Contents
Something between a sports bar and a restaurant with a touch of Gordon Ramsay style.
Restaurant Details
Average Price per person (no alcohol): $30-50
Address: 10-13 Grosvenor Square, Mayfair, London W1K 6JP, United Kingdom.
Website: https://www.gordonramsayrestaurants.com/gordon-ramsay-bar-grill/
Telephone: +44 20 7495 2211
Date Visited: 22nd December 2019
I have to admit I am myself a fan of Gordon Ramsay, I started watching his shows years ago and I still follow him in different social networks (he is famous for his tweets too). He is not a super revolutionary chef but more of a classic. He is famous for being consistent with his not very large menus that deliver quality experience across all his outlets. He has enlarged the fame of dishes like the Beef Wellington or the Fish and Chips, without forgetting some British classics like the Sunday Dinner.
Being in London we wanted to give a try to one of his Maze Grill’s but due to some circumstances, we had to choose a Bar & Grill, which seems to be a more casual version of his restaurants.
Place
The bar/restaurant is located inside the London Marriott Hotel Grosvenor Square. It has a cosy dining room with some screens like a sports bar, the dining room is rectangular with a semi-open kitchen on one of the sides and a cocktail bar on the other.
The cutlery and plates were well-made but the table was not decorated. The menus are the paper table covers which is something I do not like much because you need to remove the plate every time you want to check something. Also, not very fancy for a restaurant inside a five stars hotel.
This place is popular and not very big so if you want to make sure you get a table you should book. You can do it here
Service
We booked in advance and we were received in some sort of small reception which is after the stairs. I am not sure if there is an elevator for better accessibility, but I am certain there is another door to enter the restaurant at the end of the dining area. They asked us for our Coats and took us to our round table.
They wear casual uniforms, jeans and shirt.
There is a good amount of staff working here and they don’t seem to be organized by sectors. If I counted well we were served by like five different people during our meal.
Overall the staff was quite serious and not very smiley. I am not saying they were sad but they didn’t seem to be very happy. We could feel it during several phases of our lunch with things like removing the plates before finishing our food or poor announcement of dishes (they gave us a brownie that they announced as chocolate ice cream)
The service is also in the border of being slow, long time to take the order, and also slow to deliver the food. Not expecting it to be a fast food place but somehow felt it was slow.
Food
As expected the menu was not large, this is something Ramsay stress in all his public appearances, and I fully agree, you don’t need a huge menu to excel. There was several of his best sellers on it.
We ordered an assortment of plates to be able to try more things. I would have loved to order his flagship, the Beef Wellington, but it means we wouldn’t be able to try other dishes.
Smashed Avocado & Sweet Potato Crisps
The avocado lacked taste, even salt, it was served in a bowl where you have to mash it yourself after adding lime. The sweet potato chips were crunchy, they would crack in your mouth with that sweetness and saltiness altogether, really liked them.
Chilli & Garlic Prawns
The sauce is similar to a chicken butter Indian sauce which is something delicious when it is well done. It was super creamy, with a touch of spicy but without being hot. It came with roasted/grilled bread and burnt lemon. The bread was crunchy and we indeed order some more, you really have to dip in that creamy buttery red sauce. The burnt lemon smell well but I am not sure what you need to do with it, the waiters didn’t say anything about it so we left it there thinking that could be a decoration. We enjoyed the dish a lot.
Lobster Roll
Another flag from Gordon Ramsay’s restaurants. The cocktail sauce is delicious, creamy and really tasty, you could feel that this is not just mayo and ketchup, there is orange juice and I believe cognac on it. It is one of these sauces you never get tired of eating. There were some chunks of lobster and avocado, but for a Lobster Roll, we missed a bit more of lobster on it. The bun seemed to be the same as the brisket but I would have expected and loved some differentiation here with the buns. It is a nice sandwich anyways.
BBQ Brisket Bun
We got this one to compare it with something we have had a few days before at Smokestak and it lost in the comparison, to the point that I was a bit upset. The bun was nothing special, cold and super bready. The meat was well done, I mean the brisket was tender and you can see the fibres perfectly separated, but the sauce that they used is too sweet. It is one of this very sweet bbq sauces that kills any taste of meat there might be underlying. IT is served with a small pot with coleslaw which was fine. I believe there is quite a lot to improve in this dish starting from the bread and continuing with the sauce. Maybe the chef could pay a visit to Smokestak for an outstanding brisket bun 🙂
Mac & Cheese
It is one of Ramsay’s flagship’s that is sold as a side dish, so we ordered aside to try it. Very creamy, tasty, with gratin cheese on top, served on a cute mini iron cast pot. It met the expectations.
Passion Fruit Pavlova
I like desserts with passion fruit, they give the tropical taste to anything. You can put passion fruit on absolutely anything and you will never get it wrong. The Pavlova was well prepared, the meringue was crunchy and there is a good balance between the sourness of passion fruit and the blandness of the meringue.
Nicely shaped Pavlova 
The passion fruit seeds and the vanilla creme are good
Chocolate Brownie
This is the plate we somehow confused with the chocolate ice cream we ordered for our daughter. The waiter drops the plate in the table and said chocolate ice cream so we gave it to the little girl, who devoured it. Trusting in the good taste of my daughter I would say it was a good brownie 😃
Kids: Breaded Chicken & Fries
It was served with green peas, the chicken was nicely breaded but a bit overcooked, on the verge to be burnt, and the portion was generous. Fries seemed frozen and the peas were just that, peas 🙂
Is worth mentioning that Kids eat for free at this restaurant.
What we liked
- Cosy atmosphere
- Gordon Ramsay bestsellers fulfil the promise
Where to improve
- A better service: better organized and more motivated towards customer satisfaction
- That sugary BBQ sauce
- The buns!
Rating 6/10
Overall we enjoyed the experience, but some things could be better without big changes. Small details like the bread or the menus make a difference in the end. I have only been in another restaurant from Gordon Ramsay and it was at Heathrow airport so I don’t have a good baseline to compare but all in all, I would have expected a little bit more from one of my culinary idols.
