The London Bar by Gordon Ramsay

The best restaurant experience I had while in NYC. I would go back in a second. Even for the price. I would drop the top dollar anyway for the amazing experience I had. Tour of the kitchen extra courses autographed menu and picture of Gordon Ramsay and just an amazing overall night.

I waited in the bar area to meet my husband and enjoyed people watching over a gin (Gordon’s of course!) and tonic.
I am a big Gordon Ramsay fan and so I am always excited to be able to visit any of his restaurants when I am anywhere nearby. The new Hong Kong one is on my radar for our next trip to Asia !!
There is a restaurant area next to the bar that was not at all busy but I think the noise from the bar would be quite distracting.
The ‘formal’ restaurant is a large well lit room next to the bar. It’s fairly spacious which means you are not too close to other patrons however on the evening we were there a table in the corner had some pretty loud voices and we could hear them way above the people next to us !!
We opted for the three course dinner and enjoyed various small additions — a small chilled soup, Amuse bouche and cleansers.
Everything was served beautifully and cooked perfectly. My Organic Chicken was juicy and perfectly flavoured.
David our waiter was charming, competent and very professional.
My husband ordered a dessert that came with pea cake — I was intrigued. It did I fact taste of peas !! Husband hated it and it was speedily replaces without issue. My hazelnut chocolate was heavenly.
David, the waiter, was so disappointed that we hadn’t opted for their signature tarte tatin that he actually brought us a third dessert and he insisted we try it… To be fair it was amazing!
It wasn’t a cheap evening US$ 500 including a bottle of wine, two glasses of champagne and service but it was worth it on the occasion of my husband’s birthday.

Wonderful ambiance and Amazingly great food if you like «delicate» dishes and have a refined palate. The only problem was the service — our waitress had a bunch of little quips which I found sarcastic OR funny, either way, unprofessional. Also, I chose the chefs five course tasting menu (absolutely delicious and well-​balanced) — between course 3 and 4 we waited about 15 minutes, then between course 4 and 5 we sat there for over 30 minutes and then realized that our waitress left. (We asked for another waiter to find her 15 min in and he came back later with the 5^th course). Therefore, the main waitress was disappointing but the rest of the waiters were great. The scene is also a bit upscale and not at all casual — very nice. The atmosphere and food outweigh the service so that we will definitely go back again.

Came here for Thursday lunch during RW. The presentation of the food was nice but the taste was average.
I had:
Watermelon Salad (vs. the soup)
Tea Smoked Cod (vs. the Grilled Chicken)
Chocolate dessert (only one choice — probably the highlight of the meal)
The items on the regular menu looked more unique and appetizing but I think there are places in NYC where you can get a combination of better ambiance/​décor and food for a similar price.
Not bad but there are better.

Super cute bar, fun area.
I was impressed and while we didn’t drink while we were there (we were meeting family), the drinks looked great and strong and we were happy with it.
I would go back for a more upscale drink before dinner in the theater district before a show.

Wow, just wow.
I came here last night with a friend to celebrate my birthday and the experience was fantastic.
The food was delicious and the wine pairing complemented the food very well. The london bloom cocktail was one of the best I have ever tasted. Next time I visit the city I will be back to their bar for another.
In addition to the food– the service was top notch. The staff went out of their way to help us along so that we made it to a Broadway show on time, which was very much appreciated. After the show, we went back for drinks and dessert and the staff once again took care of us and we were able to get a tour of the kitchen before leaving since we didn’t have time to do that beforehand.
Overall, I loved everything about our visit here and I would highly recommend this restaurant to anyone looking for great food paired with great service.
Thank you so much to all the staff for making my birthday experience truly wonderful, I felt like a queen for an evening!

Went here last week for dinner with my boyfriend. I simply loved it! We had the 3 course meal… shrimp risotto, sole w/​asparagus, and Apple tart. My food was simply delicious and our dinner was romantic! I’m a Chef Ramsey fan and for the longest I’ve wanted to eat at his restaurant. Our waiter was attentive to us. They also gave us some type of custard appetizer (we didn’t care for it). The restaurant is very expensive, so be prepared to spend some money. A glass of moscato was $ 21.00.
Everyone should go at least once to eat here on a special occasion! I didn’t take any pics of my food cause it didn’t seem like the kind of place you did that at, lol.
Also, at the end of the meal the waiter rolled out a large cookie tower and asked if we wanted to try the different varieties of cookies. They looked yummy, but we were full from dinner.

