The Wolseley Hotel & The Ritz Hotel – Mayfair – London – England – July 2017

Tags

dinner, expensive wine, Friends, London, Mayfair, The Ritz, The Wolseley Hotel, UK

Dinner with an Aussie and a Brit in London

I met two great expat girls in Beijing [one British and the other a New Zealander]; we hit it off and spent a lot of time together; travelling, eating out and drinking white wine! So when I found out I was travelling to London for holidays I contacted Annie my UK expat friend.  I also wanted to catch up with an Aussie friend Linda who is working in London and as they also knew each other we all decided to go out for dinner.

Annie booked the restaurant as she knew I was vegetarian and chose The Wolseley which has a very good vegetarian menu.  As soon as I walked in the front door I knew I had already been there –  for afternoon tea back in 2010 with my friend Sandy when we met in London to visit some friends.

We were seated at a small table near the front door; not ideal but the atmosphere is so lovely that I immediately forgot we didn’t have the best seats in the restaurant.

The table settings are lovely with old fashioned wine and champagne glasses and service throughout was very good.

We ordered an entree each and mine was eggs benedict; rather unimpressive I must say as the spinach was cold and the muffin very wet – love the crockery though!  For some reason I forgot to take photos of my friend’s dishes and now can’t recall what they were!

But I have photos of our main courses.  Annie’s was the schnitzel which was huge on the plate.

And Linda ordered the poached salmon…

Bread sticks were complimentary and we ordered a few sides; fries, baby carrots and peas and a broccolini gratin dish.

I do love how the lemon arrived in netting to catch the pips.

For my main meal I ordered a bun-less vegetarian burger which came out looking pretty good with some salad greens and tomato with a pesto type sauce.  It was ok.

Whilst I didn’t think the meals were that great, the restaurant is lovely and definitely worth a visit.  And if you want to spend up big, Beluga caviar is on the menu for around $500 AUD – for 50 grams.

We then left the restaurant and Annie asked if we wanted to drop into the Ritz Hotel, which was next door, for a glass of wine.  I hadn’t been there before so off we went and was rather excited.  We walked into a beautiful entrance draped with the British flag and a stunning hallway!

We were seated in a little bar area along the side of the hallway with a view of the dining area where we were able to listen to a quartet playing.

After we ordered our drinks, I took a walk along the hallway and saw the lift to the rooms; wow this was so beautiful inside I just had to take a photo.  Unlike any I have ever seen.

Then the bill arrived; yes it was certainly ‘Ritz’ prices – approximately $37 for a glass of wine…ah well I enjoyed the experience and so glad to have had the experience [if only once].