What can you tell us about Plum and Spilt Milk?
It's the main restaurant of the Great Northern Hotel, a boutique hotel located in this restored railway hotel just on the edge of King's Cross Station. The restaurant at the GNH has had a bit of a rocky start, replacing its chef just after the restaurant doors opened. However, they've now put Mark Sargeant in charge of all the food - at the GNH bar, the station Kiosk counter and the main restaurant upstairs, Plum and Spilt Milk.
Sargeant is probably best known for formerly being Gordon Ramsay's right hand manl He also has a successful restaurant, Rocksalt, in Folkestone and is a regular on Saturday Kitchen. This is his first time back in London for a few years (the ease of commute between King's Cross and Folkestone made the decision easier). The menu has now been fully turned over to Mark's dishes, so we popped along to give it a try.
Where is it?
The Great Northern Hotel is literally just on the entrance to the newly revamped King's Cross station, adjoining the concourse on the inside. So head for King's Cross and you're there.
And who's it suitable for?
We think the wide ranging menu means it'll suit everyone from tourists to families and dating couples. They've made an effort with the soundtrack here to give the room a distinct buzz - this isn't your usual hushed hotel dining room.
Where should we meet for a drink first?
King's Cross and the surrounding area is slowly getting better for bars and restaurants, and the closest of merit are either the bar at the Gilbert Scott (great looking, but can be expensive) or if you fancy a pint, the Parcel Yard at the back of King's Cross station, a favourite of ours, despite being a station pub.
However, there are two options in the hotel itself. First there's the bar downstairs, which has a separate bar menu provided by Sargeant which contains many of the appetisers and starters from the restaurant alongside beef and fish burgers.
This bar is a bit blingy with its mirrored ceiling and we prefer the much quieter (but smaller) bar upstairs outside the restaurant. Cocktails are decent here - and priced relatively competitively at around £10. We rated the 1854 (Woodford Reserve and Nolly Pratt mixed with cardamom and smoked pineapple syrup) while the signature Lady Violet (elderflower vodka, champagne, black raspberry liqueur) needed to be a tad more chilled.
Where's best to sit in the restaurant?
The clever design of the room means that almost every table is a separate booth of some sort. There doesn't appear to be a single duff table so you ought to be happy anywhere. However the best tables seemed to be the ones alongside the window facing the front of the station, with the corner booth there being one to seek out.
Is bread included?
It is indeed (nice and fresh, with salted butter) and you'll be needing it for some of the appetisers.
And what should we order?
It's a large menu - the restaurant is catering for a commuting, tourist crowd as well as more discerning eaters, so the menu reflects this. The most popular section is likely to be the "Classics" section (smoked salmon, prawn cocktail, steak tartare, cod & chips, hot pot, fish pie) and which is likely to always feature rather than the rest of the menu which will be more seasonal.
The rest is split into appetisers, starters (including a toast section), shellfish, butchery (steaks, chops and more), vegetarian and various sides.
We opted for a selection throughout. Starting with appetisers we opted for the Yorkshire pudding with roasted garlic, taramasalata and radishes with anchovy sauce (£3 each). The first two were winners here - particularly the roasted garlic and an excellent taramasalata (which we would have preferred to be served with toast, but to be fair there was plenty of bread on the table).
From the starters, we had the pressed chicken (£7.25), the broad beans and Caerphilly (£7.50) and the potted shrimp (£9.50). Potted shrimp is a major favourite of Hot Dinners - we have had it in a lot of places. But here, the kitchen really delivered producing one of the best potted shrimps we've ever had - perfectly seasoned and not overly chilled either.
For the main, we felt compelled to order what may become a signature dish - the roast whole Goosnargh chicken, bread sauce, caramelised garlic and roasted Cornish potatoes (£48 for two). It's a huge sharing dish, with the chicken jointed for you so there's little faffing around. It's a dish we'd highly recommend - although we'd prefer the bread sauce to be a little on the thicker side. We accompanied this with some excellent smoked paprika fries - not really needed, but we were being greedy.
Desserts were also good, and we were impressed by the lightness of the pastry of the (very rich) Kentish Gypsy Tart (£6.50) and the gooseberry pie with custard (£7.25).
There's a cheese course on offer too, if you can handle it, served with either oatcakes and PX plums (£9.50) or as Stichelton and Eccles cakes (£7.50)
And what about drinks?
Aside from the aforementioned cocktails, the wine list is pretty affordable, starting at £19 (£4.75 a glass) for a Valencian Molmo Loco Macabeo with many bottles under the £30 mark.
Overall thoughts?
The food here was good and occasionally excellent and, as we're often in the area, we can see ourselves returning. The menu is pitched well for the mixture of hotel guest and Londoners and we can see it gaining a big following particularly when Google open their HQ at King's Cross. It's a definite boon to the King's Cross area and at the very least you should swing by and pay a visit to the Kiosk or the GNH bar if you want to try out Mark Sargeant's wares.
Plum and Spilt Milk is at Great Northern Hotel, Pancras Road, London N1C 4TB. Find out more about Plum and Spilt Milk
Prices were correct at time of writing. Hot Dinners were invited to eat at Plum and Spilt Milk.
