Wiltons Restaurant

Wiltons

For those of you that are new to Wiltons welcome, to those who are familiar with the restaurant, “welcome home”.

Since 1742 Wiltons has been synonymous for the finest oysters, wild fish and game and traditional, courteous, hospitality.

The British menu aims to offer the freshest fish, game and meats from the very best fleets and farms the United Kingdom has to offer.

Wiltons still very much recognises and respects its origins, serving the finest Oysters from the British Isles since gaining our first Royal Warrant for supplying Oysters to the Royal household in 1836.

http://www.wiltons.co.uk

Wiltons

For those of you that are new to Wiltons welcome, to those who are familiar with the restaurant, “welcome home”.

Since 1742 Wiltons has been synonymous for the finest oysters, wild fish and game and traditional, courteous, hospitality.

The British menu aims to offer the freshest fish, game and meats from the very best fleets and farms the United Kingdom has to offer.

Wiltons still very much recognises and respects its origins, serving the finest Oysters from the British Isles since gaining our first Royal Warrant for supplying Oysters to the Royal household in 1836.

reviews & awards

Wiltons, St James's, London SW1, restaurant review - Telegraph

Daily changing set lunch menu, £45 for three courses (with two glasses of wine, half a bottle of water, and tea or coffee) "Good morning, sir,” said a dark grey suit by the oyster bar at the front of Wiltons in St James’s as I walked in.

“Good morning sir,” said a green gingham dress (the uniform of the Wiltons waitress).

“I can’t tell you how thrilled I am to be back here after so many years,” said Robin, an old family friend and my senior accountant, as I joined this intergenerational lunch with him, his son Alistair (junior accountant) and my own pater.

“I’ll have the wild smoked salmon,” said Robin, beaming at a menu eschewing any hint of voguishness to concentrate on the luxuriously plain dishes (oysters, fish, roasts and game) Wiltons has done so well for so long.

My father loved his ruby red slices of Fallow deer venison while, this being Wiltons in the game season, I had the roast grouse with all the trimmings (fried, crushed oatcake known as gravel, bread sauce, rich wine gravy and its own wickedly rich livers on toast).

Wiltons restaurant review 2010 April London | British Cuisine | food ...

The menu majors on fish and didn’t stint on the price, with smoked eel at £17, wild turbot at £44 (per person), and vegetables at £5 each.

Yes, it is possible to do even better (the baby Dover sole at Nico’s in the early 1990s, the lovely turbot that they cook at the Sportsman), but this was most enjoyable.

For dessert, apple crumble was enjoyable if unremarkable, with good vanilla ice cream, Rhubarb trifle was also very pleasant, though for me this was a drop in gear compared to the main course (13/20).

The produce was of a very high standard, and although the prices were to match I have much less problem with being charged a lot of money for top class turbot or wild smoked salmon than some of the prices that I see in London now for very cheap bistro ingredients in some places.

The bill, with no pre-dinner drinks and one of the cheapest wines on the list, was £127 a head for three courses and coffee.

Wiltons, an almost entirely flawless institution | The Spectator

I ate the Christmas lunch at Harveys Nichols 5th Floor Restaurant, Knightsbridge, next to a roof garden sponsored by Nutella chocolate spread.

I decide to review a proper restaurant: Wiltons in Jermyn Street, St James’s.

But the street clings hard to this fantasy, with windows full of bathrobes that look like exploded country gardens, and A.A. Gill tribute smoking jackets, and red trousers and Hooded Claw hats.

Wiltons made a thinly disguised appearance in Jeffrey Archer’s political novel A Matter of Honour, as Walton’s.

Wiltons really is a posh English restaurant, and it has the confidence — the subtlety and the authenticity — not to dress as a Christmas cracker.

Wiltons, St James's, London SW1, restaurant review - Telegraph

Daily changing set lunch menu, £45 for three courses (with two glasses of wine, half a bottle of water, and tea or coffee) "Good morning, sir,” said a dark grey suit by the oyster bar at the front of Wiltons in St James’s as I walked in.

“Good morning sir,” said a green gingham dress (the uniform of the Wiltons waitress).

“I can’t tell you how thrilled I am to be back here after so many years,” said Robin, an old family friend and my senior accountant, as I joined this intergenerational lunch with him, his son Alistair (junior accountant) and my own pater.

“I’ll have the wild smoked salmon,” said Robin, beaming at a menu eschewing any hint of voguishness to concentrate on the luxuriously plain dishes (oysters, fish, roasts and game) Wiltons has done so well for so long.

My father loved his ruby red slices of Fallow deer venison while, this being Wiltons in the game season, I had the roast grouse with all the trimmings (fried, crushed oatcake known as gravel, bread sauce, rich wine gravy and its own wickedly rich livers on toast).

Wiltons, London SW1 – restaurant review | Marina O'Loughlin | Life ...

Back then, the place's almost exclusively male stuffiness made me feel like a naughty schoolgirl, a stereotype I imagine the designers of the female staff's uniforms discarded before deciding on an outfit that says "nanny with medical skills" in shades of Germolene and Pepto-Bismol.

I have lobster and caviar omelette (swoon), swollen with seafood, lounging in a pool of invigorating bisque, its surface so impossibly smooth, it looks airbrushed.

It's about the customer, about making them feel like the potentates they probably are, about setting up their bloody marys and black velvets as soon as they walk in the room.

We choose mostly the cheapest options – the set lunch, a 44 quid bottle of Torroxal albariño from the scaredy-cat's end of the wine list, only one pudding from the set menu (a crème brûlee as stout and stiff as some of the customers, with peepshow pink rhubarb sorbet and compote), no aperitif, no coffee, no liqueur.

Yes, yes, the lobster and caviar omelette: but at £31 it's way less than the £49 grilled turbot or £46 "seafood salad" starter – what's in it, unicorn de mer?