St John Bar and Restaurant

When the boiled potato is the highlight, you know you’re going to be disappointed. I had the pig tongue salad with dandelion greens — dressing was the best thing on the plate. My husband had the asparagus — fine, just steamed and dropped on the plate. Main was lemon sole; when I asked for the fish to be filleted, you would think I had asked for the moon. It came back brutalized. Our other entrée was the pigeon with lentils; no seasoning, just bland. Desserts were better; they merit the second star. We would not return.

Wow, eating here was the highlight of my weekend in London, which is saying something. I got the bone marrow, buttered asparagus, and grilled ox heart. The food was delectable and the atmosphere cheerful yet sophisticated. Plan to come back here next time I’m in town.

Mouthwatering delicious and a pretty reasonable value. I got the bone marrow, potted beef, and buttered asparagus and they were all delicious. The acidity and freshness of the parsley salad offsets the fattiness of the bone marrow perfectly. The potted beef with pickled walnuts and green beans was equally delicious and as simple as the buttered asparagus was, it was also lovely.
I hesitated before coming here because of how simply (and perhaps not very inspiringly) some of the items are plated, but the food speaks for itself.
Total cost was £28.50 for the three dishes. Worth it.

Full disclosure: This is my favorite restaurant. But they’re not paying me to say that.
I’ve eaten at St John (this Smithfield location) at least ten times, and I don’t even live in the UK. It is my most anticipated meal (and second meal) every trip I take to London. The food and the beer selection are flawless time after time, and I love that it’s located close to my favorite pub (the Jerusalem Tavern).
You do not need a reservation to eat in the «bar,» which is where I have dined all but one time, if it’s just you or you plus one. I think that you get a full dinner menu in the «restaurant,» but to be honest the food available in the bar is what I’m after anyway! Come right around 5pm to get your pick of tables and enjoy a very relaxing meal. The early-​evening atmosphere here, at least in summer, is fantastic.
And as far as atmosphere, St John is supremely comfortable. I have usually eaten here alone, and never felt awkward or out of place. The bar and the dining room are both more casual than you might expect; I once wore a dress and heels here and felt overdressed. The space is minimally decorated and the focus is 100% on the food. I think that the reasonable prices reflect this; there’s no «fine dining» posturing here.
I can’t leave without eating two things: the roast bone marrow and the terrine. These dishes have been consistent meal after meal, year after year, and are two of the most deliciously satisfying menu items you will ever taste. Another favorite when available is the pigskin salad. I once ate two orders of it, in addition to roast bone marrow and Welsh rarebit, by myself. When I brought my father here, we ordered ox heart with chips, and it was also wonderful. Brown shrimp on toast, snails & chorizo, grilled sprats with celeriac salad, eccles cake & cheese… it has all been great.
I understand that they have a good wine list here, but I am only interested in beer. They usually offer Meantime ales, which I happen to love, and the servers never get pushy with wine or with «pairing» my food, which I appreciate.
Speaking of the servers, they deserve a word. All but one time, the service at St John has been excellent for me. That one time that was an exception, I had a waiter who was quite condescending and didn’t check on us/​bring the check for nearly 30 minutes after serving main courses. I can’t drop my review because of the one time, and I have not seen that server at the restaurant again.
In my opinion, this is not an overpriced dining spot. I am never shocked when I see the amount show up in USD$ on my bank statement, and I have never once felt ripped off. A joy every time… and I’ll be back in October!

