The Gilbert Scott Review

This is one of those places that makes you feel good just by being there!
The beautiful & classic interior is breathtaking inside the restaurant and even as you go to the toilets pass the grand stairway and ceilings of the Renaissance hotel in which it is situated.
The food is expensive but this is not the type of place you would go to for your daily lunch! I had a mussel starter and steak main course, both perfectly cooked and presented.
The wine selection is also of the highest standard.

Went there for a client lunch, lovely food. Dessert was a bit disappointing but the main course was lovely. The restaurant is beautiful, the floor the ceiling and the lighting and the decor is quintessential British.

Amazing experience on Saturday here. We had the Taster menu (with champagne and oysters) and the whole meal was a journey in flavour. Our favourites were the sea bream with heritage carrot and the venison with shallots, although every dish gave a wow factor. The service was exceptional- never too much, yet always attentive and the general vibe of the building left us both very happy. Cant wait to go back.

One of my favourite bars in London - over the top Victorian splendour

Good set price menu, small portions but excellent quality. Good service, ambiance and surroundings.

We naturally had high expectations for our first visit for a celebratory birthday Sunday lunch to Chef Marcus Wareing s restaurant and were left unusually disappointed by the whole dining experience. Without wishing to sound churlish, the food really wasn t of the quality you would rightly expect from a restaurant associated with a Michelin Starred Chef; it is nothing special. The irony is that Marcus Wareing casts a critical eye over contestants on BBC MasterChef yet his own offerings to the public fall short of our expectations. The only redeeming aspects to our visit is the location within the wonderfully Gothic architecture of the St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel and the friendly, professional staff Christian & Imran.

I am always reticent to give a mediocre rating but must always be candid in my reviews for the sake of integrity and accuracy.....

Bestowing Victorian style and beautiful architecture, when you step into The Gilbert Scott and Georges Bar you feel a sense of awe. Unfortunately the awe fizzled as soon as the set menu became reality, out of 16 guests, everyone thought the food was at best average, and had far more elements of a Summer menu than Winter, offering pollock and salads. The bar staff were also overwhelmed, it took over 15 minutes for three guests to be served (and even offered) drinks at the private table, right in front of the bar. Perhaps on a quieter evening and with smaller groups, the experience would be more pleasant.

My husband took me here for our 5 year wedding anniversary. The food was great as well as the service. The ambience of the place was lovely. Highly recommended!

Very average brunch at 30 pounds served with a glass of tap water. We were several and we only received a portion to share! They still had the decency to make a reduction. Home very cold. There is so much better next

Visited with my Wife on a Tuesday evening in August. Grand dining room, with Victorian period feel, and pleasantly busy. Food was fantastic. Both had the reasonably priced set menu, 3 courses and a cocktail, which we really enjoyed. Staff More

Service was super attentive without being intrusive. Food was delicious. It couldn't be anything but a 5-star review.

Had an amazing lunch with delicious summer cocktail with my wife today. Massive thanks to chef and staff for looking after us and making our anniversary extra special.

100% English tea time in an exceptional setting. Mini sandwiches, warm scones and cupcakes will accompany all teas, served at will. Quite expensive but the experience is worth the detour!

Mediocre afternoon tea - dry scone and uninspiring flavours. But a beautiful, atmospheric building

Beautiful place to have dinner or some drinks. Great service and amazing cocktails!

Delicious food.... We came and had a reasonably priced set menu. The pork belly was unbelievable! Would definitely come again for a special occasion.

Beautiful location, attentive service but the food was very disappointing. My starter of white asparagus was mediocre. My main course, halibut, was mushy and jelly-like. Hardly any flavour. The dessert was good but tiny. Overall, an underwhelming experience.

Very possibly the most delicious meal I've ever had. We booked the kitchen table and the five course food was incredible, and the atmosphere friendly and entertaining. The chefs did a good job of explaining what we were having, and what they served up was really world class. Would highly recommend to anyone thinking about celebrating a very special occasion.

