Private Members' Clubs

[boomurphy]

Dear all

I write a restaurant blog for vogue.com - (http://www.vogue.co.uk/blog/boos-reviews/) generally shepherding scary birds from C Nast around expensive restaurants and writing about shoes. I've been doing it for a year now, still largely clueless but having a blast and enjoying learning the ropes.

I've been asked to write a piece on food in members' clubs, just gathering my thoughts & wondered if any recommendations? Over the past year or so I've tried:

Groucho - mostly terrible. Restaurant upstairs sometimes okayish but they suffer with the kitchen being so far away. Brasserie is OK for a burger, but generally it's pricey and the service can be awful.

Garrick - What a wine list (thanks AA Milne) but the food is just awful. Definitely don't expect to see many vogue readers under the stairs drinking port.

Soho House - Of course you have to be wasted to go there in the first place, can't remember eating anything there but suppose I have.

2Brydges - do you know this place, at the back of the ENO? It's great fun, very charming - but aside from a couple of old school classics, pretty disappointing.

Shoreditch House - Henry Higgins, ex-Racine dude heads it up now I think. I like his style, haven't eaten there yet though.

Home House - best I found so far, was at a party there last week and had a wonderful suckling pig.

outside London recommendations welcome too.

Interested to know your thoughts on the whole club restaurant concept. The captive audience can really lower standards. Difficult to attract decent chefs to a place which is unlikely to get much exposure.

The Ivy are doing it the other way around of course, with a members club opening upstairs in the Spring.

Boo

[Infrasonic]

Review St James club Mcr.

Whilst not fine dining, Gordo had an old fashioned vegetable soup which pressed his buttons nicely, followed by a cracking chicken pie with celeriac mash. Really good that one. Instead of a traditional pudding we were served a savoury, Welsh rarebit. Gordo used to have savouries at The Connaught, you don’t see them anymore. This one had been made with a good cheese, beer and Worcester sauce, melted onto toast and finished under the grill. Proper stuff. The staff are delightful, which does translate into highly professional service.

Mind you, I think the author was angling for a membership.

Edited December 2, 2007 by Infrasonic (log)

[BertieWooster]

He certainly was! The food at St James is pretty dire.

I always found both White's (on the whole two occassions I've been there!) and the Reform to be good food in English public-school style. Which means they do proper puddings. And have great cellars.

The INstitute of DIrectors is good too....

[Jon Tseng]

You need to be careful whether you are talking dining clubs (a la mosimanns), modern or showbizzy private members clubs (home house, groucho etc) or traditional st james members clubs.

On the subject of the latter I've been to the Carlton Club. Only ate off the late night menu but the food is relatively dire.

I'm a member of the East India Club and the food is reliably decent. Used to be terrible but they changed the chef five or six years ago. Traditional English standards in the main. The other benefit is they serve vintage port by the glass at roughly close to cost (it was Warre's '77 but they've probably moved onto a different vintage by now).

J

PS you also might want to think about Mortons, the members club in the Greenhouse/Umu stable. I've never been but imagine the food would be top notch. The current Greenhouse chef Antoine Bonnet was chef at Mortons before he moved across to replace Bjorn vanderwhathisface.

[jackal10]

I am a member of the Atheneum. The food is excellent, in an updated traditional English style. The wine even better.

[Gareth]

I am a member of the National Liberal Club.

The food I think follows the pattern of the other London Clubs (other than the specifically dining clubs), that is to say it is (perforce) very conservative in it selection and can be inconsistent. I have had both very fine meals there and others best forgotten in a hurry. Interestingly, the service has changed very much for the better as more and more of the younger, eastern European contingent have replaced some of the old-stagers.

The NLC has what I would describe as a workman-like wine list (I should also declare an interest as a member of the wine committee that chooses it !). Not having the royalties of AA Milne, or the equity of the RAC floatation to fall back on, it is absent any fine cellar (which is not to say that you can't find a few decent bottles on the list !). The commercial realities are also interesting, with wine sales being absolutely dominated by the 'club wines' (i.e. the equivalent of the house red or white) and the 'club claret' in particular which outsells anything else by an order of magnitude. Most of the rest of the business is conducted that the £15 - £25 mark (list price).