Now I know that this is one of London’s most famous and well respected restaurants but I had one of the most underwhelming and frankly disappointing meals I’ve ever eaten in this city. My boyfriend and I made a reservation several weeks in advance for a Saturday evening spot. The décor in the place is sparse white walls, a full view into the kitchen, and tables right up against one another so you can basically hear everything your neighbours are saying (and they can hear you) but if the food was as good as rumoured I was more than willing to forgive decoration. We had one glass of wine each and ordered the rabbit offal to share as an appetiser, two of the braised longhorn with mashed potatoes & a side of greens for our main and the Paris Brest as a desert. Our waiter completely forgot about the offal and within 15 minutes our longhorn was brought to the table, so unfortunately I can’t review the starter. But as for the longhorn it was nothing special. It’s not that there was anything wrong with it — it was tasty enough and the mash was fine — but my mother’s brown stew tastes exactly the same (and my mother, while being a great cook, is not a world class chef who charges 26.5£ for each plate of her cooking.) The only saving grace to the whole meal were the greens which were perfectly cooked. Then we had desert, during which our waiter again forgot that I had also asked for a cup of tea and needed to be reminded. The Brest was fine but again nothing out of this world — I’ve had far nicer deserts at Roast or any of the Hawksmoor locations. Now perhaps we simply chose badly in our courses but the fact of the matter is this — when we pay almost 90£ for a meal (starter not included) at a restaurant that has close to a 5 star rating from every review written it made us feel pretty let down. I know the menu changes frequently so hopefully they’ll reorganise to show their strengths but we won’t be going back to find out. My advice is if you’re looking for a great restaurant in London to eat some really good meat, try Roast in Borough Market, Hawksmoor Spitalfields or Seven Dials, Rules in Covent Garden or Tramshed. The only pros here is that the service was prompt enough and the greens are pretty good.

Yes, it hit the spot! If you are the mood for bone marrow, ox hearts and other non traditional dishes, this might satisfy the taste buds.
Highlights: Delicious non traditional dishes, Ample quantity, Great Desserts, Reasonably priced wine list, Takes reservations, Great customer service and nice big dinning area.
Can improve: Would love to see some more birds on the menu, Chicken or Duck. A tad bit pricey. Also, the whole pig is a highlight and they should make that available to normal dining. How hard can it be to make 2 available every night or on your busy nights. You can even have an option where folks can pool reservations so you have the count for the pig.
Benchmark: They are definitely one of a kind and the reason why we dined there was so celebrate a special occasion. Not sure, if you can do an apple to apples comparison.
Dined in March 2016 and not sure if I would return.

When my husband and I decided to visit London for a week, we were most excited to eat at St. John! We’re fans of Fergus Henderson and were really curious to visit his restaurant. Luckily there was place — for the entire week there was only one timeslot available! So we quickly booked our reservation.
A few reviewers have described the restaurant well as unassuming. We actually passed the restaurant by accident when trying to find it. When you enter there is a bar and bakery downstairs and it was packfull when we came for our 6:30pm reservation. At first we were nervous that we couldn’t get a table, but luckily we soon realized the restaurant is upstairs!
I was really curious to see the menu because online it changes daily. The menu ranged from safe to daring. I mean, it is a restaurant that specializes in offal. For starters my husband took the famous roasted bone marrow with toast and parsley salad and it was amazing. I love venison and celeriac, so when I saw the combo together I had to take it as my starter.
Now for the mains… This is where I wanted to be a bit daring. I had read about British faggots, which are basicaly meatballs made from the kidney, liver, and heart of the animal of choice, and decided to order the goat faggots. It was a lot of newness for me, but I thought if I’m going to try them, this is the place. I can’t say I loved them but it was all a part of the experience. I did love my husband’s dish — roasted pork shoulder with trotters and prunes — yum!
So not only did we enjoy the food, but the staff was so friendly and helpful! And questions we had about the menu everyone (not just our waitress) was more than willing to help!
So if you’re headed to London and want real British food, you must come to St. John!

Incredible restaurant that deserves the high praise from critics and regular diners alike. It wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be to get a reservation and table. In fact, for a party of 3, they were nice enough to seat 2 of us first even when our 3^rd didn’t arrive for another hour after the reservation — that’s service (plus the actual dinner service was on point, friendly, and efficient).
The food itself isn’t served fancifully or in any exquisite setting. However, it all comes across as more focused on the food and just having a good time with your companions.
The pork terrine was excellent as a starter. The artichokes were also fantastic starters.
The middle white pork main was incrediblye tender and flavorful. The vegetable and potato sides were served very simply/​basic but were the perfect accompaniments to the entrees.
The wine menu here was very reasonably priced and all great French wines.
I’d come back here in a heartbeat.

