The Vincent Rooms & Escoffier Room

Sepia photos testify to the fact that catering students have been going through their paces at Westminster Kingsway College for more than 100 years – Jamie Oliver & Antony Worrall Thompson are two of the more recent alumni to have learned their trade in the Vincent Rooms brasserie & fine-dining Escoffier Room. Open for lunch during term times, both restaurants are popular with the local business community, who are willing to overlook the odd inconsistency in return for bargain prices. Robust flavours abound in the canteen-style brasserie, with starters such as Indian-style gravadlax or rabbit & pork roulade giving way to Basque fish stew or thyme-infused chicken. The cooking is more refined next door, where Escoffier himself would be pleased to see quenelles of pike & duck à l’orange on the five-course tasting menu (£24).