Great scotish food and live jazz. A great combination!
Piers Heaton-Armstrong
+4.5
Boisdale Restaurant has been a favourite of mine for more than 10 years. It offers a consistently good selection of dishes, with steaks, game and haggis all specialities. The Angus steak is hung until beautifully tender and the game changes based on seaso
Why on earth is there so much tartan? That’s because this is a Scottish-themed restaurant. I didn’t realise Scottish food could be applied as a theme – I mean there’s haggis, and well that’s about it right. Not so, it seems
Aside from all the tartan, initial impressions are not good. They’ve lost our reservation and don’t believe me when I say I have one – necessitating pulling out the email confirmation. Not daunted, they still say they’re fully booked and are starting to hint at us finding somewhere else, but this is deepest darkest Victoria/Westminster, a plethora of restaurants there are not and I am certainly not about to give up to hunt the streets.
The boys kick things off with a mini haggis for starters, complete with mash and neeps, which even has the option of a noggin of whisky as a chaser, which it seems is an absolute no-brainer of an option. I opt for the potted smoked mackerel with horseradish and toast. This isn’t nearly as pungent and fishy as I’d like, it’s tasty but far too mellow to be doing justice to the strong tastes of mackerel and horseradish in one pairing.
We’ve all ordered the exact same thing for a main, saddleback pork with curly kale and black pudding hash.
The meat is tender to taste, but far too hard to saw through which is making it seem all a bit too hard to plough through. The hash & kale are a little salty for my taste personally but the staff keep us plenty replenished with water, which they realise we are downing like those in the dessert.
By the time we’re about halfway through our mains, the lively jazz band kicks in and while we cannot see them from our position in the annexe, they’re an atmospheric addition to the place.
So as to enjoy the music, we opt to share a cheeseboard and the boys mull over the other option to end the meal; Havana cigars.
We’re plated up an immense portion of various cheeses so we can all share and nibbling on cheese & crackers, the tang of whisky in the air and the jazz band music filtering through to us are a great way to end the night.
However, as to the package as a whole, I remain unconvinced. Our waitress was lovely, attentive & sweet, however the front of house staff were a bit off-putting, the food was delicious but needed that little extra something to push it into divine.
Scottish food? Didn't realise it existed, well apart from haggis. But this place, where we went for a team dinner, managed to educate me. And it was a pretty good lesson too.
Due to the numbers, we had to stick to the set menu. Some may find this to a be a curse, but I kinda like limited choices, especially when going to a new restaurant. I had the Salmon for starters, the Fish Pie for main and topped it off with Apple Crumble with Custard. They were all very nice - far better than any British food I might have had elsewhere. The restaurant itself was a bit cramped, but clean - it was nothing particularly special. But then, I only go for the food and company (which is free. Well, usually anyway) so I didn't mind too much.
But the price was pretty steep for what it was - the set menu was £36 on its own and didn't include drink. It's a prohibitive price and as nice as Boisdale was, I can think of other places to spend that much money per head.
Visited this branch of Boisdale for a business meal on a Monday night and I couldn’t fault the place. Granted, it was a Monday night but it was busy. Atmosphere was great, food was superb and service excellent. Only knocked one star off because both wines that I ordered were not available - they could have made note of that beforehand. Will visit again for sure.
Had our table for whole Sunday Jazz afternoon - food was superb (if you like rare but melt in the mouth beef) however other dishes were also great, my partner had pork with crispy crackling! Cheese board was amazing also
Great Sunday Jazz lunch food was great and service excellent would recommend it
Mar 2023
Scotland oyster, Loch Ryan is a true gem. I haven’t seen before such round shape oysters. I wish I had one more.
Service seems to be sophisticated. I recommend it any special occasions. Live music is also welcome. to be honest, my seat was too close to listen cosy at that timing.
cured fish tastes good. unfortunately, minutes fillet is ordinary.
Super iconic restaurant. Very good food and excellent service. It is ££££ which is fair enough but it would be appreciated if they would reinvest in some parts which are tired/scruffy. The floor rugs in the MacDonalds bar are threadbare. This is a good venue for a group night out and the jazz adds good atmosphere
Stumbled upon this restaurant by pure luck, and had a wonderful evening. Great live music show and delicious cocktail. A big thank you to the waiters, who were all very helpful and friendly. Highly recommended!
We were there courtesy of a Virgin experience gift voucher for a Jazz Sunday lunch so food and entertainment paid for. Lovely atmosphere and space. Great music. Staff very friendly. Drinks pretty expensive but expected that. As a vegetarian pleased there were 2 veggie starters but only 1 main which was pasta. Very good but would have liked more choice. Why not just stick a veggie burger on the menu. Easy enough! But overall really enjoyed our experience. Would recommend.
Great place to experience traditional british/scottish cuisine. Went for the first time to take my wife for her birthday, and she absolutely loved it. The staff were great and very accomodating (we even received a delicious pudding since it was her birthday), the restaurant itself is beautiful and the courses speak for themselves. It was my wife's first time trying the Haggis and she loved it. The prices were also reasonable. Would absolutely recommend booking a reservation here :)
Absolutely lovely venue! Calming ambience with exceptional staff. We made reservations and were seated immediately. The menu is extensive with enough options to please all appetites and unique drink selections (Irish Coffee Martini-Yum!) The dishes were presented well, sufficient in size but most importantly tasted delicious! The staff were very attentive and friendly, too! The live performance was awesome which Boisdale of Belgravia always have them (check website). Without drinks approximately £80 - £100ish for two (starter, main, sides and dessert). I'd definitely visit again.
A wonderful evening spent at Boisdale Belgravia. Service is great, food wonderful if not overpriced but highly recommend the oysters, lobster linguine and the sticky toffee pudding... delicious! The night was even better when the live band arrived and played Motown hits. Wonderful atmosphere and will definitely be back!
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