What: The next chapter in the Dorchester Grill’s 92-year history, The Grill by Tom Booton isn’t a new restaurant launch per se but is new in the sense that it now bears the name of its executive chef and has had a complete menu overhaul as a result and so worthy of a revisit.
Who: The clue’s in the name, with executive chef Tom Booton, who was named Chef to Watch at the 2021 Estrella Damm National Restaurant Awards, in charge of the food offer. Booton became the youngest chef to head up the kitchen at The Grill at The Dorchester in 2019 at the tender age of just 26 having previously worked at restaurants including Le Talbooth in Essex and L’Autre Pied and Dabbous in Fitzrovia. Under its new guise there have been a few personnel changes, with Adam Nevin, who was previously sous chef of The Grill, becoming head chef overseeing the young brigade of chefs within the kitchen. The dining room is led by general manager Mattia Marcelli with Leonardo Barlondi the restaurant’s head sommelier.
The food: While the dining room remains largely unchanged since the addition of Booton’s moniker above the door, the same can’t be said about the menu, which has been given an overhaul. Booton appears to have had a lot of fun injecting even more flair into his modern British menu with a small section of drink-friendly snacks appearing on the cocktail list that include a Welsh lamb belly skewer; and BBQ potato bread. The lunch and dinner menu starts with small plates that include a chopped raw scallop with peas, white asparagus, kombu and koshu; and black pudding on toast with confit egg yolk and pork fat with large plates such as poached cod with peas and brown shrimps; and a stone bass bouillabaisse. For those with a proper appetite – and you genuinely need one – there are also a number of sharing plates, the star of which is enticingly - and not misleadingly - called ‘all the chicken’ (pictured). Here a whole chicken is stuffed and roasted with the crown presented at the table alongside glazed wings and two small but tightly packed shortcrust pies. Booton is also in charge of The Grill’s breakfast menu and has clearly worked hard to breathe new life into the early morning offer with a range of pastries that include a double baked croissant ‘tarte tatin’ and a bacon, cheesy sauce and fried baked pastry; as well as truffled egg and soldiers; and omelette Arnold Bennet.
The vibe: The restaurant’s smart cream and brown and deep red interior remains as it was with a striking aged mirrored wall adding a feeling of opulence to the room. Booton has dispensed with the dessert counter that installed when he took over The Grill back in 2019 – despite continued efforts in the fine-dining area dessert bars have never quite taken off in the capital – and replaced it with a four-seat chef’s counter behind which sit an array of copper pastry moulds and cooking paraphernalia on shelves (see above). The overall effect is a grand dining room – albeit one on a surprisingly small scale – that suits Booton’s hearty yet refined style of cooking.
And another thing: Booton is the first chef to have his name above the door in The Grill restaurant’s 92-year history.
53 Park Lane, London, W1K 1QA