Went back for the 5-​course menu and so glad we did. Again a wonderful dining experience. Yes, the staff is overly attentive, but it’s appreciated in an atmosphere like this.
Unlike a prior review that disliked the tour, we really enjoyed it. We got to ask the staff some questions and the manager took us around to all of the departments. I would very much plan a chef’s kitchen experience for friends who are foodies.
I did miss the chocolate truffles from the first trip. Nix the cookies… bring back the truffles!!!

This is the kind of place that can ruin you for every other restaurant.
First of all the staff is insanely attentive… almost too attentive, I seriously think there must be some kind of Gordan Ramsay boot camp that the employees have to complete before working here. Every single time we needed something, someone was over at the table and one of the employees noticed that one person at the table «looked cold» and brought over a sweater! As a lady, when I went to get up (which was twice) someone came running over to pull my chair out, then walked me to the door to open it for me. I was really impressed by every single staff member I encountered…
The food was simply amazing. Three of us chose the Tasting menu and every single dish was cooked and seasoned to perfection. As someone who eats out often, I can honestly say that this restaurant was the absolute best meal I have ever eaten. Because we had so many courses, so to write about each and every one would make for a long and boring review but I will say that one of the most enjoyable parts of the entire meal was dessert. We ordered a few of their cheeses and asked the server to recommend some for us and he gave us detailed information about each one and they were all amazing. I am not sure if they always do this or if it was just obvious that I was in love, but at the end of the meal, the server came over and handed me a little envelope with a detailed list of the cheeses we had enjoyed.

I visited the restaurant this weekend and was very surprised. Although the service was great and some items on the menu were superb there were some issues I can’t shake off and really didn’t want to write this review but it has bugged me since my experience.
1^st our bread was burned at the bottom which to me should be the easiest thing to serve with no flaws. Seems that since there is always bread served that this would be perfect.
Finally, the thing which made me rate a 2 was the rudeness of the chef. We were offered a tour of the kitchen and the chef happened to be sitting right behind us at the chef’ stable. We complimented him on the food and he replied «are you finished?». This is unacceptable behavior to me because we are patrons supporting this establishment.
I have to admit in the beginning of the experience I was uncomfortable because it was so quiet and everyone seemed to be uptight. As more people came in it felt more comfortable and people seemed to relax. I will never forget this experience BUT will never return because of the chef’s arrogance and bad behavior. He really needs to get a personality.

You know what they say, never meet your heroes. You’ll always be disappointed.
My friend and I planned our trip around food, and wanted this to be a really special event for us on our last day in NYC. Overall the food was very good, but there wasn’t anything that really stood out to me. Sure it was tasty, but for $ 115 I could easily have had much more memorable experiences elsewhere.
The thing that killed it for me was the service. The matri d’ was not welcoming at all and made the entire atmosphere seem extremely stiff. I ordered the lamb cannon for my main course and asked for it cooked medium rare. When it arrived at my table, the lamb was raw, stone cold in the center. I waved to the matri d’ about the matter, but he didn’t even acknowledge our table at first. I had to call down the server who brought us bread, and he brought it back to the kitchen. The dish came back completely new and the matri d’ had come to serve our food. He asked if the dish was alright for my tastes now, but the tone he put it in was completely offsetting. The worst part was, the lamb was still raw and cold on one side. His attitude made me not want to send it back again.
Would I come back again? Probably not. If I did, I would definitely Maze, the more casual restaurant. Briefly glancing through the menu, they offered dishes that were at a similar caliber but at a much better price.

The London Bar used to be one of my favorites in the city, so this is painful to write. Similar to Jonathan S, we stay at The London several times a year and always make a point of spending the evenings in the beautiful David Collins designed bar– We even had one of their cocktails at our wedding!
We were in town this past weekend for my birthday and we headed to The London Bar for a pre-​dinner drink. The stood by the bar and ordered our cocktails. As we were waiting, a table got up and I moved over and waited while it was cleared. There was a half full glass of white wine and one busboy yelled to a another, «want this?» and pointed to the wine. Weird, but I’m not going to judge if the busboys are sneaking sips of leftover wine to get through their shift.
My husband made his way over to the table with our cocktails. We clinked our glasses and took a sip…
My immediate reaction was shock. What was this?
My drink was supposed to be a spicy mix of vodka, chili, and grapefruit (I would give you the name but the website isn’t updated), but tasted like watered down vodka and orange juice. The ice was the standard ice chips from a soda machine and it watery and tasted like a cheap well drink. My husband’s old fashioned was equally terrible. The cherry was straight from a jar and the flavor profile was all booze and the syrupy sweet cherry juice. His drink was bright pink and served on the same sad cheap ice. The $ 19 cocktails used to be fabulous, complete with artisan mixers and beautifully crafted by hand.
We sat in shock. How would this fabulous place fall so far down? What happened here? Even our favorite bar snack of manchego cheese and marcona almonds that had been on the menu for years was nowhere to be found.
We exchanged looks and decided to leave. The cocktails were undrinkable and we tried to flag down our server. We asked someone for our tab and she rudely responded that we were not in her section. We eventually got our bill ($ 50+ dollars for two cocktails), paid and let the manager (Nick) know how terrible our experience was.
We didn’t want anything comped, we didn’t want anything for free, we just wanted the old London Bar back.
What is going on here? Even the website has gone downhill.

