmon. Warm scones lavished in cream and jam. Raspberry and chocolate mousse cake, perhaps. Fragrant teas from all over the world. You must have a glass of Champagne while you deliberate the menu. It will help you to stop pretending that you don’t want the raspberry and chocolate mousse cake.

Dinner

Evening is upon us and the monkeys on the Dining Room walls would like to usher you in for dinner. Dashing off to see a play? Our pre-theatre menu will take care of timings. Is it a special occasion? Engagement? Wedding anniversary? Divorce? Life is about celebrating the milestones, whatever they look like and what we can assure you is that our masterful Chef Graham and his outstanding team will take every dish they prepare to unparalleled heights – with exceptional wines to match. We even have a voucher for a three-course menu in the Dining Room for two if you decide to declare yourself the world’s best present-giver and buy this for someone. Your friends are lucky to have you. 

If someone at home is now asking you what’s for dinner, may we direct you to Oscar Wilde’s observation: ‘Once a week is quite enough to dine with one’s relations.’ So consider yourself always invited to dine with us, your other family.