The Square

A gastronomical trendsetter that has been at the top of modern french haute cousine for many years and still delivers top-notch food. Pricey wine list (but unfortunately that comes with most places like this) and good service. Also brilliant lunch offering (for that actually very good value for money) while for dinner on weekends you pay for what is however, undeniably one of the top culinary destinations in central london

The Square is definitely worthy of it’s 2 Michelin stars. The dishes were unique, creative and combination of flavours and textures were fantastic. The service at The Square could have been better. I felt that some of the wait staff were a little…snotty and well, when it got crowded (it was a full house that day) the staff seemed a bit overwhelmed and I could not get their attention (to ask for more bread).

That benig said, I think I will make a trip down to The Square again, maybe for the tasting menu.

We (3) were there on a Saturday night, busy evening. Nevertheless, the food though well presented, properly cooked, all turned up to be bland & tasteless, very strange.

Wrote a note with a comment on each dish on the menu, asked for it to be sent to the chef. No response. Any self respecting chef would have been to the table in a shot, if only to defend his work or apologize. Marco would have thrown you out! Gordon would have defended himself, I think. This Chef, Nothing. Maybe he was off that night and the mice were in charge and at play. So E-mailed the restaurant and a staff responded with contempt internally to another colleague along the lines, we don't have to show Chef this do we?. Unfortunately it was copied back to me by mistake.

I have also heard from another, just one, foodie of a similar experience. Others have waxed lyrical about the place.

My conclusion, it can be very good, but they are not consistent.

.

This was our first visit to The Square having seen Philip Howard on Saturday Kitchen; we were not disappointed. We were booked in for an early dinner; to start we had langoustines and smoked venison tartare, both were excellent, the langoustines in particular is a signature dish and was sublime; followed by Salmon and saddle of Hare, both were good but the Hare was exceptional. To follow we sampled the extensive cheese board and the banana souffle with rum and raisin ice cream both were excellent. Throughout the service was attentive, what you'd expect from a 2 MS restaurant, and the sommelier very helpful. Our only [minor] criticism was that we were slightly rushed, with starters served before we'd finished our canapés, but overall we had a really special gastronomic experience; we will be back.

Faultless.

Once again The Square exceeded expectation. Stunning dishes and delighted both diners. Wine list, as ever, amazing and advice given for wine choice matched the result – amazing!

What a huge disappointment. Great service, and delicious amuse bouche, but shocking a la carte dishes. Starters of langoustine and the signature dish of chicken wings with vacherin were bland. The chicken wing skins were pale and fatty – particularly unpleasant when combined with the rich cheese. A main of turbot and dessert of banana souffle were equally tasteless. The opposite was true of ox cheek with smoked onions and mash which was so overpoweringly rich we both felt pretty ill after a couple of mouthfuls. It was also rather unbalanced with a huge amount of mashed potato. And a dessert of pear with macaroon and ice-cream could only be described as disgusting due to an intense vinegary flavour. So flavours were either bland or over-bearing, and many of the dishes were virtually monochrome – a sea of pale colours, or caramel, or brown, unlike the much prettier and tastier freebies that arrived between courses and after the meal.

Our sommelier, despite being very attentive and helpful recommended an unpleasantly sweet viognier for our starters, she was however on the mark with a decent pinot noir for mains.

The bread was lovely, as were all of the amuse bouche but the quality of the rest of our meal was certainly not what you would expect of a restaurant with one, let alone two, michelin stars. In our experience, you're likely to experience a better balance of flavours and more attractive plates of food in a gastropub.

In my teens, my father introduced me to fine dining with dinner at the Square and what an introduction it was! Fifteen or so years later, I went back to see if the reality lived up to my memories and I was not disappointed. The Square has certainly not lost its touch and anyone who wants to see how fine dining should be done, should visit the Square. You simply cannot fault this restaurant on any aspect; the food is sublime, the service phenomenal and the atmosphere is smart, sophisticated and educated without an iota of pretension. My only request to Mr Howard would be to bring back the square plates and cuttlery; quirky, I know but a highlight from my childhood memories!

We went to the Square a couple of weeks ago on a Thursday evening. First impressions were of a nice looking restaurant, but very corporate in terms of clientele and the acoustics make for a very loud ambience.

What I personally love about the poshy type of restaurants is all the extra courses that are thrown into the meal, transforming a three course A La carte dinner into an extra special tasting menu experience. In this respect the Square really hit the spot, with a couple of pre-starters, a pre-desert and petit fours.

The meal itself, whilst good was not that memorable as I am having to revert to their web site as an aide-memoire for what I had. Starter was a crab lasagne, which was very nice however. Main was a… actually I can’t remember even looking at the crib sheet, so that probably says it all. My dinner companions went for the wagyu beef which was very pleasant though. But who could forget the dessert, warm fondant with 100’s & 1000’s; a perfectly cooked fondant with extra sauce on top and crispy and tasty sprinkles, don’t worry the 100’s and 1000’s were a home made concoction rather than those found on the end of a Fab lolly!

Service was in keeping with the overall experience, good but not amazing. Service between courses dragged a little and we had to have our petit fours as a carry out as we had to get back to our baby sitter. The other gripe about service was when the waiter poured sparkling water into my glass of still, an easy mistake, but the problem was when he raced off saying he was going to get me a fresh glass, well I’m still waiting for him to come back with it.

The bill for the 3 of us was £430 of which about £150 was drinks and the 3 course menu priced at £90 per head including the service charge.

My over all impression, a pleasant experience but not amazing, worthy of two stars probably not in my opinion, but certainly worth one.

The Square is elegant, the service and the food are flawless, and it should be on every foodies list to visit at least once.

I've been several times and am constantly wondering why I don't eat here all the time – it has that effect of slipping from your memory. I think this is really down the the atmosphere in the restaurant – it feels a little too brightly lit, the clientele tends to include a high proportion of ‘suits’ too.

Having said that, if you can ignore those around you, the cooking is absolutely faultless, if a little unchallenging.

I am very hard pressed to fault The Square. From the moment we entered the staff were a complete delight and this continued throughout the evening. They were friendly but not intrusive, knowledgeable but not arrogant. Every mouthful of food was simply exquisite and the wine pairing- utter perfection. The hushed tones and excited murmurings of the evening set a wonderful atmosphere. I would quite happily recommend The Square to the most captious gastronomers.