The main dining room at the Midland Grand
What do we need to know about the Midland Grand?
This is the new restaurant at the St Pancras Renaissance hotel - the name references the hotel's original name when it opened back in 1873. Owner Harry Handelsman has joined up with chef Patrick Powell (best known for Allegra) and they have apparently taken inspiration from the hotel's original restaurant where French haute cuisine was the order of the day. Essentially, it's one of London's historic dining rooms starting a new act, with a menu that's full of pleasingly rich food.
Where is it?
You may remember the restaurant in its previous incarnation, The Gilbert Scott which was run by Marcus Wareing. There are two ways to find it - either from the hotel lobby (which, in turn, can be accessed directly from the top-level platforms in the station) or through the bar's entrance on Euston Road. Obviously, the nearest tube is King's Cross/St Pancras.
Where's a good place to meet for a drink first?
Before we get into the new bar here The Gothic Bar, there are a few other options open to you. There's the Searcy's Champagne Bar outside in the station or The Betjeman Arms, both of which are on the same upper level of the station giving you the quickest post-drink access to the hotel and restaurant.
In the hotel itself, you can choose between The Booking Office or the newly-opened Gothic Bar, which is by the entrance to the Midland Grand itself. Frankly, you'll definitely want to be going to the Gothic Bar first.
The Gothic Bar - we'd forgotten just what a spectacular space it is.
The Gothic Bar is the standalone bar, which has Bar Manager Jack Porter in charge (he was also in charge of the Booking Office 1869 bar when it launched). It is a hugely impressive and incredibly tall room that's quite unlike any other bar in town. In its previous guise (as George's Bar) it was one of our favourites in town and it's great to see it getting a new lease of life in this incarnation.
The cocktails here range in price from £15-20. There's quite an inventive range here too. Our martini came with a spritz of eau de vie of your choice and the one pictured below is well worth trying too. It's worth knowing that the bar here is open till 2am at the weekends for some late-night drinking (or if your last train has been cancelled).
Damsal's Dream (£17) made with a rum blend, vanilla and miso biscuit syrup, blueberry jam, citrus and oat milk - and as delicious as it sounds.
What's the dining room like?
Very, very impressive indeed (as you can see from the photo at the top of the page).
We also found it had quite different vibe to its previous incarnation. This in itself is interesting because the building's Grade I listing makes it hard to change pretty much anything. The addition of carpet, more soft furnishings and better lighting has knocked all the hard edges off the room, making it a much more comfortable place to dine in (the acoustics were much harder before).
There's also this private dining room:
This is a flexible space that can be used as a bit of extra drinking space when the bar's really busy (as long as it's not been booked up as a PDR).
And the food?
Patrick Powell's menu is a take on classic French but with the odd twist on ingredients, based on seasonality. So asparagus is barbecued and served with a Vin Jaune sabayon while the fruits de mer comes with soda bread and seaweed butter. And it's all very, very rich with a lot of sauces involved (this is a good thing, of course).
The menu's a pretty large one, with four categories before you even get to the mains; appetisers, raw, salads and entrees. There's also a section of larger sharing dishes. We went big on the appetisers and entrees, mainly because we couldn't decide what to have as, frankly, it all sounded amazing.
Here's what we had to give you a flavour. First off - start on the snacks menu and immediately order these (and maybe also the parmesan fritter with black garlic and shaved coppa which also sounds great).
Comté gougères, pickled walnut (£8). Having loved the always-on pistachio choux at Powell's other restaurant, Allegra, we obviously had to try these and they didn't disappoint.
Liver parfait, truffle & Madeira jelly served with a round of duck fat Parker House rolls (£14). If the duck fat rolls didn't persuade you to order this dish, then the intensity of that jelly ought to.
After those - you could aim for oysters and the fruit de mers platter (£95) looked very impressive winding its way through the room. However, the starters are so exceptionally good, you really need to make sure to have at least a couple of these.
Crab toast, elderflower, shellfish sauce (£19) - a quick look at their Insta feed reveals that they soak the bread in shellfish stock and egg yolk, dry it and then fry it. The crab is dressed in an elderflower emulsion and that amazing sauce is made using crab and langoustine shells. It's heaven on a plate.
Pâté en croûte du jour (£16) - yes, we'd had the parfait already, but we're not sorry we also ordered this amazing chicken and tarragon beauty too.
Pommes pallaison, snails bourgiugnon, nduja & guanciale (£16) - snails on fried potato, in a pool of sauce that felt like it had been reducing for a week. It's not exactly a low-calorie dish, but it's unmissable, we think.
For our main, we opted for one of the larger sharing dishes. We couldn't get the picture out of our head of the whole roast chicken we'd seen them posting on Instagram, so we had to order that and we weren't disappointed:
Whole roast chicken, Vin Jaune, morels & wild garlic (£70) - enough for three people easily, particularly when paired with some sides. A wonderfully cooked chicken dish with a sauce we're still dreaming about a week later.
Room for dessert?
After a bit of a pause (it would have been excellent at this point to have repaired to a room upstairs for a quick post-mains nap and regroup) we asked for the dessert menu.
In addition to a selection of British and French cheeses served with Epping honeycomb, there are currently five options including a much-photographed Bombe Alaska to share, a souffle du jour (apricot on our visit) along with a selection of ice creams and sorbets.
Strawberry, almond & clotted cream Paris-Brest (£14) - there's an extra crunch to this dessert which really elevates it.
Crème caramel (£8) - London's crème caramel game is getting progressively stronger, what with Bouchon Racine's exemplary version and this extremely good one. This is a movement we're 100% in favour of.
At this point, we had to be wheeled out to our Uber, but if we hadn't overindulged so much we'd have been tempted by the petit fours which included Epping honey madeleines and lemon thyme macaroons.
What about wine?
Luckily we had wine manager Molly looking after us (she used to be at Mana in Manchester) and she recommended a bottle of Toques et Clochers Limoux Chardonnay (£50) which was a heavenly match for our many, many courses. The predominantly old-world wine list starts at £34 for a Corbieres (and £7 for a 125ml glass of Muscadet) going up to £750 for a bottle of Chevalier-Montrachet.
Overall thoughts:
The Midland Grand is a fascinating study into the difference that seemingly small alterations to the fabric of a dining room can make. What was always a lovely room, but definitely a place of cold surfaces and hard edges has been transformed into a restaurant you want to spend a lot of time in. If you're looking to impress, it's definitely a perfect special occasion restaurant, particularly when paired with the bar.
Sat next to a French family we wanted to commend them on their good taste of booking a table here and say, "This is what London's restaurant scene is all about."
Of course, a beautiful dining room is no good if the food isn't up to the same high levels and with Patrick Powell running the kitchen here you should have no concerns in that department. Dishes are refined but always delicious and there are great things on this menu that will keep you coming back again and again.
More about Midland Grand Dining Room
Where is it? St Pancras Renaissance Hotel, Euston Rd, London NW1 2AR
Find out more: On their website or follow them on Instagram @midlandgrand.
Hot Dinners dined as guests of the Midland Grand. Prices correct at time of publication.
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