Gordon Ramsay's UK Restuarants

Given his financial trouble at the moment, there might not be any left by September! RBS are threatening to foreclose.

Royal Hospital Road is probably the best one left now that Marcus Waring has taken over where Petrus used to be.

The only one I've been to is Maze Grill which is on Grovesnor Square, just off Oxford St. Its also right near to Claridges.

We went for lunch and had the 3 course set menu at £18 each. It was amazing and we were even shown the kitchen and introduced to the head chef, which I think is Jason Atherton?

We are goiong back with our other halfs on May bank holiday.

The food was fabulous!

Have you been on his website? You get a good idea of menu choice.

How did I miss that? Thanks for recommendation.

Am just looking at his website now looking at sample menus. Oh I am starving ?

RHR is his best UK based restaurant imo. However it can be hard to get a table there as it is only open mon - fri and you have to be on the phone at 9 am exactly 2 months before hand to be in with a chance and you might then only get a late (ie about 9 pm ) sitting. It is also worth budgeting about £500 for dinner if you intend to have any wine with dinner. It is fab but expensive!

I forgot to add, if your H is a steak man then Maze Grill is where they show you the types of steak before hand and explain them all to you. This is where they serve Wagu steak which is the one where the cows are played classical music, fed beer and massaged. The steak alone is £100 so you pay extra for your side orders. There seems to be a wide choice of steaks.

We had rump steak on the set lunch and it was amazing !

I had the best time at Petrus- I can't see Marcus waring doing any harm to it, but its not a ramsey restaurant so probably off your list.

I didn't enjoy RHR as much to be honest.

Claridges is a great experience if thats what your after. the food is lovely, the atmosphere is great and the staff are (usually) wonderful. Don't go for sunday lunch though, there is quite a cheap set menu and the staff are a bit patronising, presumably because they get a lot of people in who don't often eat in those sorts of restaurants (I had sunday roast and was told "Its served rare, are you sure you're oK with that?" then when I didn't eat it all (it was fatty) they said "you haven't eaten it. We did tell you it would be rare" like I was some kind of simpleton.

Foxtrot oscar is barginous but also on the verge of closing, i believe.

Don't go to Angela hartnetts at the connaught. overpriced and distinctly average.

actually i'm going off GR a bit. Hes getting to be the McDonalds of restaurants, just plastering his name over everything.

Eek, we've got a table booked here for the end of April - my sis gave H vouchers for his birthday... I've noticed they've reduced opening, I guess because they weren't getting enough customers?

Sorry, didn't mean to worry you. i don't have any inside info or anything, GR said they had to reduce opening hours because business was so slow. I'm sure your table will be fine. hope you enjoy it!

You didn't worry me - H said he had read in the paper that business had been slow. If we didn't have vouchers I wouldn't be worried but as they are restuarant specific I'd be gutted if we lost them!

RHR is also my favourite but I agree that it's hard to get a table as it's tiny and that the ambiance can be quite varied dependign on the other diners. The first time we went we were the only people under 60 in there and it felt a bit stuffy IYSWIM.

Thanks very much for your opinions/advice. I will pass it on to the husband and let him decide.

Sam

Just to add that Angela Hartnett is not at Connaughts anymore - it's taken over by a female French chef (can't remember her name), I think it might have got 2 stars now (not part of GR group though).

Agree to others that RHR is the best of the lot, although Maze is good too. But I am now thinking of not going to GR's restaurants anymore cos he's more into publicity than cooking good food.

I've only ever been to Claridges and Petrus. Claridges is very average food (nothing special at all IMO) and overpriced. Whereas on the other hand I absolutely loved Petrus (been twice) - I'd say go there even though Gordon Ramsay doesn't own it anymore.