Looking for restaurants in Mayfair, London? Read our review of this live-fire grill restaurant, Gridiron by Como in London, and check out more suggestions for eating in Mayfair here.
Gridiron in a nutshell: Following hot (literally) on the heels of the many other live-fire grill restaurants to open in 2018, Gridiron by Como caters to those who like to be well-fed and well-oiled.
Who’s cooking?
This new hotel restaurant is a collab between Richard H Turner (you’ll best know him as Hawksmoor exec chef) and Colin McSherry (previously of Nuala, and before that Fat Duck, The Ledbury and Murano).
What’s the vibe?
Taking over the spot of the former Met Bar (cool cats will remember it was the place to be in Mayfair in the Nineties and Noughties), Gridiron’s drama comes from its open kitchen, complete with real fire, flanked by a marble counter, dark woods, and blood-red and racing-green seating.
What’s the food like?
The stuff of death-row dining dreams. There are snacks and starters – the likes of crispy fried scampi with a jalapeño tartare (good) and creamy white crab meat on crunchy toast with a slick of grassy lovage oil and a translucent lardo blanket (better). But, if you must, save room for the mains (simple but superb) and as many sides (outstanding) as you dare.
Not bowing to the current flexitarian persuasion of many a London diner, there’s little for veggies and diddly for vegans – meat here reigns king. Highland sirloin comes served medium rare, as chef recommends, on the bone and with a just-right kiss of smoke. It’s joined on the menu by Middle White pork, Barnsley hogget and venison saddle, as well as a few more steaks, but we’re sidetracked by roasted turbot – sticky, gelatinous, and bobbing decadently in a creamy, roasted chicken butter sauce.
Gridiron’s Sole
Desserts are familiarly classic (and rib sticking), from sticky toffee pudding to banana eton mess. English honey tart with clotted cream fills the brief if you like things teeth-achingly sweet, otherwise opt for the chocolate mousse. Light in texture, dark in flavour, it comes with a biscuity chocolate rubble, sharp blackberries and olive oil.
Gridiron’s banana Eton mess
And the drinks?
The drinks here should get just as high a billing as the food, with brothers Max and Noel Venning of Dalston’s Three Sheets behind the cocktails, and esteemed food and wine writer Fiona Beckett all over levin. We start with a clear, silky White Russian with smooth vodka, coffee made mellow by miso, and clarified milk. It’s the best interpretation of this classic that we’ve tried.
The staff, too, know their stuff. Luke, our very enthusiastic server, knew terroir through to taste, with every glass he recommended. First a crunchy, nutty 2017 pecorino for the seafood starters; then a buttery chardonnay (the Mâcon-Prissé Les Héritiers du Comte Lafon 2016, from Burgundy) with a hint of grapefruit for the fish; and a superb salty syrah (Aléofane Crozes-Hermitage 2017) with a lick of liquorice on the finish for the steak.
Gridiron’s Dexter rib on the bone
olive tip: Order all the sides. Beef-dripping galette potatoes – similar in style to these – are as rich in flavour and as golden and crisp as you could expect from this supremely trendy multi-layered chip. Mashed potato weighs so heavy with Tunworth (a super-rich, British-style camembert with home-grown funk) it’s more like aligot (aka heaven). It gets better, though, topped with sticky braised pig’s trotter and its gravy, and spiked with the crispiest crackling. That, friends, is what you call a culinary mic drop. Even a kohlrabi, celery and parsley salad is exceptionally good – refreshing, crisp and light (and made better with more cheese, this time Spenwood sheep’s cheese, dense and nutty, like parmesan). The creamed spinach, too, is served with perfect bite, lemony sharpness, and enough nutmeg and salt to know the chefs here know how to season properly. Porcini bread sauce is pure umami. This is food to make winter bearable.
Looking for Cambridge restaurants? Check out the best places to eat in Cambridge, includes cafés, restaurants and bakeries. Here’s our local food and drink guide to Cambridge…
Cambridge Cookery School – best brunch in Cambridge
If you’re looking for a relaxed brunch spot take a 15-minute stroll from the city centre to Cambridge Cookery School. White tables and chairs, grey marble counters and low-hanging lights give it an airy, modern vibe, with families chatting over cappuccinos and slices of spiced apple cake.
The food is Scandi-inspired (as is the crockery, all from Finnish company Iittala), so expect Swedish platters of herring, beetroot, dill-cured cucumber and house rye bread. The ingredients themselves are sourced locally (or made in-house, as in the case of bread and pastries) from Audley End House kitchen garden, Croxton Park organic estate and Leech’s butchers. Fika is also a focus, with couples sitting on courtyard seats and digging into cinnamon buns and fresh-from-the-oven croissants. If you’ve room to spare, the rich, dense brownies are not to be missed.
