The Goring Dining Room — Restaurant in London

Started strong - ended poorly. Service once seated was decent. However - as other’s have flagged the bill took ages. What’s worse was that they gave us the wrong bill - wrong table, head count server altogether. Not sure how you missed that? First time in my life that I’ve been given the wrong bill - let alone at this supposedly prestigious institution. If you think that’s the end you’re wrong. When I flagged a staff to correct it - they were already primed to say “my colleague will be with you with the machine” before I corrected them that the wrong bill was presented - alas then said waiter scuffled away sheepishly. The maitre’d that ultimately brought us the card machine had zero ounce of professionalism. Instead of apologizing - took a rather rude tone and chided that “she was doing her best” and that she’ll grab her manager as if that was some sort of threat. Of course no manger came around and of course we didn’t stick around given how late it was. Hardly think this place is worthy of its Michelin * or Royal Warrant. Food was cheap though so that’s a plus.

Now that’s out of the way - let’s talk food.

Starters - duck liver was bland and repulsive to the eye. The accompanying brioche was also overtly sweet and masked any ounce of umami from the pate. Heritage tomato again - also bland. Their solution to this one dimensional dish was to serve the same ingredient in 3 ways - spoiler it didn’t help. Partner only got this because they supposedly sold out of oyster at 8pm (pretty poor planning if you ask me). Egg with caviar/lobster was decent - but let’s face it, it’s basically a dish hiding behind the ingredients. On the mains - lobster omelette was lovely - no complaints. Duck and venison both good value for money. Doesn’t expect Dinner by Heston standard though. Deserts - fig tart was inedible - bitterness overwhelmed dish. Petit fours basically tasted like your local off license chocolate - didn’t even finish. A nice little touch was the birthday card and cake for partner. Ambience - very old and outdated decor (it fails to capture the timeless essence of say the Ritz or Dorchester). Music was bizarre - they were playing techno-jazz music with heavy edm beats. Mind you the average guest was on the elderly side - I don’t think playing such music makes you modern.

Overall if this is meant to be your introductory place to the London fine dining scene I would say it’s possible (given very competitive price point), but if you’ve started your journey of luxury elsewhere, one would be very disappointed with the Goring Dining Room.

Here’s to hoping they redeem themselves one day. Until then - I shall be spending my...

My son and I ate here 31 July while on holiday. He wanted to try a French michelin star restaurant and this one came up when I searched Google. It was also within walking distance from our hotel. If you look closer, they do NOT have a michelin star and they say in their description, "michelin star service". That is false advertising! I would like to give them more than one star for the food because the food was EXCELLENT! However, the service was severely lacking and only deserves one star. I have worked as a waiter in fine dining and I frequent fine dining restaurants now so I certainly know when I am receiving poor service. The head waiter initially took our drink order and our our appetizer/entre order.

Our appetizer plates sat on our table for 15 mins before being removed. After our entrees were served no one asked how our food was or checked on us. When our entrees were served my glass of wine was 2/3 empty and I was not offered another glass of wine, which I would have liked to have had. During our meal the head waiter emptied our bottle of water, never said a word to us and left. He didn't ask again how our meal was or ask if we needed anything else. I had to call him back as he was walking away to order more water. Entre plates sat on our table and the table next to us. Staff walked by several times and our dishes sat for 10 minutes on our table before being removed. There were only 8 active tables during the peak of service. A few of the tables looked like they were regulars and 3 other tables were clearly guests of the hotel. These people received excellent service from the head waiters! The head waiter was no where to be seen for long periods of time and the assistant, in the uniform, was the one doing all the work and running around taking care of all the tables by himself. Again, the food was excellent but I hope in the future everyone who walks through your doors get the five star service...

Very disappointing lunch experience. Amazed that the restaurant/chef had a Michelin star and I was left wondering how on earth it will be retained. Exceptionally slow service: 30 minutes between finishing one course and being served the next. Wine glasses were not topped up, even when completely empty. One guest did not receive any dessert at all. No flexibility on the menu - three courses only, rather than the option of two (and the boring desserts are worth skipping). Venison tartare was okay, but underseasoned - a basic mistake that should not be made. The 'famous' lobster omlette was very disappointing: a heavy, greasy omlette that contained tasteless and sometimes bitter lobster meat. This came with around eight overcooked chips, all of which had thick and greasy exteriors with bone-dry interiors. How can a Michelin star restaurant mess up a few simple chips?! The accompanying Caesar salad was hilariously small - more like a garnish - literally one mouthful of over-dressed, limp lettuce. For dessert, the brown sugar cake was dry and tasteless, with most of the (unpleasant) flavour coming from the burnt decorative shards scattered over the top; it reminded me of a cake you might get at a conference, served in the hundreds. All of this for £55 a heas plus service and booze (wine list was okay, as were the recommendations, and the expensive selection was anticipated). Some of my guests were served luke-warm main dishes; again, this is just poor, sloppy service. I just don't understand this place. Perhaps they sacrifice lunch service and save the decent cooking for the evenings? Such consistent failings across the board mean that I will not be going back and I definitely cannot recommend the Goring to others. There are other restaurants nearby that are similarly priced or cheaper and offer better food, better service and a much more enjoyable...