Restaurants

At Boxwood Café they aim for a relaxed alternative to the buttoned-up formality of other hotel dining rooms. Yet despite this, it’s still remarkably easy to spend £130 on a meal for two here. Still it attracts many with its approachable menu of ponced-up favourites, such as the signature veal and foie gras burger, and tagliolini with langoustine. Our waiter provided a commentary on every item we ordered before writing it down (‘the ceviche contains raw salmon, madam’), then dishes were brought so swiftly it threatened to detract from our enjoyment of the comfortable, silvery-walled split-level room. Smoked salmon and sevruga caviar croque-monsieur was fine but its side salad was low on the promised walnuts and featured cardboard-like apple. Better was the lamb – braised neck and roasted saddle – though the spoonful of girolle and white bean ‘cassoulet’ was mean. Vegetarians are well catered for and other diners who want extra veg will find a choice of three or four sides. A very good dark chocolate fondant came with rock-solid ‘iced’ almond milk that really should have been churned into ice-cream. The fun of having hot fresh doughnuts with coffee milkshake for pudding was tempered by their blandness – we longed for a hint of cinnamon in the sugar coating. Wines start at £20 a bottle: it was worth paying extra for the smooth bliss of our Argentinian malbec at £28.

Time Out Eating & Drinking Guide 2009