Gilbert's Restaurant

Angiel

24th September 2009

0 found this helpful

Gilbert's looks like a fine place to go and get a bite to eat and chat. Wish I lived in London.

Angella

Excellent food, elegant surroundings, good service 22nd September 2009

0 found this helpful

The restaurant has a separate entrance on the left of the historic hotel whose library bar serves a one course midweek lunch at £8. But for £9.95 you could have a two course lunch in the grand Gilbert Restaurant, offered most weeks except the busy Xmas month of December. My photos show you the seats I like most, tables 9 and 10 by the fireplace. Tables by the window overlook the lawn which is good in summer. The table where I sat in the back left overlooks some of the car parking spaces, if you want to watch your car.
Of course they ask if you want a pre-dinner drink, which adds to the price. If you're not driving, it's £5 for a glass of rose wine, £6 for a glass or sparkling champagne. The bread with currants and walnuts was delicious and filling.
You could almost keep it for dessert. And they offered me another roll to go with the main course.

My starter was the duck and bacon pate. My main course was chicken with polenta, apparently flavoured with a mild Irish blue cheese called Cachel. I can't say I tasted the cheese, and the polenta had been pureed to lose its consistency, which was a pity. But you certainly felt you had a meal prepared by a chef - not what most restaurants offer - the usual microwaved bagged meal defrosted by somebody who can't read instructions. I'd eaten a bread roll and a starter and only managed half the main course - I'd already succumbed to the temptation of dessert.

They willingly wrapped up my leftovers in a silver foil package shaped like a basket. So my lunch, although I opted for the dearer three courses and coffee with petits fours, at nearly £20 including service, provided two meals.

The dessert I chose was the baked cheesecake, New York style, they claim. Yes, it was baked, and did taste of cheese, unlike those awful blancmange style imitations that some restaurants defrost. It wasn't the gateau height of a Starbucks cheesecake, nor the crumbly consistency, but it was warm and it did disappear fast. The spun sugar on top was a surprise and delight to the eye, though it does glue your teeth together.

Finally, the coffee with petits fours. The coffee was in an individual plunger. The plunger device was marked three cups. It filled two average size cups to the brim. They delivered coffee with a jug of milk plus brown sugar lumps without my having to request either.

The bill arrived with a comment card.

Super Service
The girl who greeted me warmly assured me that I was not too late, pointed to a corner table but offered me a choice of tables, and remembered that I wanted to keep my menu to consider the dessert so that when the manager whisked the menu away she told him and he brought it back.

The manager checked that I was happy with each dish. Whenever I raised a finger for anything such as to order, see the menu, or get the bill, I got instant attention.
The manager was chatty after the meal when I felt like a chat.

The girl who'd served fetched me a brochure on the history of the building from the entrance hall in another part of the hotel. So I read about the Gilbert & Sullivan operas and films made in the building, including episodes of Dr Who.

For me the best part of the meal was what I learned from the restaurant manager. He told me how he'd been taught to lay a table, with the cutlery one centimetre or a thumbnail in from the edge of the table, so it all lined up neatly.

He also watched his staff and once saw somebody vacuuming without looking at the floor to check. He told them not to look the other way but see what needed doing and that they'd done it. Hm! Now I know why some restaurants have cleaners who don't actually clean the corners, the edges, under the banquettes etc. A revelation.

The petits fours were both chocolate, proper chocolate. I'd have preferred two different items, perhaps one chocolate and one marzipan, or one chocolate and one Florentine biscuit.

Afterwards I walked around the gardens photographing flowers. Some diners opted to have their coffee and petits fours outdoors overlooking the lawn, either to enjoy the sunshine or the view or to smoke.

I saw the four-poster bedrooms including the upstairs room which has Gilbert's grand fireplace, and some motel style rooms in the annexe.

All in all, a very satisfactory meal at a moderate price for what I got. You could opt for their £20 bargain Sunday 3 course Sunday lunch ( time limits - see their website). The website has lots of offers including dinner, bed and breakfast and the offers vary daily, depending how busy they are, so, as the website suggests, it's always worth asking.