The St Pancras Renaissance is a grand and imposing relic from the 19th century which has been going through a transformation since restauranteur and hotelier Harry Handelsman got his hands on the huge, 300-bedroom, Grade I-listed hotel in 2002.
As part of this restoration, the neo-gothic hotel is now home to two very handsome restaurants, both faithful tributes to the building’s heritage; the art deco beauty Booking Office 1869 which opened in 2021, and the recently opened – and magnificent – Midland Grand Dining Room.
Attached to St Pancras Station, you can finish dinner at The Midland Grand by around 9.15pm and be on the 9.36pm highspeed with minutes to spare, as I recently discovered.
RELATED CONTENT: London's best new restaurants, bars & pubs to try this June
Perhaps even more impressive - wait, definitely more impressive – is that you pass the staircase immortalised in the Spice Girl’s Wannabe music clip to get to the restaurant. That is unless of course you enter through adjoining Gothic Bar, which is very attractive space indeed, but not pop-culture famous.
Even more impressive than all this, however, is the restaurant itself which takes over from Marcus Wareing’s The Gilbert Scott. It is grand by name and grand by nature.
If you’ve had the pleasure of dining at Booking Office 1869, then you too will have gawked and cooed over its laid-back yet glamourous, art deco-colonial interiors - it is one of London’s most attractive dining spaces, in my books. The Midland Grand is even better.
Designed by the same fellow, Hugo Toro, The Midland Grand is a perfectly composed dining room that works with building’s neo-gothic origins and formidable bone structure in which high ceilings are king.
It is a rich and luxurious space, lavishly adorned and decorated, dressed in sumptuous textures and with velvety chairs so heavy they seem fixed to the ground.
Under Chef Patrick Powell, who also oversees the kitchen at Booking Office 1869 and Allegra in Stratford, the kitchen serves up elegant French dishes, every bit as sumptuous as the interiors they are served in.
The grilled octopus gilda were swizzle stick-sized bursts of flavour. With tender grilled pieces of octopus lined up between briny pickled chili and gordal olives, these Basque-style picky bits were surprisingly busy for something so small. Add some ocean flavoured oysters and a glass of champagne, and dinner was off to a flying start.
White asparagus arrived next. And while the spears were soft, fresh and a seasonal treat, the hero of this elegantly simple dish was the deluge of buttery, chive peppered sauce that covered them. It demanded a breadbasket so we could mop it up and leave no trace.
The tomato tarte tatin was very pretty and satisfyingly dense for a vegetarian dish, while the sea trout came in another buttery sauce - this one a very pretty meadow yellow, flecked with sorrel and orange fish roe. This too, was mopped up into oblivion.
The large serve of potato dauphinoise that my friend and I shared had all the cheesy, hefty comfort you require from a dish like this but without the post-carb coma.
It’s hard to follow an act such as this, from the buttery Chablis to the flaky soft sea trout, as every morsel and mouthful was a standout. But still, desserts were a triumphant end to a sublime meal and were quickly demolished.
Want the latest features and reviews straight into your inbox? Sign up for The Resident's weekly email newsletter here.
The block of chocolate cake, dense but still airy, tasted of chocolate rather than sugar and the strawberry and almond Paris-Brest’s pastry gave a satisfying crack as you broke into to scoop up the soft clotted cream and strawberries below.
The Midland Grand Dining Room has arrived at King’s Cross St Pancras and from here on in, it’s all aboard.
Address: St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel, Euston Road, NW1 2AR
Website: midlandgranddiningroom.com
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here