Tucked away inside The Biltmore Mayfair, Café Biltmore is the hotel’s all-day dining spot, serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner right on historic Grosvenor Square. The location is hard to beat - within easy reach of Hyde Park, Selfridges, Soho, and St James’s - but Café Biltmore offers more than just a prime address.
The interiors are modern and elegant, blending sculptural wall installations with dark timber herringbone floors and plush banquettes. The space feels relaxed yet refined, making it ideal for celebratory occasions like afternoon tea. A spacious al fresco terrace adds to the appeal - particularly in late summer - offering a quiet, secluded spot that feels like a hidden gem.
As the hotel’s main restaurant, Café Biltmore casts a wide net to cater to a broad range of diners. The menu is impressively diverse, spanning Persian meatballs to a Bombay platter and Indonesian fried rice. That kind of global ambition can be risky, but Café Biltmore handles it with surprising finesse. The Bombay platter, for example, is well executed, featuring crisp vegetable samosas, a rich palak paneer, and poppadoms perfect for scooping up sticky chutneys.
The solid cooking continues with a house-baked sourdough loaf served with cultured butter, followed by a meltingly tender lamb shank tagine with sticky apricots, and a well-cooked whole sea bass accompanied by roasted tomatoes, peppers, olives, and a zingy lemon olive oil. The wine list is extensive, and the staff are knowledgeable and helpful with pairings.
Not everything hits the mark - a dish of grilled octopus with fava purée was underseasoned, with the purée overpowering the delicate octopus. It’s a tall order to deliver a flawless global menu in London, Café Biltmore succeeds more often than not. What it does well, it does very well.