Not blue, but a bit boring
I took one of my friends to the Blue Boar for a slightly late birthday lunch. She’s gluten intolerant so it was a great option as there are loads of choices, both main and dessert, she could eat without any concern.
At 1pm on a Thursday afternoon the restaurant was almost empty – great for a nice quiet catch up chat, but it had zero atmosphere; no music, no view, no people watching etc., so a bit boring (boaring – sorry!).
The room itself is perfectly decent and ideal for the Westminster setting. I suppose you could call it an updated take on a gentleman’s club – though given how language changes unfortunately today that does rather suggest a lapdancing venue staffed entirely by blondes called Kandi and Beckii – fortunately it wasn’t anything like that. Do expect lots of subdued lights, dark wood, chocolate brown leather seating etc., but the staff are male and middle aged – and service is effective and efficient and wholly without any pole based gyrations, so not blue.
Food tends towards simple, old school, comfort eating. So expect things like steak and chips, sticky toffee pudding etc. In keeping with that I went for both those choices – a medium fillet steak (decent if a touch bland and not anywhere like as good as you’d get at Cut etc.) with triple cooked chips (amazing – almost as good as you get in Pollen Street Social, but annoying that you have to order them as a separate side dish at additional cost) and watercress and shallot salad – followed by a good (dense, lots of warm sauce) sticky toffee pudding with honeycomb ice cream. Food is fine, not exceptional but perfectly decent.
Value was alright, two lots of 2 courses, a couple of side dishes, 3 glasses of wine, service etc. came to just under £120.
I expect I will go again, but it’s a bit of an awkward market position, as the nearby Roux and the Cinnamon Club both tend to do better value set lunches and the food is generally better in either of them.