For such a beautiful hotel .. possibly one of the best restorations; fantastic atmospheric environment, George's bar was freezing and no one did anything about it, despite telling three people. Two other people came in and left asap due More

Superb surroundings and a great place for a luncheon date that will impress, as it did for us!

Cute for afternoon tea but the style of furniture is very classic and a bit dark for my taste

Beautiful bar but totally spoilt by the service, who didn't know the drinks on the menu from their elbows. Rather go to the Booking Office bar which has super staff.

The restaurant is beautiful, really grand. The food was delicious but really expensive, definitely go for a special occasion.

I have visited the bar on many occasions and this was the first time I had eaten in the restaurant. Service was good if a little inattentive. The food is generously portioned and well presented.

Historic bar set in an amazing place. Very friendly staff, huge kudos to Daniela! So thoughtful:)

Went here on a Sunday evening at the tail end of a birthday weekend. The staff here were fantastic. My girlfriend and I had wine and beers at the bar with lots of popcorn. The service was truly personal, engaging conversation and nothing too much trouble. We came here after a terrible experience in mayfair and this was a beautiful setting. So much care taken making cocktails and a pleasure to watch the bar craft. Thank you so much.

Delicious food beautifully presented. Elegant decor sympathetically designed around the original building. Excellent wine list and faultless service.

Lovely restaurant in an amazing building. The Sunday roast menu is very well done. Nice and effective service.

On the plus side, the ambience is good. The building is beautiful and the dining room has much to draw the eye. It's a lovely place for dinner. On the other hand, while the food is perfectly fine it doesn't come close to justifying the price tag. Menu prices don't include VAT and with the 12.5% service charge it becomes impossible to recommend.

That said, we didn't pay the service charge because the wait staff didn't deserve it. We were left waiting for the side to our main course and getting additional glasses of wine took far too long. We won't be returning.

Beautiful great tasting food. Service is flawless. Throughly enjoy dining out here.

After spending some time reviewing the menu on the website, we were looking forward to the hanger steak and the sirloin in brandy sauce. On arrival we were told both of these were no longer on the menu and had been replaced by flank steak which the waiter tried to say was an equally good cut as hanger (which it isn't). The whole meal was nothing more than average, and we've had more flavoursome meals at pub chains. The servings were small, the side vegetables were bland and lukewarm plus the snails I had to start we're like shrivelled rubber bullets served on half a bone with a slice of garlic toast. We expected far better from a reknowned chef in such a great location. What looked great on paper didn't transfer to the plate.

Beautifully presented, delicious food served in a beautiful building by lovely staff. I really enjoyed my lunch, it felt very special without being too formal. I especially liked how my 8 year old child was treated and how everyone at the table was served attentively. I highly recommend eating here. The set menus are comparable in price to a gastro pub in the countryside but a la carte is available too. I think you get excellent quality for your money here.

The restaurants own photos are much more representative than the snaps from my phone.

Excellent food, atmosphere and service. I came for a birthday meal and the staff were superb, even surprising us with a complimentary dessert for the birthday girl.

Beautiful surroundings and beautiful meal. Delicious custard tart!

Stunning location, excellent wines, good service but the dishes were not as expected.

I enjoyed a lovely farewell dinner with my colleagues at the chef's table. Amazing food with a well matched and generous wine pairing made for a memorable evening.

The Bar at The Gilbert Scott is like something out of Downton Abbey. We loved it! The cocktail list was very very traditional and really very tasty!

The food in teh restaurant was exquisite, with great portions. The staff were very friendly and very helpful.

Not a cheap restaurant, but definitely not over priced. I'd recommend a night at The Gilbert Scott to everyone! We'll definitely be going back.

I was really excited to be going to Gilbert Scott. This was a special occasion and wanted to celebrate in style. 5/6 of us decided to try the roast beef, veg and Yorkshire pudding was lovely, however the star of the dish (beef) was not great at all. The roast beef was very chewy and difficult to eat. This was the case for all of us. It is not often I feel the need to complain, however on this occasion I gave the feedback to the waiter. He did apologise, and offered all the party a glass of peach schnapps. We thought this was a nice gesture at the time until we realised they offered all tables this at the ends of the meal.
We also ordered tea and coffee at the end of the meal, which didn t arrive with or after the desserts. We decided to cancel the drinks and left to go and have a coffee next door in the nearby pub.
Overall really disappointed with the whole experience

This was a Travelzoo deal of 2 courses and a cocktail. The cocktail was delicious and the food devine.

