✕ ✕
Turning tips into memories
Login
Signup

You have reached the limit of free articles.


To enjoy unlimited access to Culture Whisper sign up for FREE.
Find out more about Culture Whisper

Please fix the following input errors:

  • dummy

Each week, we send newsletters and communication featuring articles, our latest tickets invitations, and exclusive offers.

Occasional information about discounts, special offers and promotions.


OR
LOG IN

OR
  • LOG IN WITH FACEBOOK

Thanks for signing up to Culture Whisper.
Please check your inbox for a confirmation email and click the link to verify your account.



EXPLORE CULTURE WHISPER
✕ ✕
Turning tips into memories
Login
Signup

Please fix the following input errors:

  • dummy
Forgot your username or password?
Don't have an account? Sign Up

OR
  • LOG IN WITH FACEBOOK

If you click «Log in with Facebook» and are not a Culture Whisper user, you agree to our Terms & Conditions and to our Privacy Policy, which includes our Cookie Use

Support Us Login
  • Home
  • Going Out
    • Things to do
    • Food & Drink
    • Theatre
    • Visual Arts
    • Cinema
    • Kids
    • Festival
    • Gigs
    • Dance
    • Classical Music
    • Opera
    • Immersive
    • Talks
  • Staying In
    • TV
    • Books
    • Cook
    • Podcast
    • Design
    • Netflix
  • Life & Style
    • Beauty
    • Fashion
    • Gifting
    • Wellbeing
    • Lifestyle
    • Shopping
    • Jewellery
  • Explore
  • Shopping
  • CW SHOPS
  • Support Us
  • Get Started
  • Tickets
  • CW SHOPS
Get the Best of London Life, Culture and Style
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).
Food & Drink

William's Bar and Bistro ★★★★★

18 Aug 16 – 07 Dec 17, 12:00 PM – 12:00 AM

Michelin-starred chef William Drabble offers British tapas in a stylish London hotel setting

By CW Contributor on 22/8/2016

3 CW readers are interested
William's Bar and Bistro [STAR:4]
William's Bar and Bistro [STAR:4]
William's Bar and Bistro 4 William's Bar and Bistro Alex Larman
In a nutshell: Michelin-starred chef William Drabble does British tapas in Mayfair, to great effect


The welcome: Situated in one of the quiet side streets off the clubby roar of St James’s, the St James Hotel has a deserved reputation for superlative service and discretion. William Drabble deservedly holds a star for his fine dining restaurant, but he’s also come up with an innovative range of tapas, which are deceptively filling and could easily constitute a meal on their own, or form a sumptuous starter.


The room: The small but clubby (fittingly, given that the hotel’s full name is the St James Hotel and Club) bar area offers cosiness and intimacy, which lends itself splendidly either to romance or simply to a rather more entertaining business meeting. The friendly but never over-intrusive staff mill about, ever on hand to top up a glass or suggest another dish.


The food: Drabble’s enviable reputation in the industry means that anything he does is regarded with interest; however, those who are expecting the food here to reinvent the wheel are going to be disappointed. What he has done instead is to pick a range of dishes that are associated with English dining, and offer subtle tweaks here and there which make for quite the smorgasbord of tastes and textures.


We loved the more traditional dishes, such as the smoked salmon on rye bread with cream cheese and the apple-stuffed prunes wrapped in crispy bacon, but we were even more impressed by the adventurous spirit in some of the others; lamb breast fritters with apple and mint jelly was delicious, and the Tunworth and mushroom slider with walnut and truffle dressing should, if there’s any justice in the world, become a London signature dish. And all of these are at very affordable prices – nothing more than £7.20, and a Welsh rarebit at a mere £4.25. There’s a good range of English wines and beers paired with it as well, especially a delicious Tenterden white and rosé.


Would we go again? The next time we want a Michelin-star level experience at street food prices, absolutely.



What William's Bar and Bistro
Where William's Bar and Bistro, St James Hotel and Club, 7-8 Park Place, London , SW1A 1LS | MAP
Nearest tube Green Park (underground)
When 18 Aug 16 – 07 Dec 17, 12:00 PM – 12:00 AM
Price ££
Website Click here to find out more



Most popular

Things to do in London this weekend: 3–5 February
Things to do in London this weekend: 3–5 February
London exhibitions on now — Peter Doig, Courtauld Gallery
Top 15 exhibitions on now in London
Zadie Smith new novel, The Fraud, to be released in 2023, photo Justin Holler
An A to Z of trends for 2023

Editor's Picks



  • DINNER AT THE TWITS

    Wormy spaghetti: Immersive theatrical dining

    TAKE IT AWAY

    London's best gourmet food deliveries

    WHAT'S COOKING

    Our guide to the year's hottest restaurant openings

    DISCOUNT SUIT COMPANY

    Cocktail wizardry in an old tailor's stock room

    JULY'S MOST APPETISING NEW OPENINGS

    Bon appétit

Sign up to CW’s newsletter
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).

We recommend nearby

  • Gazelle

    Walking into Gazelle is like entering a private members' club, discreetly signed, upstairs in an Edwardian Mayfair building with its own elevator. It is perfectly possible to dip inside for pre-dinner cocktail. For a post-dinner moody tryst it is most inviting too.

    Read more...
    Book Map
3

tapas

British food

St James

William Drabble

SW1

You might like

  • London British food Mayfair: Hatchett's restaurant review

    Hatchett's restaurant review, Mayfair ★★★★★

  • Memories of the Bay of Biscay starter at Eneko

    Eneko at One Aldwych restaurant review, Covent Garden ★★★★★

  • Wormy spaghetti and bird pie: Dinner at the Twits offers an immersive theatrical experience

    Dinner at The Twits, The Vaults

  • Rok Restaurant, Islington

    Rök Restaurant, Islington



  • The Culture Whisper team
  • Support Us
  • Tickets
  • Contact us
  • Press
  • FAQ
  • Privacy
  • Terms and conditions
  • Cookies
  • Discover
  • Venues
  • Restaurants
  • Stations
  • Boroughs
Sign up to CW’s newsletter
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).
×