Next door to the café, the cookery school runs classes throughout the week, so peep through the glass doors to watch pastry being rolled and croissants proving.
On a Friday evening, the team make the most of any leftover produce, cooking and delivering a meal for 30 guests from Jimmy’s homeless shelter.
This sleek gelato parlour serves a range of inventive flavours, all made by hand in small batches in the downstairs kitchen. Ingredients are carefully considered, be it coffee beans sourced from Essex-based The Coffee Officina or Pump Street chocolate used in the stracciatella flavour.
Come rain or shine there’s usually a queue down the street, but it’s worth joining. The menu changes daily but if they’re in stock, make the most of your cone with some hazelnut brittle, sweet-salty treacle or refreshing alphonso mango sorbet. You can also expect white peach, Greek yogurt and elderflower sorbet throughout the year.
In the summer months, you’ll find the cool Cambridge crowd gulping down scoops of rhubarb and rose sorbetti from the parlour’s tricycle, which travels around the city, but it’s worth a visit in the winter too for a scoop of the mince pie flavour. If you’re really peckish (or can’t visit on a regular basis), buy a 1L tub of your favourite flavour to store in your freezer.
Hot Numbers Coffee Roasters – best coffee in Cambridge
With two cafes in the city, Hot Numbers Coffee Roasters (named after the record store that once traded on the adjacent street) is a must for caffeine lovers. The menu is split into two sections – black coffees or espressos with milk. Choose between a filter, a pour-over or a nitro cold brew in the summer months.
All the coffee is single origin and roasted in nearby Stapleford. Choose between beans from Costa Rica, Ethiopia or El Salvador and they’ll rustle up your drink of choice (or, if you want to brew your own at home, buy some beans to take away).
We recommend the Gwydir Street branch, an airy space with large warehouse windows, communal wooden benches lit by dangling filament bulbs and a peppering of pot plants. In the morning students sit tapping away on laptops, scribbling in notebooks and catching up over brunch (avocado on fluffy cornbread, punchy chilli with burnt lime and sweet shredded carrot…) while in the evenings you can sit and sip to a background of live jazz.
For some of the best plant-based food in Cambridge, detour down a residential street to Stem and Glory. The bright space, dotted with white tables and plants, is as fresh as the food on offer. For something hearty order the Keralan curry with roast cauliflower, its rich tomato and coconut sauce served with sweet raw carrot and coriander ‘rice’.
Small sharing plates are spot on, from a warm salad of golden beets and charred baby gem with a sweet orange and mint dressing, to smoky aubergine with fragrant quinoa tabbouleh.
Desserts are not to be missed either; order a slice of the raw blueberry and banana cheesecake, packed with nuts and dates, to takeaway. Or, dig into a slice of blood orange cake, generously soaked in maple syrup and topped with toasted pumpkin seeds and creamy soy yogurt.
Book ahead for lunch on a Sunday when the restaurant buzzes with families tucking into the kitchen’s signature hazelnut and mushroom nut roast, served with maple-roast parsnips and spiced red cabbage.
Fitzbillies is a Cambridge-institution, its two branches loved by students and locals alike. The original café, on Trumpington Street, has been around since 1920, and dark wooden-panelled walls and window displays of tiered cakes add to its historic feel.
If you fancy somewhere with a fresher vibe, head to buzzing Bridge Street and grab a seat on the high stools in its window, while the whirr of a coffee machine and the chatter of families rumbles gently in the background.
Be prepared to queue on a weekend, but it’s worth it for its signature Chelsea buns, gently spiced and bursting with currants and sticky sugar syrup. If you can, stay for a brunch of sourdough toast with poached eggs, or a grilled cheese sandwich. If not, order a sausage roll or a sticky bun to take down to the river with you.
Parker’s Tavern – best for British classics in Cambridge
The hot new dinner spot in Cambridge, Parker’s Tavern is a British brasserie that’s part of the University Arms hotel. Chef Tristan Welch is at the helm and, after three years working in Mustique (and, prior to that, at Le Gavroche and Glenapp Castle), Welch has returned to his home town, creating a menu that celebrates East Anglian produce. Expect homely classics, such as fish cakes and potted shrimp, alongside pies and roast meats.
Start with silkily smooth truffled duck egg on toast, laced with truffle-mushroom mayo and sherry vinegar, or the lightly spiced coronation chicken, served with sweet chunks of grilled apricot, nuggets of almonds and crisp butter lettuce.
