It seems the fate of most hotel restaurants to find their dining rooms hard to fill. Set up within the Kimpton Fitzroy - and in the very same spot where seafood restaurant Neptune once stood and subsequently fell - is Galvin Bar and Grill.
As one fifth of the renowned Galvin family, where two sibling sites have Michelin stars, hopes were understandably high. The vast dining room seems to have had money thrown at it, with a roaring fire at one end and an open kitchen at the other, plus all the bells and whistles in between - by which we mean very lovely jewel-toned banquette seating. The space having been opened up completely did make it feel slightly sparsely populated on our visit, meaning we missed the usual background buzz of diners.
The menu is pleasantly familiar with potted crab benefitting from a flavoured butter top and the crunch of sea vegetable garnishes, plus classic melba toast for starters. With grill in the restaurant’s title, it felt near compulsory to plump for a steak for mains which happily came perfect cooked with that unmissable charred flavour. At over £40 for a sirloin, it feels slightly immoral that chips aren’t included, but the year is 2022 and the postcode is WC1. Thankfully the béarnaise sauce is buttery (a theme throughout the menu now we think of it, which is no bad thing) and the mushroom garnish is gorgeous and golden. Plus, we couldn’t even finish the chips thanks to the generous cut of meat, so maybe our greediness doesn’t have a leg to stand on.
Staff didn’t miss a beat, on hand throughout to field our questions and make recommendations, and if you have the time the bar next door does a great cocktail for pre- or post-prandial drinking.
While Galvin Bar & Grill felt more a meal of convenience thanks to its hotel location, rather than a gastronomic destination in its own right, we couldn’t find fault with the cooking, and we have every hope it will fare better than its predecessor.