4 stars, fifth one gained thanks to the Greek Sommelier (sorry it was few months ago, I can't remember your name)

Overpriced rubbish restaurant. In its attempt to be a renown Michelin star chef Marcus Wearing drags you in a diabolical abuse of your senses.

The Gilbert Scott is a restaurant that would just need a bit of decent food, the decor speaks on it's own, perhaps one of the nicest restaurants in the UK, charming, elegant... you can stare in awe as you dine, only admiring the architecture. Hence my 2 stars.



The bread was fine, although a really poor selection and the main courses where correct, but for the price you pay... inwould expect a more delicate garnish, a better plate design, or simply a bigger dish!



Much to my regret, that lack of detail, exciting menu and commercial strategy makes me think the Gilbert Scott represents a very low value.

Had an excellent afternoon tea with a friend for her birthday. Service was attentive but not intrusive and I was delighted with the gluten free food I had and didn't feel deprived at all!! Great attention was paid to our enjoyment and comfort and lots of complimentary tea and extra sandwiches. Fabulous

One of my favourite places to eat; wonderful ambience, great service and Marcus Earring - what more could you want?!
Excellent evening (despite a minor disappointment with the Pork Collar), and with the Eat Out; great value

One of my favourite restaurants in London and within my favourite building in London too. A beautiful restaurant with friendly staff, also wicked sense of humour from the waiter I had. stunning interiors and who can resist a cheeky photo of the iconic staircase. Food is perfect, I would 100% recommend coming here.

As lovely as ever. Great service & food in beautiful surroundings

Must admit, I was really disappointed by the Gilbert Scott. The quality of the cooking was fine (although the Dauphines potatoes were screaming for some cream), but the menu itself is bang average. There's nothing to get overly excited by, nothing to challenge nor surprise. There's certainly nothing to justify the price tag either. The service was very slap-dash. I counted at least six waitstaff who attended our table, and also had to call for them multiple times, which shows no real attention was paid to us. The dining room itself is lovely, but the defining feature of a meal shouldn't be its setting. All in all, I can't completely slate the Gilbert Scott, but I can't recommend it either. A highly disappointing venture by a chef of Marcus Wareing's calibre.

A real London gem- besides the gorgeous architecture and tasteful furnishing, the renaissance style bar is a sure crowd pleaser. Although it is a little pricey, it's very easy to stay for hours chatting away over their traditional cocktails and sampling the selection of yummy cheeses and desserts or nibbling away on their complimentary popcorn.

Upscale restaurant in a breath-taking setting. Beautiful gothic rooms, great food (can highly recommend the Chateaubriand), and good wine-menu. Very attentive service.

Liked everything there - but of course don't expect it to be cheap.

Booked for 6 people on Sunday morning to have a dinner in the evening (6.30pm). Due to unforeseen circumstances, we wanted to cancel the reservation as we would not have made our train on time (8.30pm). However, due to their policy, the More

Good service, coffee wasn't really for me. It was also somehow difficult to hear the people with you talking from across the table.

Tall ceilings felt like being in a bygone era. drink was a little to dry for my style, but still would go again for a drink

I had my 18th birthday here in 2014 with my family at the chefs table. Wonderful experience, definitely something I'd recommend. Every course came with a glass of wine to match perfectly with the food we were eating. We had our own waiter who was very entertaining and with every course we had a chef tell us exactly what we were eating. The atmosphere is lovely and the bar is beautiful.

Over-priced menu that trades on alleged "celebrity" status and fails to deliver on all levels. For someone who is so critical of others on Masterchef, Wareing would do well to look at this mediocre output. A keenly awaited visit spoiled by poor quality. On the plus side: staff were all great and only reason to rate this above one star. Sadly, this restaurant best avoided.