I wish I could be reviewing the food right now, but I never even had a chance to make it through the door.
Last November I came up with the idea to take my boyfriend to Gordon Ramsay’s for his Christmas present. The soonest I could make reservations for online was February 1. I was able to make the reservation for that date no problem.
In early January I got an email saying my reservation had been canceled. I was confused so I called the reservation line.
The woman working there was very apologetic; she stated that the restaurant would be closed during that time for a «break» and they’d be back open in March. I made a reservation, requesting the formal dining room (not MAZE, the more casual restaurant — I’m not in the city often so if we were going here we were going all out). I made my reservation for March 15.
A week later plans had changed and I could no longer make the March 15 date. I called and asked to switch my reservation to March 29. The woman who took my reservation, when reviewing it, said she’d booked it for MAZE. I said, «I’m sorry, I was hoping to go to the formal restaurant.» She apologized and took my reservation again, stating it was for the formal dining room.
On Wednesday, just days before my reservation, I decided to call the restaurant just to make sure things were fine with my reservation. I talked to the same woman I had previously talked to to change the reservation date. She said she couldn’t find my name on the list, but I could make a reservation for 6:15 instead of the 6:30 I had booked before. I said no problem, then said, «this is for the formal dining room, correct?» The woman’s response was, «No, the formal dining room is closed until the end of April.»
Obviously I was really confused. I had been able to make TWO reservations for March with no problems. When I told her this her response word-​for-​word was, «Well now I’m telling you differently.»
So either I was made a reservation and she didn’t take it down or they canceled my reservation with absolutely no notice, either of which is unacceptable.
Seriously disappointed that such a fine restaurant would treat potential customers that way. We’ve opted to go to a nice local steakhouse on Saturday instead.

We went into this place knowing that it was a ⁵⁰⁄₅₀ chance of being amazing or a let down due to preconceived ideas.
But I just have to admit that it was a major let down. Here’s our timeline of the night…
Strike one: We waited and waited both to be seated and for our food. The restaurant was not crowded and yet we felt ignored and passed over by our waiters.
Strike two: The food was not amazing. Dry bread to start and not very impressive menu items with one expensive ingredient added in to somehow make it more flashy…
Strike three: Our halibut was raw in the middle (after waiting way too long) and after flagging our waiter down we were met with a gruff take back of the plate with no apology. Then we were given back our plate a few minutes later to find a re-​plated portion of the original. Kind of felt punished for sending something back. We at least were (kind of) lucky to not get roped in to a long anecdote by one of the waiters about his most recent vacation to the table next to us. He talked their ears off for (I’m not kidding) 5 whole minutes.
So over all I get that it may seem I am fishing to find flaws. But I think honestly it’s amazing what celebrity does for a place because without his name attached to it I feel it would have no right to be in a posh hotel.

We certainly looked forward to this part of the NYC trip. This meal was one heck of an investment. It’s worth every dollar. My gf has been hinting at wanting to go a fancy restaurant — so why not go for the best?
Gordon Ramsay at the London is located inside and at the back of the Maze, and the two restaurants are a total contrast of each other. The Maze is much more casual, but I find the London is the best way to try Gordon Ramsay’s food.
We opted for the 3-​course, $ 135 menu, which was more than enough to eat. The Arctic Char was amazingly cooked, with a delicious side of mash. I don’t even know how they cooked the skin so well.
And the BONUSES: there are little treats given to us between courses that certainly kept our taste buds entertained. At the end the ‘bon bon’ cart had some nice treats. The take home treat was a nice grapefruit mousse that came in a little Gordon Ramsay at the London jar!
Service is instantaneous. You get up, you have drink, you make a motion for the door, it seems that the servers are always a step ahead of you. Some may say it’s too much, I say its excellent.
You are able to book online, though even on Dec 26 there were not many customers.
It’s too bad the restaurant lost it’s 2 Michelin star rating in late 2013.
Regardless, an awesome experience.