I work around the corner from St. John, and I walk by it frequently on my way home, but it wasn’t until I read about their great feasting menus that I was pushed into action. I organized a Christmas banquet for 22 people with their extremely helpful events coordinator, and the whole process could not have gone more smoothly. After a long exchange of emails and a £435 deposit taken approximately 2 week before the feast date, I arrived with my guests and we were seated and served promptly, and very well attended to. It was not at all overwhelming to have so many people when everything was taken care of and so organized. We had the ox tongue salad as a starter, which was not described in the menu and to my surprise was a hearty panzanella type salad with a lot of bread pieces and large slices of ox tongue that most people probably thought was beef anyway! The hog was then brought over to our table and we had the opportunity to take many photos with it, before our server carved it heartily and brought heaping plates of the meat over to our table. We also had bread and onion stuffing, some boiled leafy greens and potatoes as sides. The server came by and asked us if we wanted any top ups of the sides, so we got some extra greens as well. I was also fairly impressed that the 22 of us polished off every last bit of food; the large pig really does feed that many and probably no more, if you want to truly have a feast size portion! We had apple crumble and custard for dessert. The crumble was served in a large porcelain dish and we had small jars of custard, of which we also asked for extra. It was a great end to the meal. The food could not have been better, the service was excellent, and everything went incredibly smoothly. Thanks St John for an awesome experience; we would definitely consider making this an annual thing!

St John is a very renowned restaurant and it’s all deserved. Anthony Bourdain considers St John his favorite restaurant in the world. St John is a very unassuming restaurant with a semi-​opened kitchen. The crowd is anyone from corporate pricks to a mother and daughter having a date day. There’s no million dollar view or expensive tablecloth. It’s all grill and no frills. I absolutely love the restaurant. Here are St John’s accolades:
1) 1 Michelin star in 2014
2) 1 Michelin star in 2015
3) #55 on the San Pellegrino 2014 World’s Best Restaurants
4) #92 on the San Pellegrino 2015 World’s Best Restaurants
The service was great and everyone was really nice with their British ascent. I was waiting for someone to yell out «Bloody stupid Americans» but it didn’t happened. Owner, Trevor Gulliver, was there and going around introducing himself. He was a really nice old man with a playful demeanor. We ordered a number of items on the menu but memorable dishes were the Bone Marrow, Trotter Pie and Brown Crab on Toast.
Overall, St John was a fantastic restaurant and it’s accolades are well deserved. It’s pretty pricey since the USD is getting crushed by the GBP. However, it was well worth the experience and dishes.
US 2015 Michelin 3 Stars Count: 12 Down. 0 More.
2015 Michelin Rated Restaurant Count: 28
San Pellegrino 2014 World’s 100 Best Restaurants Count: 19
San Pellegrino 2015 World’s 100 Best Restaurants Count: 21

The final verdict on the pronunciation is in… «Saint John» not «Sinjin» much to the dismay of my teenage nephew, brother-​in-​law and husband (who have retained their teenage-​glib till this day)
The pheasant and trotter pie was the big hit, as was the melt in your mouth marrow of bone with brown bread and parsley. The octopus salad was polarizing from real disgust to actual fans… You must like octopus to enjoy. The giancale (pork cheek) with dandelion was also a crowd fave… maybe the best surprise of all was the Eccles cakes for desserts which my in-​laws informed me was also referred to as hamentaschen (sic)… Think pot pie with sweet prunes. Surprising and delightful

The pheasant and trotter pie was the winner. Delicious. Great staff. Comfortable and unpolished to perfection. Emphasis on what matters. Service food quality and interest and wine was an unknown Syrah we loved.
Price was very fair. Could not ask for a better evening!