As soon as you walk into the Gilbert Scott you know this is going to be a good night. The decor and architecture are amazing, with the old style bar, high high ceilings, candles on the tables and strange little bird cages everywhere which just seem to work. I came for cocktails, and every single one of those I tried were gorgeous (charging with CO2 is so cool!). They give you complimentary popcorn along with your yummy bar snacks/meal, and the desserts are heavenly. Great for a classy date night or a nice night out with your friends, but not so wallet friendly...

Honestly we were pretty underwhelmed. First, 2 of our 7 party got there slightly before the rest of the group for an 8:00 reservation and hostess told them that if everyone wasn't there by 8:15 they'd give away our table. Everyone got there by 8:08. They sat up and no one brought us anything (water, bread, drinks, etc.) until after 8:35. Our food was pretty good, 4 out of 5 stars. Then after all our plates and drinks were cleared it took them another 30 minutes to bring our check. They really need to work on there service. Dinner ended up take over 2.5 hours and should have taken 1:45 max.

A beautiful setting for a sadly subpar Sunday lunch.

On entrance in to the hotel it s clearly a beautiful building, immaculately maintained, and a delightful place for a nice, more luxurious Sunday lunch.

It s a relaxed atmosphere and the other guests were all very nice and friendly.

On arrival we were greeted well and taken to our table. We had two babies in our group and the staff were extremely accommodating and wonderfully nice, happy and enthusiastic.





The starters were lovely, and outshone the rest of the meal. I had the onion soup, with a lot of onions, served with a delicious gruyere on toast. The mackerel was tasty and well presented and my friend had the burrata which she finished with pleasant ease.

So far so good.

The mains arrived, meats individual and veg in sharing bowls, which is fine and sociable.

I d call it a Roast of Two Halves .

The meats were mostly nice. The slow cooked Ox cheek was delicious - a really comforting, luxurious melt in the mouth delight. The chicken I m told was also very nice. My wife had the beef, which she asked for medium rare. The parts that were medium rare were lovely, but parts of it were actually raw. So not edible.

We couldn t fault the gravy, it was thick, deep, and velvety. They gave us extra on request.

The real problems, however, came with the vegetables and Yorkshire pudding. The roast potatoes were so over-cooked I could have used them as cricket balls. They must have been cooked and kept warm for a long time. Very disappointing. The Yorkshire puddings were also a bit over-cooked. The carrots were delicious, though. Broccoli - a tad odd, served with a mint sauce that isn t too everyone s taste.

The dessert options weren t very inspiring but we had to choose. I went for the profiteroles... not the kind of profiteroles you would expect, oh no. It was just one huge profiterole, served like an odd sandwich with an extremely sharp, sweet passion fruit and yoghurt filling. No thanks. It was not nice at all. It should be more clearly explained on the menu.

The apple crumbles were massively over-cooked. The banana soft serve was probably the nicest.

They also forgot our coffees and then served them lukewarm. Tut tut.

All in all I d say it was a disappointing experience, hence the 3 stars.

Luckily we were with good friends and had a great time anyway. The staff were friendly and the setting is beautiful. Just a shame about the food.

After being planning for a while to celebrate my friend's birthday at the Gilbert Scott, how disappointed with how long we had to wait for the food around 1 hour. I would mind to have being taxed twice VAT 20% + SVC12.5% if I felt the service of the place matched with their prestige.

Review of the bar area:

Amazing space, lavishly decorated. But they didn t have one of the wines on their list and forgot to bring our bill, which isn t great when the drinks are so expensive. And they shove all the tables very closely together, which doesn t make for a relaxing experience, particular when the bar appears to attract a certain class of braying gentleman.

This is my go-to spot when waiting for the Eurostar. It's expensive, but definitely worth it. It's another Marcus Waring product, so it's got a lot of good Michellin star quality behind it. If you're a little short for time, just stop in the bar for a rhubarb and ginger sour. It's delicious.

Superb. Made us feel very special for our wedding anniversary. The staff were friendly, professional and knowledgeable. The cocktails, food and wine were excellent. And the measures they had in place to make us feel safe were first class. We will be back!