We used to come here fairly regularly as it was never overly crowded — I guess the tourists staying at the hotel would rather go somewhere else, which was just fine with us.
There is a separate bar menu here from what is available from Maze, which is the shall we say «mid-​level» restaurant just on the other side of the dining space, and the «hi-​end» Gordon Ramsay restaurant that’s off in another room.
What is available here are more snack-​like fried items. The fried artichoke hearts were always good as are the fish and chips. Of all of the things you can f up on the menu, fish and chips is something I feel like this particular restaurant CANNOT ever f up. As for the cocktails, I always favored the Ramsey Diablo which was a whiskey-​based concoction with a bit of spice in it.
They don’t really advertise this but they do make some of the dessert selections from the restaurants also available at the bar — and they have some interesting flavors of ice cream that are definitely worth trying.
The bar also offers afternoon tea — the mini sandwiches are interesting but the scones a well as the accompanying fruit preserves as well as the cream (both of which appear/​taste home made) were particularly memorable.
I have to ding them one star for what is slow service — the service inside the restaurants were however stellar.

I ate with my family at the Chef’s table in the kitchen for my Dad’s birthday. Not only was it an unforgettable meal but also a great show. Even at the height of the Saturday night theatre rush the kitchen was surprisingly quiet sounding but the staff was moving very quickly. I loved hearing the Chef call out the orders and then the cooks would call out the time left to plate The meal was eight courses but if you include the amuse-​bouches etc it was over a dozen plates over 5 hours. Each entrée was presented by either the station cook or the head Chef, Markus Glocker. Our server was incredibly knowledgeable with over 20 years in the business so we left knowing the history and source of almost every ingredient we ate.
I could talk about the food for pages so I won’t. Needless to say every aspect was superb. My favorite dish was the roast duck, which I have never enjoyed when trying it at other restaurants.

For some reason, this is the go-​to place for my husband and I to grab a pre-​dinner or pre-​theater drink when we are in the neighborhood. I’m not sure that its so much that we love The London Bar, as that we don’t really know many of the other spots in the area (and we wouldn’t be caught dead in the Times Square TGI Fridays).
The most notable tip I could give is to bring your cash and be ready to spend it– the amount of money that you’ll spend on a couple of drinks and an appetizer will astound you. They’ve changed the menu since the last time I visited, so I can’t speak to the current menu selections. When I ate there, I had a cobb salad that was amazing.
Overall, it’s a great place for a quick drink in a chic atmosphere where you may or may not see a celebrity. On our last visit here, we saw someone famous, who shall remain nameless. All I will say that his catch phrase was «Show me the Money!!» (which for the amount of money we spent that afternoon for two drinks was quite appropriate)

I could rage, rant, be sarcastic and funny about how much this meal was not worth its price. But I’ll keep it simple: if you love delicious food, then avoid this place. Walk yourself three blocks south and be happier.
The food itself is just so uninspiring and forgettable. For the vegetarian tasting menu, they’re charging $ 185 for seven courses but 1 of those courses is a «potato rosti» — literally a hashbrown. The meat menu is no better, and the service/​ambiance don’t make up for the lack in flavors either. Not a good game, and definitely no rematch.

Gordon Ramsey is one of my favorite celebrity chefs. That said, I had high expectations walking in here. While they were met, I wouldn’t say they were exceeded. I’ve eaten at one of his other restaurants and was surprised at the quick service – the meal was well-​paced. The service was extremely friendly, patient, and willing to make accommodations.
As for the food itself, everything tasted excellent. My party of six went for the prestige menu for a very special occasion. Everyone especially enjoyed the platter full of seafood. Clearly the quality of ingredients – from the uni to the foie gras to the butter for the bread – is carefully sourced and cleared for superiority. To be honest, though, nothing seemed especially innovative – everything was on the safe side, and guaranteed to be a flavorful, delicious winner based on the menu description. This may be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on the customer. We got a tour of the kitchen after our meal. You can dine in the kitchen if you’re willing to drop the dough! It’s a prime seat and seems like a lot of fun. We were told that Gordon himself is not especially involved in the happenings at The London and the head chef, Josh Emett, is mostly in charge of what goes on.
If I were to complain about something, I’d note that the glass my amuse-​bouche shooter came in was cracked… but it didn’t bother me, so I didn’t complain about it. Hell, I was hungry!
Bottom line? Excellent, fine dining, with a price to match.