Jonesy's review of The Wolseley

This impressive venue first sprang to life as a showroom in the 1920s for Wolseley Motors and was then commandeered by Barclays Bank for the next 72 years. In 2003, the restaurateurs Chris Corbin and Jeremy King, the duo behind such icons as The Ivy and J. Sheekey, restored the place to its former Art Deco glory and turned it into an all-day dining venue.

Opting to visit them for a busy midweek lunchtime service, I walked into the grand dining room and gawped at the gigantic space; it really is quite breathtaking. It’s a bit like stepping into the cavernous foyer of the Natural History Museum, with quadruple-height ceilings, huge pillars and chandeliers, black and white tiled floors and polished brass rails; it’s the type of restaurant you would find Hercule Poirot dining in.

The menu is somewhat less inspiring. Very similar to a French brasserie, you can dine here for breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea (okay, that’s not so French) and dinner, from 7am to midnight. On the day, I wasn’t feeling all that adventurous, so I chose the chicken soup with dumplings, and a main of rib eye steak with chips. Both courses were nicely done but nothing remarkable, and the moderate prices reflect this; you get what you pay for.

Service was brisk and in a constant state of controlled panic, but not impolite. Yet the most notable thing was the room itself. The height of the ceilings makes it a rather noisy, airy place to eat, but you really do feel as if you’ve been transported back to the roaring 1920s into the hub of London’s cocktail-drinking society. I wanted to utter remarks like, “What ho! Bring me a G and T old bean, easy on the T. There’s a good chap”.

For some reason celebrities love Corbin and King’s restaurants, and on this particular day we had John Hurt sitting at the table next to us. I couldn’t help amusing myself with the thought of an alien bursting out of his chest and running amok under the tables. Ronnie Corbett was sat at the other side of the dining room, the alien’s first port of call for its hors d’oeuvres.

It’s notoriously hard to secure a table here at a ‘normal’ dining hour unless you are one of the glitterati, but I would recommend a visit just to sample the atmosphere of such an unusual space. It’s also one of London’s most popular venues for afternoon tea, after The Ritz next door and Claridge’s. Don’t expect anything dazzling from the kitchen or to be treated like royalty by the staff, but the moderately priced menu and the extravagance of the interior are good reasons to pop in for a bite.