Great Queen Street

Reviews

• Greatest

  This is the sister restaurant to one of my favourite tables in London - The Anchor and Hope.Everything is the same in terms of great bourgeois cooking and well chosen and resonably priced wines and beers.Last night which was pretty cold I had a very light beetroot soup with sour cream and dill followed by a superb ox cheek stew with (real) chips followed by a sublime seville orange and almond tart served with a scoop of home made vanilla ice cream ! Outstanding !The main difference with the Anchor is that you can book and of course the location is better if you work nearby or happen to be a Mason !

  Gastro1
  Review Date: 08/01/2009 Report review
• The best of British

  Tempted by the positive reviews here, I tried out this restaurant on a busy Friday night recently and wasn't disappointed. Not with the restaurant, anyhow.Having not pre-booked a table, we were offered seats along the bar on tall barstools. This proved an excellent spot in terms of getting the attention of the staff, although those with delicate digestive systems may find it uncomfortable sitting skewed round at an angle to the bar, particularly if - like us - you plan to munch your way through three courses.To start, my date ordered a hearty sweetcorn soup, the taste of which reminded me not unpleasantly of Sunday chicken roasts and sage and onion stuffing. I gleefully ordered three oysters which sent me into such raptures I couldn't help but wonder if there's some truth about their having aphrodisiac properties. If so, it was wasted on my date, who went on to casually mention during the main course that he was still sleeping with his ex. Nice!For the main course, my scumbag date ordered something that we weren't able to identify from the menu, but thought might be fish. It came with quince, which he liked, so that was the clincher for him. It turned out to be pork and apparently very nice indeed, despite not being fish. Playing it safe, I ordered skate wing with capers - one of my favourites, and delicious. Vegetables had to be ordered separately, which is always slightly hit and miss as it's difficult to gauge how much one needs. Taking the advice of our waiter, we just ordered a side of buttered new potatoes initially. This turned out to be woefully small and not enough on its own for two people, so we quickly ordered an extra side of white cabbage - a portion which proved inexplicably huge. It was all very tasty though.Wine is available by the carafe, which is a great choice for those wanting more than a glass each but less than a bottle.Not having much of a sweet tooth - and having somewhat lost my appetite by this stage, anyhow - I consoled myself with a large malt whisky while my erstwhile companion had, if I remember rightly, a poached pear with chocolate sorbet and ice cream.All in all a great choice. Unlike my date. NEXT!

  Lacrimosa
  Review Date: 06/10/2008 Report review
• Great stuff

  Like a celebrity wearing sunglasses indoors, 32 Great Queen Street likes to think it's something special, from the conspicuously nameless frontage and dark wood panelling. Inside however it's business as usual in the standard gastropub style - bare wood tables, rickety chairs, tumblers instead of wine glasses. It's a recipe that's worked well enough for its sister pubs the Anchor & Hope and Eagle, and judging by the noisy room full of happy customers on the evening we visited, it's got off to a very good start here too.The first thing I noticed after I'd sat down was that the room appeared to be full of chefs; it was only after a few minutes it dawned on me that the waiting staff all were wearing chef's aprons. I suppose this isn't a big deal but it made me slightly guilty trying to ask for something, as if I wasn't supposed to be bothering them. Still, I soon got over it.There were all sorts of interesting things on the minimalist menu - brawn, snails, fois gras, artichoke - quite an eclectic selection and it made exciting reading. However the trend towards stripped down descriptions of the items was a bit extreme. I had no idea what the 'Terrine' was a terrine of, or what 'crab on toast' was going to look like, but I suppose the mystery was appealing in a way. In the end I plumped for 'Brawn'.This looked lovely on the plate, a rustic presentation but just tidy enough, and having had no idea what to expect from the description in the menu I was very pleasantly surprised. The texture of the brawn itself (ironically a kind of terrine) was interesting, with some big chunks of meat held together by a tasty pate, and cutting through the fat was a good sharp spray of mustard vinaigrette. A perfect introduction to something I'd never tried before - subtle, herby and great fresh ingredients.The main was "Rabbit, snails and Spanish rice", so being the adventurous type I am it was a natural choice. It turned out to be a kind of risotto, bursting with gorgeous flavours and perfectly seasoned. The snails were superb, not drowned by the other ingredients at all, and nice and fleshy. In fact the only thing that stopped this dish short of perfection were a couple of horrible dry pieces of (I think) rabbit liver that I had to leave uneaten. Fair enough to use them in cooking the stock, but they had no place on the plate. Otherwise though, a good, bold main course.The dessert was another hit - a Muscat Caramel Custard which tasted rich and satisfying, even if it looked a bit saggy on the plate. I had this with a glass of Muscat dessert wine - why not? - but the £10 house white we had been chucking down our necks all evening was also perfectly good.It was about this time that I began to notice the overwhelming array of aromas filling the room from all the other dishes. Everything smelt incredible, of fresh ingredients and rustic French flavours; every time a waiter rushed past with another serving you could almost see other diner's nostrils flaring. Calm and sophisticated this restaurant is not, but for sheer exhilarating pleasure and market fresh food at very reasonable prices (the bill came to £38 each, including more than enough wine), you can certainly do no better in this part of town.

  Chrisp
  Review Date: 02/08/2008 Report review
• Great Queen Street...

