The new restaurant at the recently rebranded Grosvenor
House, a JW Marriott Hotel opened on Thursday (7 November).
Corrigan’s Mayfair is the latest venture from Dublin-born chef Richard Corrigan, his fourth restaurant after the Michelin-starred Lindsay House, which will close when its lease expires in May 2009, and Bentley’s Oyster Bar & Grill in both London and Dublin. The restaurant is on the original site of Chez Nico at 90 Park Lane, though the remodelled restaurant has a new entrance round the corner at 28 Upper Grosvenor Street.
The head chef is Chris McGowan (previously at Lindsay House)
with the restaurant manager Jacques Dejardin, previously at the Gaucho Grill in
Swallow Street, London. The food is Irish / British, with
an emphasis on game, wild fish and seafood with typical dishes being butter
poached haddock, lobster, creamed parsnip (£18.50) or poached turbot (on the
bone) with horseradish butter (£24). Saddle of hare with chestnut and bread stuffing
is £15, and grouse pie £21. Starters are £6-£18; mains £13.50-£24 and dessert
£5.50-£7.50. There is a set lunch of two courses for £19.50. Head sommelier
Andrea Briccarello has devised a list of 280 wines with prices starting at
£19.50, 20 of which are available by the glass (from £5.60).
The restaurant’s designer is Martin Brudnizki (St Pancras
Grand) with blue leather banquettes, and oak flooring, and an emphasis on quiet luxury, with much of the art in the restaurant coming from Richard Corrigan’s own collection. The restaurant has seating for
70, with a further 11 at the bar, and eight in the lounge. There is a Club Room
looking onto the kitchen, and the Lindsay
Room can accommodate up
to 30. Unusually, despite there being an internal connecting entrance between
the JW Marriott and the restaurant, guests will have to exit the hotel and walk
around to enter via the main entrance on Upper Grosvenor Street. Stranger still,
hotel guests will not be able to sign for their meals to be added to their
hotel bill. Nevertheless, fans of Corrigan’s particularly meticulous emphasis
on the provenance of local food (over 20 supplies of fish have been used for
the restaurant’s menu) and classy location and design will be pleased that the
Lindsay House spirit will continue.
28 Upper Grosvenor Street, Mayfair 020 7499 9943
