The Goring Dining Room

Since Shay Cooper’s departure there have been some changes including front of house. Quality ingredients are still being sourced to create sophisticated and perfect cooking, alongside the odd fundamental error – one vegetable component of a dish was not properly prepared rendering it totally inedible. Service is not exactly co-ordinated and not always knowledgeable. A dish was described to us by one waiter; we ordered this dish which was then described differently on arrival at the table, the latter description translated accurately on to the plate. As I understand it Nathan Outlaw’s restaurant, located elsewhere in the hotel hasn’t ‘taken off’ yet. I wonder whether the arrival of Siren was the reason for Shay and his sous chef leaving, but at the moment it seems that these plans haven’t yet paid off. Normally The Goring Dining Room would be packed out at Sunday lunchtime, so we were surprised to find it rather quiet, but towards the end of service, afternoon tea takers started to populate tables. We experienced high quality from pastry chef and excellent service from sommelier. Let’s hope it all comes together soon.

We picked the restaurant for no better reason than it had a michelin star... 

The dining room itself is old worldly that wqouldn't look out of place on the set of Downton Abbey.  Atmosphere wise it maybe is a little sterile, the diners a mix of tourist, business people and our fellow gourmands.

The menu good, I had the grouse for main and is now my official favourite meat.  Two breast fillets cooked and served to their unctiouous perfection.

The surprising element for a Miichelin restaurant though was that there wasn't a tasting menu, so it is all al a carte.  Which isn't a big issue, but I prefer the tasing menus to create a bit of variaty and push myself into trying dishes I mihgt not ordinarily order from the menu.

The bill for the two of use came in at £360, but we did have a bottle of Tokai with dessert.