Striking dining room, good food and the manager who served our table was a delight.

We went for a cocktail to start, then the tasting menu with a wine pairing - it was GREAT. Don't even think about it, just do it. Beautiful setting and really lovely staff.

Service was excellent but food for me was average. The building is beautiful so well worth a visit

Gin, gin and more gin!

An elegant cocktail bar set in the entrance to the old St Pancrass hotel, complete with ornate ceilings and three hanging bronze bells.

The 1873 signature cocktails is theatrically served to your table (order one to find out how).

Definitely worth a try.

Great cocktails, place was so busy. Therefore service a bit slow

Just went here for cocktails, but enjoyed the space, and the rhubarb gimlet was a surprise hit - an amazing fragrance, particularly towards the end of the drink, apparently mainly from the rhubarb bitters (which I think they make themselves).

Bar staff were very pleasant - when we arrived there was no space to sit, but whereas most places at that point seem to just shrug their shoulders and let you fend for yourself, they actually seemed quite keen to accommodate us. Staff behind the bar also managed a really good mix of polite, professional but also had a sense of humour.

Another lovely meal at The Gilbert Scott yesterday. I've been a few times now and it's always been fantastic. Service, food and surroundings are excellent. I would definitely recommend it.

Beautiful food and lovely service, love all the dishes we ordered. Relax atmosphere, great place to spend your evening after long day work.

Wonderful food, comfortable service, fruity house wine. Not expensive.

During my dinner, all customers in the restaurant were praising their food.

Must recommend to you guys.

Just amazing. If you are looking for a proper Victorian dinning experience, don't look any more. This is the place. It's like being in a movie!!!

Really nice place located in the heart of an incredible Hotel. Great wine selection and lots of great meal options.

Well-executed "best of British" menu, attentive service, unique Victorian decor, well-handled.

The food is very good. The service is good as well. It's not cheap but not crazy expensive either. Good for a "once in a while" or a celebration.

What a total disappointment!

Sandwiches were stale and a pretty poor choice of filling.
The cakes were ok
I couldn t believe the tea was made with tea bags and not proper loose tea,
Service wasn t great either we were not once asked if everything was ok!

We actually left and went to a pub for some food as we were still starving not good at the prices they were charging!

Lovely evening of dining, although could be more polished with overall service. I noticed that bread was not served until after the starters arrived, whilst the adjacent table arrived later and had their bread quite early. To be fair, I was already hungry so was hanging for the bread. I should've asked for it sooner. Napkin wasn't folded over when I stepped away to use the loo, and the broccoli was cooked too soft for my liking. The good bits: friendly and warm staff, chairs were pulled out for us, delicious food and good value January 3 course set menu. Will be back for the a la carte menu one day.

My uncles kindly booked a table for 12 for my mother's 80th birthday party. The restaurant told them that because we were 'so many' they needed us to choose off a set menu and to let them know in advance. My uncles duly got all the guests to choose and then confirmed to the restaurant all of our choices. The next thing we hear is that they have decided to change the menu and they wanted us to choose all over again. My poor uncle, who is my mothers older brother who is no spring chicken himself finds that he has to repeat what we already thought was a pretty dictatorial exercise. 12 people for lunch midweek should surely be something a restaurant can cope with without having to resort to a brief set menu (2-3 choices only). It seems to me that this is a place where the client is not considered all that important. I am embarrassed on behalf of my elderly uncles who only wanted to treat their sister and who now find themselves in an administrative nightmare.

UPDATE

The manager sorted out the chef and the menus were as originally planned. The food was delicious and the ambience and location are great. We did have to wait 30 minutes after we were sat at our table (1pm) for a waiter to come up and say the food would be with us in 15 minutes or would we prefer to wait a bit longer! We all felt that a 45 minute wait for food was quite a long time already, especially as we'd been asked to pre-order! Other than that it was a great place for a celebration and they are obviously aware that the seating is very low to the table as they arrived unprompted after we'd sat down with extra cushions which were offered around!