Six British Food Fortnight set menus in London, from £25
Eggs Drumkilbo in Belgravia, fish and chips by the Royal Mews, and a lunch that never sits still
British cooking in London runs from fish and chips to Eggs Drumkilbo, and British Food Fortnight is a good reason to eat across that range. These six set menus each serve a different version of it, from £25.
Two sit a few doors apart opposite the Royal Mews in Victoria: a hotel grill on former palace land and a bar serving fish and chips. In Smithfield, British cooking starts with the farm. In Bloomsbury, a bistro sits inside a row of Georgian townhouses built in 1806. There are more on every London lunch set menu.
01 | The Goring
Belgravia
Two or three courses £45 to £49, Mon to Fri, 12pm to 2.30pm.
Eggs Drumkilbo was the Queen Mother's favourite, and at The Goring it sits on the Chef's Lunch with Cornish crab and native lobster, for a supplement. This is the traditional version.The hotel has been open since 1910, run by four generations of one family. On the set lunch, a Welsh rarebit fritter comes with Hampshire watercress and a Guinness glaze, and British cheeses arrive from the trolley.
02 | bbar
Victoria
Two or three courses £25 to £30, Mon to Sun, Mon 4pm to 7pm, Tue to Sat 12pm to 7pm, Sun 12pm to 5pm.
Opposite the Royal Mews, bbar takes the other British tradition entirely: fish and chips, a sausage roll, treacle tart. It all happens beneath a living wall of more than 6,000 plants.
03 | The English Grill
Victoria
Two or three courses £29 to £35, Tue to Fri, 12.30pm to 2.30pm.
The Rubens at the Palace stands on land that was part of the grounds of Buckingham Palace in the 18th century, and it overlooks the Royal Mews, the entrance the royal family uses. The English Grill arrived with the hotel's 2018 restoration. Its signature is a Beef Wellington, which the hotel calls a celebration of British culinary heritage. The set lunch opens on Cornish crab bruschetta and closes on a baked vanilla cheesecake.
04 | The Blue Door Bistro
Bloomsbury
Two or three courses £35 to £40, Mon to Sun, 12.30pm to 2.30pm, 5.30pm to 10pm.
Three walls of The Blue Door Bistro carry a panorama of London as it looked around 1849, above mahogany panelling. The building is seven Grade II listed Georgian townhouses, first built in 1806. The table d'hôte itself ranges wider, with duck ragù strozzapreti and a butterscotch panna cotta with gingerbread crumb. A baked vanilla cheesecake closes this menu too, as it does at The English Grill. The hotel keeps beehives and a herb garden, and the kitchen often cooks from it.
05 | Portland
Marylebone
One to three courses £45 to £65, Tue to Sat, 12pm to 2.15pm.
Any description of Portland is a snapshot: the menu has changed every few weeks, sometimes every few days, since it opened in 2015. September's lunch runs to chalk stream trout with beurre blanc, saddle of lamb with beetroot and anchovy, and a peach pain perdu with brown bread ice cream. Harden's calls lunch "the value play".
06 | Restaurant St Barts
Smithfield
Three courses £60 to £130, Mon to Sat, 12pm to 2.15pm.
At Restaurant St Barts, British food starts with who grew it. The kitchen says it champions the small-scale farmers, growers and conservationists of this country, and it holds a Michelin Green Star for sustainable gastronomy beside its Michelin star. The one-hour Business Lunch is served at tables made from fallen London plane trees, looking onto the cloisters of St Bartholomew the Great, London's oldest church.
By October, Portland's lunch menu will have changed again.