However, one thing that really sets it apart is the dining room which I think provides one of the most magnificent settings in which to have a meal in London ! For those IT enabled, the virtual tour is here: NLC Dining Room

I was interested in what Boomurphy had to say

Difficult to attract decent chefs to a place which is unlikely to get much exposure.

because I always wondered with this kind of club position would be a "don't touch with a bargepole" proposition for any aspiring chef or, alternatively, a very good place to take a first job as head chef, building experience before going on to open somewhere and putting your own investment on the line.

Gareth

[Tim Hayward]

As an ex adman I can only vouch for the clubs that would happily extend membership to single-nostriled pondscum. I used to be a member of Century a regular at SH and an occasional at the Groucho. All serve a roughly interchangeable menu - a sort of unchallenging irony-enriched, steak and fat chips for people who've been a bit lost since the Ivy and sockless loafers were the cutting edge.

Century's rooftop bar/dining area is the only exceptional bit. Competent gastropub food can be just the right thing when you've sunk a few martinis and the stars are out.

All have lovely smooth flat tops on their cisterns.

[rjs1]

Garrick - What a wine list (thanks AA Milne) but the food is just awful.  Definitely don't expect to see many vogue readers under the stairs drinking port.

Thanks also to David Peppercorn MW, whom I think is still  the leading light on the Garrick wine committee.

Food has always been moderately vile when I've been there, but it's been a while...

When I worked with St James club types, which is a few years ago now, Boodles always had by far the best food.

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[martinwa]

Blacks, directly opposite the dreadful Groucho, has been my hidey hole for years. Perfectly good grub at lunch at about 12 quid for two courses, a bit more in the evening. Best though is a cracking and not exorbitant wine list full of interesting and unusual bottles put together by Giusseppe.

Blacks is in an old Georgian terraced house and the interior has a preservation order on it. It's dark and cosy and definitely more a winter place. Completely different from those awful glass and chrome places. It's also very camp in the evening, especially at the weekend. Those scary birds from Vogue would love it.

[ravelda]

Agree with Jon on East India club - food is decently reliable, pretty traditional English fair with a few exceptions such as curry. High Road House falls in the same camp with traditional bistro food done well - service is the let down there, but they do really good chips!! Morton's is good as ever, RAC club hit and miss, most of the time average pedestrian but safe food. I've had some very good meals at the IoD. Went for the opening of the Caledonian club's new dining facility and that too was pretty good by club standards - I believe the chef is ex Savoy group.

Hmm, that's all I can think of that haven't already been covered above - will post again if I think of any others!

[Andy Lynes]

Shoreditch House - Henry Higgins, ex-Racine dude heads it up now I think. 

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He must fit that in between giving Eliza Doolittle elocution lessons I suppose.

[Matthew Grant]

[Stigand]

Home House does an addictive cheeseburger with smoked cheddar, and serves abundant Twiglets with cocktails. Whether this justifies the membership fees is another question.

[Catriona]

The Cuckoo Club's food isn't bad, though nothing earthshattering. Pleasant enough, but it's light years from being somewhere I would feel comfortable.

Lots of blondes in spaarkly dresses dancing on tables downstairs.

Service in the restaurant is charming, dramatically different downstairs.

[Hallie]

Blacks, directly opposite the dreadful Groucho, has been my hidey hole for years. Perfectly good grub at lunch at about 12 quid for two courses, a bit more in the evening. Best though is a cracking and not exorbitant wine list full of interesting and unusual bottles put together by Giusseppe.

Blacks is in an old Georgian terraced house and the interior has a preservation order on it. It's dark and cosy and definitely more a winter place. Completely different from those awful glass and chrome places. It's also very camp in the evening, especially at the weekend. Those scary birds from Vogue would love it.

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I adore Blacks. It's probably Soho's most characterful and down to earth club but by God is the food dire. I went to lunch there a few months ago and was served one of the worst pieces of fish I'd ever smelled. The bread was stale and the salad consisted of wilted leaves and a knob of drippy goat's cheese. Great people watching though.

[harryb]

Another place to check out is the Chelsea Arts Club - I ate there a while back and was favourably impressed. I've heard good things about it since, but sadly have not been back.