Food sold in supermarkets is generally required to display a sell by date, we wonder if restaurants should be forced to do likewise. If they were, Gordon Ramsay’s Royal Hospital Road would surely be well past its date and diners might decide that something fresher is more in order. Having eaten there twice in the pre-blog days and feeling pretty ambivalent about it, we nevertheless felt that we should revisit and record the experience for the blog, perhaps they’ve raised their game and they’ll surprise us. As is no doubt already clear, that wasn’t the case and we left thinking that Ramsay must surely lose his three star status in 2011 if Michelin is to have any credibility as a guide.
Just a few hours on from leaving the restaurant, the food memories are already fading into the background. The food was undoubtedly beautifully cooked but in so many ways it was also just so ordinary, with no single standout dish and no wow factor at all. Jay Rayner for example criticises Ramsay continuing to have Tarte Tatin on the menu given the fact it was invented by a pair of sisters back in 1898; Rayner surely has a point. Everything that we ate today is now being done better by other London based restaurants. The Square, Pied a Terre and Hibiscus all served us better and more exciting meals in 2010. Ramsay just seems stuck in the wilderness of irrelevance.
The institution too seemed awkward. The kitchen is perhaps stymied by the inability to move forward on the menu because any and every single change will almost certainly need Big G’s personal approval so they turn out the same old dishes. The silver coated chocolate balls served on prongs that come at the end of the meal were being delivered just as they were on our first visit there three years ago. No doubt they consider it a trademark but how dull, it’s not so special.
The front of house meanwhile seem to be trying too hard to deliver an experience without achieving any kind of read on the table. On ordering, the ravioli of lobster uniquely identifies my starter choice but the waiter feels compelled to reel off the full menu description: ravioli of lobster, langoustine and salmon poached in a light bisque with a lemongrass and chervil veloute. The waiter was word perfect from the top of his head; was it necessary though? Every order we made was repeated in this fashion. Clearly they’re instructed to do this but to what purpose?
Just a few hours on from leaving the restaurant, the food memories are already fading into the background. The food was undoubtedly beautifully cooked but in so many ways it was also just so ordinary, with no single standout dish and no wow factor at all. Jay Rayner for example criticises Ramsay continuing to have Tarte Tatin on the menu given the fact it was invented by a pair of sisters back in 1898; Rayner surely has a point. Everything that we ate today is now being done better by other London based restaurants. The Square, Pied a Terre and Hibiscus all served us better and more exciting meals in 2010. Ramsay just seems stuck in the wilderness of irrelevance.
The institution too seemed awkward. The kitchen is perhaps stymied by the inability to move forward on the menu because any and every single change will almost certainly need Big G’s personal approval so they turn out the same old dishes. The silver coated chocolate balls served on prongs that come at the end of the meal were being delivered just as they were on our first visit there three years ago. No doubt they consider it a trademark but how dull, it’s not so special.
The front of house meanwhile seem to be trying too hard to deliver an experience without achieving any kind of read on the table. On ordering, the ravioli of lobster uniquely identifies my starter choice but the waiter feels compelled to reel off the full menu description: ravioli of lobster, langoustine and salmon poached in a light bisque with a lemongrass and chervil veloute. The waiter was word perfect from the top of his head; was it necessary though? Every order we made was repeated in this fashion. Clearly they’re instructed to do this but to what purpose?
confit duck with chestnut veloute
butter poached Scottish lobster tail and chestnut lasagne
ravioli of lobster, langoustine and salmon with a lemongrass and chervil veloute
The maitre d’ meanwhile would come up throughout the meal and put his hand on my shoulder and chat. At the start of the meal he told us with joy that before the food we had actually ordered would arrive, we would receive another plate of food, an amuse bouche; he would later joke that this was to ‘amuse our mouths’. Did we look such neophytes that he believed this would be news for us? Is that the usual clientele now? We weren't sure how we were supposed to respond.
He was friendly though and there are a lot worse attitudes he could have taken, but the interactions seemed excruciatingly forced like a novice lover trying to fill the empty silences on a first date. His forced friendliness created rather than dispelled tension.
There were other odd moments too. After the main course before the dessert we were served what amounted to a glass of mango-passion fruit juice to clear our palate and prepare us for dessert as they again felt obliged to explain. This really was no more than a glass of fruit juice but fair enough, it is what it is. However, on one of our glasses being returned little touched, the maitre d’ enquired if it was ‘too exotic?’ It’s mango and passion fruit, Innocent do a smoothie just like it that can be bought in Waitrose, it’s not exotic for goodness sake. It reminded us of the 1970s and early 80s when orange juice would be served as a starter. Times moved on and orange juice no longer warranted a place on menus. RGR received its third Michelin star in 2001 but the restaurant hardly seems relevant right now in any way.
He was friendly though and there are a lot worse attitudes he could have taken, but the interactions seemed excruciatingly forced like a novice lover trying to fill the empty silences on a first date. His forced friendliness created rather than dispelled tension.
There were other odd moments too. After the main course before the dessert we were served what amounted to a glass of mango-passion fruit juice to clear our palate and prepare us for dessert as they again felt obliged to explain. This really was no more than a glass of fruit juice but fair enough, it is what it is. However, on one of our glasses being returned little touched, the maitre d’ enquired if it was ‘too exotic?’ It’s mango and passion fruit, Innocent do a smoothie just like it that can be bought in Waitrose, it’s not exotic for goodness sake. It reminded us of the 1970s and early 80s when orange juice would be served as a starter. Times moved on and orange juice no longer warranted a place on menus. RGR received its third Michelin star in 2001 but the restaurant hardly seems relevant right now in any way.
loin of highland with venison with truffle braised celery
Looking at the decor of the place, that could hardly have been relevant even back in 2001; hell, it wouldn’t have been relevant back in 1951. Beige walls, beige carpet, a few mirrors and three short stem white roses as a table decoration. It doesn’t matter if the food’s interesting but nothing on our visit here today seemed particularly interesting. The word ‘overstretched’ came to our mind as often as the word ‘tired’.
