Orpington GPO — Restaurant in London

"Delicious!" (A word I don't get to say often outloud)

So before I mention anything else, make sure to decide on what time of the day you come to GPO.

If you come during the Dinner period it's a set course menu (2 or 3 course) that you have a small selection of dishes to choose from for each course. However if you come during the breakfast/ Lunch period you get a wider selection of dishes and are not stuck in a course menu.

Now with the disclaimer out of the way, I'll discuss how my recent visit went. My partner and I came during the dinner period and where not expecting set course menu and so only went with the 2 courses option, which we ended up being pleasantly surprised by.

I tried the Venison Wellington as I've not had Venison before and at first glance when it arrived on the table I was a little disappointed with the portion size (the sides included with the dish, not the protein itself), but after tasting the dish... It was absolutely worth it! However sadly I now fear GPO have set the bar too high for the next time I try Venison at a different restaurant as this will be a hard act to follow. 😁

My partner for her main tried the Wild Mushroom Stroganoff, which I tried a little of and found was also very tasty and she found to be quite filling.

We both decided to have desert as our 2nd dish for our 2 course meal. They all looked good and we wanted to try all of them but had to settle for selecting 2 different deserts and sharing them.

We settled on the Bailey's Chocolate Torte and the Tonka Bean Crème Brulé. Both of which where absolutely amazing! For me the winner was the Torte and for her it was the Brulé. However both of us did feel that the ginger cookie included was a bit too hard (both hands with a fair amount strength where required to break it) and made sure to leave the feedback with the staff, which I do feel like the problem would be addressed, by the time we next visit, as I know she will want the Brulé again.

All dishes where presented beautifully and I could see a lot of care and attention was applied to them as they all tasted amazing. The staff where very friendly, attentive and knowledgeable about the menu and happy to help or take feedback when able.

Overall a fantastic experience and one I highly recommend, just make sure to decide what time of the day you come down at if you don't want to be restricted to a course menu.

One extra thing for the staff if they read this, it would be nice if there was at least 1 more vegetarian option for the starter and main for the course menu, as it's not great for them to be restricted to just the 1 item. Regardless you guys did an amazing job, keep up...

Orpington GPO were more than kind to allow our local Cricket Club to Private Hire the whole venue for our end of season Annual Dinner and Dance. I can't say enough good things about the GPO!

Firstly, a massive thank you to Jo for helping us to arrange the whole event, she literally couldn't have done enough for us. The staff on the evening were fantastic, plentiful, helpful and welcoming to everyone. The food on the evening was simply amazing, a variety of choice / options that kept everyone happy, the cheeseboards after the three course meal were also a lovely touch and really appreciated. There is a great choice behind the bar / drinks available, from good wine to great cocktails. The venue itself is really nice, spacious, well designed and more than enough space for our 80 attendees plus to eat, chat and party after the DJ got to work in the evening.

I couldn't fault anything at all within the GPO from staff to food to drinks and would highly recommend this venue to anyone, for...

It's a lovely venue, thoughtfully designed with nice industrial touches. Seats are comfy and it's conveniently located in the centre of Orpington high-street with plenty of parking nearby. Entrance is wheelchair accessible and everything is clean.

Staff were very pleasant and helpful - offering us some water as we sat down is a big plus (they didn't try to sell us bottled water).

The food is a bit over-priced (£15 for burger and chips for example) ...but everything is these days. My only criticism - the burger patty was very dry. The other ingredients (roll, bacon, cheese, chutney) were lovely but the burger probably needs a higher fat content to keep it juicy. Chips were brilliant.

My only other complaint (and happens all too often) is the difficulty in getting a bill and then paying. In the end I gave up and paid at the bar. The hospitality industry is really struggling at the moment with staffing post Brexit and I suspect this is...