It's easy to be cynical about Gordon Ramsay. The shouty, sweary TV persona, the global business ups and downs… But there are some positives to consider.
Ramsay can cook. As in really cook (remind yourself of his CV sometime – it's remarkable reading). Restaurant Gordon Ramsay has held three stars for 22 years and counting. He's also a great spotter of talent: British restaurants would look very different without Angela Hartnett, Jason Atherton, Clare Smyth and Marcus Wareing.
It's that latter talent that's front and centre – and in the kitchen – at Restaurant 1890 by Gordon Ramsay. And it is, in a word, superb.
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Located just to the left of the American Bar, Restaurant 1890 is an intimate space (a mere 26 covers), that discreetly overlooks the entrance to The Savoy. Saying that, tables are large and well-spaced – the neighbours won't hear your conversation – but, while there's a whiff of luxury and distinct formality (this is The Savoy, after all), it's welcoming rather than austere, a mood helped, in no small part, by the personnel.
The Drinks
It's The Savoy (and cork-popping distance from the American Bar) so, obviously, the cocktail programme is impeccable.
However, Restaurant 1890's Head of Wine is Emanuel Pesqueira… which, in oenophile circles, is a bit like telling a rock fan that tonight's musical entertainment is Jimmy Page.
Pesqueira is regarded as one of the world's ten best sommeliers but, if you think that means you'll be made to feel like an imbecile, think again. Emanuel's enthusiasm is contagious whatever your knowledge of wine, whether he's talking you through his fascinating underwater ageing experiment (with the barnacle-crusted bottles to prove it), discussing the wine matching options (ranging from pretty-much-what-you-expect to a very on-brand £1890 per person), or pouring a glass from an 18 litre bottle (via a contraption Emanuel designed and built himself)…
(Image credit: Gordon Ramsay Restaurant 1890)
The Food
(Image credit: Gordon Ramsay Restaurant 1890)
Chef James Sharp has been part of Ramsay's stable for several years and has taken this step up and across in his stride. The menu is ostensibly a tribute to the Savoy's legendary chef, Auguste Escoffier, but, while it nods to Escoffier's traditional recipes and techniques, this is a very 21st century dining experience from canapés to petit fours.
The former - lobster cornetto, cheddar gougère, beef tartare with truffle and artichoke – are an indicator of what to expect: intense flavours married to exceptional technique and presentation. Cornish crab, Marcona almonds, Hollandaise sauce, is a joy. Bouillabaisse a la Marseillaise, Oscietra caviar is exceptional, and dotted with oh so perfectly cooked pieces of red mullet, scallop and langoustine. Squab pigeon, sweetcorn, girolles, sauce Périgueux is the stuff of which legends are made… Even the Parker House rolls are memorable not least that, as we try to refuse a second carb wave, we're tipped of that the next dish has a sauce we're really going to want to mop up. And it has. And we do.
The meal climaxes with a clever cheese course (a swirl of cult favourite Tête de Moine, alongside a crisp little salad of apple and kohlrabi) and a Raspberry Melba, a name that does the dish's complexity no service at all. It's my dessert of the year for about two minutes when that title is taken by 64% Manjari chocolate, hazelnut, cocoa nib about which, several weeks on, I still find myself thinking.
And with that, it's on to petit fours – Mandarin and juniper pate de fruits, Chivas XV and cacao macaron and, as the slight stand out, an egg custard tart. They're little marvels, packing more into their pound-coin-sized frames than seems logistically possible.
The menu is presented and you're sent on your way, delightfully fed, undoubtedly smiling, possibly wondering if that last two, three hours really existed and, almost certainly, wondering when you can do it again.
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