Mains are hearty, from tender duck served with creamed potato and bitter spinach to roast suckling pig with crisp crackling, sweet juices and smoky braised fennel.
For those with a sweet tooth, the Duke of Cambridge Tart is a must. A reinvention of a historic pudding, the sticky treacly spiced marmalade filling, on a buttery pastry base, comes with a generous dollop of thick clotted cream.
If you’re looking for Michelin-starred dining in Cambridge, book a table at Midsummer House. The two-starred restaurant has recently celebrated its 20th birthday and it’s a classy spot, with light, conservatory tables laid with crisp white cloths and vases of dainty flowers.
Choose between the à la carte menu or an eight-course tasting menu (a lighter lunch menu is also available midweek). Dishes focus on British produce, be it braised Cornish turbot with clams and gnocchi or Cumbrian lamb served with heritage tomatoes.
The killer dish? Scallop, truffle and apple has been on the menu since the restaurant opened and it’s easy to see why. Made with Bramley and Blenheim Orange apples grow in the restaurant’s kitchen garden it’s fresher than a college quad in Fresher’s Week.
Plastic trays, communal and counter seating, and a queue out the door to order from the till don’t necessarily conjure up images of a must-visit restaurant but Cambridge‘s latest, Steak & Honour, is greater than the sum of its parts.
A short menu above the equally bijou open kitchen on the ground floor of Steak & Honour displays this three-storey restaurant’s specialty for all to see: burgers. It was designed by chef-owners Leo Riethoff and David Underwood, who met while working at Michelin-starred Alimentum in the city before joining forces in Steak & Honour mark I, a vintage Citroën van. Another van, and several years and burgers later, and this time the duo have laid roots on Wheeler Street in the city centre.
The ‘classic’ proves that a well-made burger is hard to beat. A soft and not-too-sweet brioche bun from local Dovecote Bakery hugs a simple patty of ground beef (nothing else) from Riverside Beef, whose cows graze on pastures and water meadows of Cambridgeshire and the surrounding counties. It’s served pink, is the kind of juicy that will risk dribbles down the chin with every bite, and is exceptionally well-seasoned.
Don’t skip the sides, either – they are yet another reminder that there’s a supremely talented pair of chefs behind the grill. Three-cheese mac & cheese is good enough to fight over.
Originally opened as a hotel in 1834, the University Arms has undergone an £80m transformation by architect John Simpson and the interior designer every hotelier wants to work with, Martin Brudnizki, adding a glamorous new facelift to its elegant, historic bone structure.
The white stone building, with its striking Corinthian-style pillars and grand entrance, sits on Cambridge’s lush Parker’s Piece (an open green). Parquet flooring, Cambridge Blue walls and locally inspired artwork gives it a fresh but quintessentially Edwardian English vibe, and the dapperly dressed concierge swiftly appears to greet you good day.
There are 192 bedrooms, split into cosy, classic, superior and suite categories. Each one is thoughtfully equipped with city guides and access to free bicycle hire.
Welcome to Day #18 of the AoM sandwich project. Last month we asked readers for their best sandwich recommendations. Out of 483 submissions, we picked 20 to highlight here on the site each weekday during the month of April. At the end, we’ll publish all the entries into an epic man-sandwich cookbook. Enjoy.
Today’s Sandwich: Garden Fresh Egg Sandwich by Rocky Rhodes
This was another of those “that looks like something I would never eat, so I’ll make it” picks. Eggs, strawberries, mint, spinach, mustard, and cinnamon are ingredients I would never think of putting together in a sandwich. Seems like something you’d see at a farmer’s market in Vermont. Let’s see if this Garden Fresh Egg Sandwich has me humming in the meadows or wanting to bury it out back.
Ingredients
12-grain bread
Butter
2 eggs
Mustard
Baby spinach
Mint leaves
Strawberries, sliced thinly
Provolone cheese
Cinnamon
Step 1: Slice Strawberries
Step 2: Fry Eggs in Butter
Step 3: Spread Mustard
Step 4: Add Egg and Sprinkle Cinnamon
Step 5: Add Cheese
Step 6: Add Mint
Step 7: Add Strawberries
Step 8: Add Spinach
Finished Product
Taster’s Notes
This sandwich sure looked pretty, but it tasted…busy. The flavors didn’t mesh all that well. I’d begin chewing it and experience a distinct burst of mint, followed by a distinct burst of cinnamon, followed by a distinct burst of strawberry. I prefer to have flavors meld together in one harmonious whole. Perhaps I constructed the sandwich incorrectly? I did like how fresh the sandwich tasted. Great for a spring or summer day.
If you like distinct flavors when eating your sandwich, then you’ll enjoy this one; if not, I’d pass.
