Restaurants

You can’t very well complain about the Vincent Rooms – the food’s too good and the prices too low. It’s where students (waiters and chefs) get to practise their trade at this catering college, whose alumni include Jamie Oliver. Booking is tricky, with odd opening hours during term-time only, but you can eat in the brasserie or the posher Escoffier restaurant. Only more experienced students are unleashed on the public, so standards are consistently high. In the brasserie you may get baked duck egg and spiced tomato cannellini beans, fennel and lemon pot-roasted pork loin, or passion-fruit crème brûlée. In the Escoffier it’s a full-blown three-course set menu bookended by exquisite canapés and coffee or tea with petits fours. After starters of seared scallops, and rabbit loin, then mains of john dory with cockle and clam fricassee, and chicken bordelaise, we were impressed. Following on with frangipane cake and raspberry mousse from the dessert trolley (there’s also a cheeseboard), we were gorged too. Maybe the artichoke was stringy. Maybe the rooms feel like a school hall. Maybe the wine list (£11-£20) is too short, but at £22.50 this is among the best-value set menus in town.

Time Out Eating & Drinking Guide 2009