Turning to the food, for the starters, it was the lobster ravioli as described above, and butter poached Scottish lobster tail and chestnut lasagne, perigord truffles and roasted ceps. The lobster ravioli was nice enough and the lemongrass and chervil veloute had both a soft velvet sweetness with some lemon bite, but at The Square, both the langoustine tail on gnocchi and the lasagne of Dorset crab with shellfish cappuccino were so much more exciting than either of the starters here.
For the mains, we ordered the loin of highland with venison with truffle braised celery, with roast Williams pear and smoked pork belly as well as aged Dedham Vale beef fillet with fondant potato, ox cheeks, bone marrow, braised root vegetables and red wine jus. There was nothing wrong with these dishes but with 3 stars they should be special and they weren’t.
Turning to the food, for the starters, it was the lobster ravioli as described above, and butter poached Scottish lobster tail and chestnut lasagne, perigord truffles and roasted ceps. The lobster ravioli was nice enough and the lemongrass and chervil veloute had both a soft velvet sweetness with some lemon bite, but at The Square, both the langoustine tail on gnocchi and the lasagne of Dorset crab with shellfish cappuccino were so much more exciting than either of the starters here.
For the mains, we ordered the loin of highland with venison with truffle braised celery, with roast Williams pear and smoked pork belly as well as aged Dedham Vale beef fillet with fondant potato, ox cheeks, bone marrow, braised root vegetables and red wine jus. There was nothing wrong with these dishes but with 3 stars they should be special and they weren’t.
Dedham Vale beef fillet with fondant potato
Turning to the beef dish first, there was a big disappointment that the ox cheek and bone marrow was no more than a single mouthful. Served inside the potato fondant, for all intensive purposes, it might as well not have been on the plate at all. Without the ox cheek and bone marrow (in fact, why did they bother), this plate is merely a beef fillet with potato, vegetables and red wine jus. Can this really be considered three star food? I’d take Koffmann’s no star beef cheeks any day, even if they were similarly priced (which they’re not of course).
The venison plate offered some great moments with both the smoked pork belly and the celery but these were cameo acts while the main parts of the dish again failed to lift themselves above ordinary.
The venison plate offered some great moments with both the smoked pork belly and the celery but these were cameo acts while the main parts of the dish again failed to lift themselves above ordinary.
bitter chocolate cylinder with coffee granite and ginger mousse
banoffee pie soufflé
Dessert-wise we tried the bitter chocolate cylinder with coffee granite and ginger mousse, as well as the banoffee pie soufflé. If there was a favourite dish of the day it was probably the soufflé which displayed a fantastically light soufflé top with a thicker denser banoffee pie base mixing things up a bit. Shortly into the desserts the maitre d’ again felt compelled to point out more of the obvious by highlighting that the chocolate cylinder had gold leaf on top. Err, yes, we can see it. Again, the front of house seemed to believe that we would go weak at the knees to learn that we had gold leaf on our food; in a word, no. We’ve raved about Apsleys desserts in the past, leagues above those delivered by RGR.
chocolate balls
strawberry ice cream in white chocolate, eggnog and minced pies
RGR has lost focus it seems or rather, they remain focussed on out of date dining concepts. Ramsay is on record boasting that RGR makes a profit while the likes of The Fat Duck and El Bulli do not, which is tantamount to boasting that he charges his customers more for worse food. It also highlights that his focus is neither the customer nor the food but instead the bottom line. Blumenthal and Adria appreciate that the quality of their three starred headline restaurant is the cornerstone of a bigger brand, accordingly, the main restaurant can run at a loss while other parts of the machine drive the cash flow. It’s ironic then that Ramsay, who has the biggest machine of all, demands that even his flagship restaurant pays its dues without understanding that RGR’s three stars underpin the foundation for everything else.
When Claridge’s lost its star earlier this year, there were plenty of raised eyebrows. If RGR drops a star next year, which in our view it should, Gordon’s individual star will be seen as falling too and with it no doubt the book sales and TV fees. Already RGR rates only 43rd in the rank of the UK’s Top 100 Restaurants and it has crashed out of the San Pellegrino world list completely. The official response to that particular fall from grace was ‘Gordon takes all these sort of surveys with a pinch of salt. As always, Gordon regards his thousands of customers as his most valued critics. They are his judge and jury.’ He should note therefore that these customers left underwhelmed with no desire to return.
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Related links: The Waterside Inn
Related links: Le Gavroche
When Claridge’s lost its star earlier this year, there were plenty of raised eyebrows. If RGR drops a star next year, which in our view it should, Gordon’s individual star will be seen as falling too and with it no doubt the book sales and TV fees. Already RGR rates only 43rd in the rank of the UK’s Top 100 Restaurants and it has crashed out of the San Pellegrino world list completely. The official response to that particular fall from grace was ‘Gordon takes all these sort of surveys with a pinch of salt. As always, Gordon regards his thousands of customers as his most valued critics. They are his judge and jury.’ He should note therefore that these customers left underwhelmed with no desire to return.
Return to homepage
Related links: The Waterside Inn
Related links: Le Gavroche
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