The Dorchester, The Grill: British cooking, the Sunday roast, the pudding trolley and what it costs

The hotel’s page sets the room in a few details: softly lit lamps on white linen, sweeping burgundy curtains framing a copper pudding bar, deep red leather booths and chefs cooking in full view. The hotel calls the mood informal, and its dining FAQ files the cooking as modern British, built on seasonal ingredients.

The kitchen is led by Martyn Nail, the hotel’s culinary director, who brings 40 years in luxury hotels and sets out his aim as celebrating «the best of the British grill tradition». Guests who wrote on Google between 2021 and May 2024 knew the room as The Grill by Tom Booton; the menus read for this page carry neither that name nor his.

The lunch and dinner menu begins with snacks and a seafood bar, 6 Carlingford oysters at £33 or a wild halibut ceviche at £25, and starters such as Welsh rarebit with pickled walnut at £23 and steak tartare with a Bloody Mary dressing at £29. From the grill come a 10oz sirloin at £55, a fillet at £65, a ribeye at £68 and a whole native lobster with chilli and garlic butter at £98; to share, a Beef Wellington at £128 and a 16oz Chateaubriand with seared foie gras at £135. Dover sole, grilled or meunière, is £75, and the beef dripping chips £12.

Most puddings on that menu cost £15, from a peach Melba and an Eton mess with Kent strawberries to a praline chocolate mousse with hazelnut ice cream; the restaurant’s page promises spoonfuls of chocolate mousse from the pudding trolley at the end of an evening. An espresso martini affogato is £16, and British cheeses with fig chutney £21.

On Sundays the roast menu adds 5 roasts «with all the trimmings»: Aberdeen Angus sirloin at £65, Kent lamb at £60, Devonshire chicken at £50, a chestnut roast at £38 and a Beef Wellington for 2 at £140, with a cauliflower cheese for 2 at £15. The menu’s own motto: «London, too busy to rest, but never too busy for a roast».

At lunch the luncheon menu, printed as a sample, sets 3 or 4 choices a course, from Cornish octopus carpaccio to grilled lamb gigot with smoked aubergine and a confit tuna Niçoise; the Chateaubriand with peppercorn sauce costs a £25 supplement.

Once a month in 2026, Ronnie Scott’s brings live jazz to the room. Its residency, with Ruinart champagne, pairs a singer with Martyn Nail’s 3-course dinner from 6.30pm to 10pm: Natalie Duncan on 28 October, Frances Madden on 25 November and Emma Smith on 8 December.

Guests on Google remember the people as much as the plates. One, in August 2026, was shown round the restaurant and the wine cellar by the junior sommelier; another, in March 2024, came early for lunch, was given a martini at the bar while the table was readied, and recommends the steak tartare and the chicken. A guest writing in August 2025 had ordered the Wellington ahead, and the chef came out to present it; on a Monday in June 2025 an early lunch found the room nearly empty and the food stunning.

Savoy Grill, run by Gordon Ramsay Restaurants at The Savoy, puts its Beef Wellington at the heart of the menu and serves late: until midnight from Monday to Saturday, with a break between lunch and dinner from Monday to Thursday, and until 11.30pm on Sundays. The Savoy asks guests to dress elegantly and keeps no formal dress code.

The Connaught Grill, reimagined by John Heah, cooks over a wood-burning grill in an open kitchen; its Sunday roast is carved at the table from a silver trolley, and its crêpe suzette is flamed beside you. It serves lunch on Saturdays and Sundays only.

The Ritz Restaurant holds 2 Michelin stars and requires gentlemen to wear a jacket and tie at lunch and dinner; its Arts de la Table menu finishes each dish at the table on a guéridon.