  ...is great. Great food, service and atmosphere. Think meaty, meat dishes - great steaks, game, potted shrimps - very modern British, not cheap, but not too posh that you can't wear your jeans and Converse. It's not wholly necessary to make a reservation, which is great for the disorganised as you can just roll up, take a seat, have a few beers and wait for a table (or even better, a seat at the bar) to appear. To get an idea of what the place is like, the last time we went our waiter was a dead ringer in terms of looks, personality and outlook for Howard Moon in the Mighty Boosh.

  Jaime
  Review Date: 10/06/2008 Report review
• Great gastropub

  We’ve been meaning to try this restaurant for some time, and what better excuse than my recent birthday? I’d read some great reviews, and luckily it lived up to all expectations.Your first challenge though may be finding it! Don’t look for a sign outside, as there isn’t one. Instead you need to know that it’s on the north side of the street opposite the very grand Freemasons’ Hall. Inside, the welcome is friendly and the décor cosy – dark red walls, basic wooden tables, lots of bustle. This isn’t a place to come for elegance and style, or for a romantic date – it’s all about the food here!So, what about the food? The menu changes daily and is very seasonal, although I gather that some items are regular favourites. For our autumnal treat we chose: For me ~ celeriac soup with foie gras (a tasty disc floating in the centre which melted into the velvety soup); partridge on a bed of kale and other vegetables; prune & armagnac mousseFor Chris ~ snail & bacon salad (one of those regular favourites); pork with choucroute; chocolate puddingWe were also excited to see our favourite Austrian grape represented on the wine-list, a Blaufrankisch from Mittelburgenland, which didn’t disappoint. All in all, an excellent night out. The only shortcoming of this restaurant is its popularity. We’d booked an early evening table (7.00PM) and were encouraged to leave quite promptly after finishing our meal as others were waiting for tables, although I have to say we hadn’t been rushed during the meal. This small concern certainly wouldn’t stop me coming again however – in fact, I can’t wait to go back!

  Sarah_w
  Review Date: 07/12/2007 Report review
• Covent Garden Gastropub

  I was keen to try this place, after all the hype when it opened a few months back - it's run by the people behind the Anchor & Hope and the Eagle - both gastropubs I'm very fond of - but the bonus here is that you can book a table, rather than having to take your chances like you do at the Eagle, or wait at the bar for hours like you do in the Anchor & Hope.If you can find your way inside (it's difficult to find, being unmarked from the outside), the menu will seem familiar to anyone who's visited any of these other gastropubs - it changes daily and relies on in-season, British ingredients, and all looks so delicious that it's difficult to choose.The food definitely lived up to its promise - the six of us ordered lots of different dishes between us and there were excellent reviews all round - as did the wine list (wine is served rather bizarrely in little tumblers rather than wine glasses). The staff were extremely friendly and there is the same open-kitchen, relaxed feeling that you get in the Eagle.I didn't like the atmosphere quite as much as some other gastropubs though. I think this is basically because there is not really a proper bar area (though you can sit at the bar to eat or drink, there's no standing room), and you pretty much have to book - essentially it's not really a gastropub at all, more like a restaurant or brasserie. Also not so keen on all the dark red walls and dark wood floors and furniture - maybe in winter this will seem cosy, but on a summer evening it just seemed unecessarily gloomy. The quality of the food means I'd still visit again, though.

  Hazzabout
  Review Date: 11/08/2007 Report review
• Not your average Covent Garden restaurant

  I was eagerly anticipating our evening at Great Queen Street - not only was I going to spend some time wining and dining with loved ones, but I was also going to get to check out one of the current 'places to go'.Located a stones throw from Covent Garden, Great Queen Street is seemingly trying to keep a low profile, with no signage on the exterior. There was just a small menu stuck on the front window with the name, along with the tempting dishes on offer.On entering the red-walled, wooden floored, attractive space, I was momentarily taken-aback by the noise. Yep, this is a noisy place with no soft furnishings to help soak up the excited chatter. That said, the atmosphere was great, and the place was really buzzing at 7.30pm on a Monday night.The staff were wonderful - friendly, knowledgeable, helpful, patient. I wanted to become best friends with them all. The crowd was animated, with a good mix of after-workers, groups of friends, tables for two, and even one of the owners of Arbutus/Wild Honey was spied sitting at the bar with a mate.The menu was an intriguing mix of British fare, with dishes simply named, such as "Crab on Toast" or "Foie Gras" or "Cup of Gazpacho" - no need to ask for menu translations!There were six of us dining, and to start we all shared the Smoked mackerel, and two of the daily specials - the Snail salad, and the Pigeon bruscetta. The mackerel was deliciously smoky, and the pigeon even impressed our resident pigeon-phobe.For main course four of us shared the Seven hour neck of lamb and boulangere potatoes - what a great dish! The lamb was so tender, and the serve of potatoes was probably big enough to feed the whole restaurant! We also had the Braised shin of Hereford beef, and the Braised duck. These choices got the thumbs-up as well.Dessert finished off the meal perfectly, and included the Little chocolate pot, and a few scoops of the Banana & Caramel ice cream and the Pear & Vanilla sorbet.We had an excellent evening at Great Queen Street, though I wouldn't go there in a group again as the noise made it impossible for the whole table to participate in a conversation. Next time it will just be me and Alex, and a good bottle of red ; )

  Sue
  Review Date: 04/08/2007 Report review