I pigged out at St. John.
And I mean this as literally as I possibly could. Because we ordered the whole suckling pig, and it was… woah.
We did the private dining room in the back for 15 people, filling it. It was an odd rectangular room that sloped into one side, making it a little claustrophobic. It also was very, VERY loud. All the noise bounced back and forth so it was a cacophony of sound. Woah.
But it was a friend’s birthday and it was lively and fun and we had a blast. And the food. Oh the food. We started with bone marrow and braised octopus. The bone marrow was perfect, spread on toasted bread with veggies. My god. The octopus, full of sauce but really, I could have taken it or left it. The best part was mopping up the sauce with the bread on the table.
And then the pig! They mean a whole pig, that they bring out braised (but without the apple in it’s mouth, which was a little disappointing) and then carved it up. You got crackling, meat, even the trotters and head if you want to do anything with them. And it’s so much meat. So much. They serve it with a light gravy, which would have been nicer a little thicker honestly. It felt a little too watery and instead of being soaked up, just splashed all over the meat.
And for dessert, Eccles Cakes with Lancaster Cheese, tasty, but nothing amazing, and the chocolate mousse, which felt sadly bland. Like mousse from any other spot in a big circular pan. For such an inventive space, I expected more. It did some with crème fresh, but it was incredibly sour and actually kind of ruined the sweetness of the dessert.
Then, the price. Because we paid about £85 a person for two starters, the pig and two desserts and wine, and again, we had 15 people there (so over 1,000 pounds total!) Not saying they’re not experts and can’t charge whatever they want, but for what we paid, there are other meals to be had in London.
But the other real issue was the fact that they cleared our table, with tons of pig left, and threw it all away. We figured they were wrapping it up for us, or would at least ask if we wanted it before chucking it. But they told us it was our responsibility to let them know beforehand and so they just threw away all that pork. Such a waste.
Beyond that though, it was an experience for sure. Not sure I’d be back again soon, but not sure I can eat that much pork ever again.

This restaurant is really pretentious and not good at all.
The grouse is just horrible and smells like poo.
The meat on dripped toast has an ‘interesting’ presentation. At least we laughed a lot in front of the dishes that were brought to us. We laughed less when we saw the bill: it is completely overpriced.

This place delivers. Service staff are knowledgeable and competent w/​o hovering or being intrusive. The food is well matched and expertly prepared. While bone marrow, beef heart and pig tails weren’t on the menu, the availability of deep fried lambs nuts, goat organ meatballs, smoked mackerel and the best toffee pudding I’ve ever had made me wish I could eat here more often.

Had wanted to come here for many years (mainly because of Anthony Bourdain) and when I did I knew what I wanted. Bone Marrow, Parsley on toast. Excellent with the little bit of salt. I had some type of fresh salad too with a veg I never heard of which was refreshing. The crab on toast was also very good. All in all very good and I like the traditional feel of the place even if it doesn’t feel contemporary. Next visit will be to get an old spot bacon sandwich for sure.

Truly, I am so confused. I was so excited to try this place on my visit to London, and I had chosen this place far ahead of our trip for my friends and me. However, it just was not up to par to the standards I had expected. How did this place earn a Michelin star?! Not only was this the worst Michelin-​rated restaurant I have ever dined in, but this was just a crappy experience all around.
Let me start by saying our experience was initially okay, but as dinner progressed, it just got worse and worse. The food I ate was good, but the service in no way deserved a star.
First off, there was not a butter knife for the bread and butter. We used our own knives… not a big deal. When our server came to clear our table when we finished the bread, she set our dirty knives (obviously dirty and leaning on the bread plate) back in their place. What happened to clean silverware each time?
To add to service, they left the water pitcher on our table. We were re-​watering ourselves the entire dinner, as well as refilling our own glasses of wine. Further, when we got up to use the restroom, our napkins were not folded when we arrived. That was a first to me while dining in a Michelin restaurant.
Bone marrow — their signature dish: I will admit, it was delicious! However, this is the first time I have had bone marrow where they do not cut the bones in half for easier scooping. Instead, you hold the bone and use a little scalpel to hollow the bones out. These bones are GREASY! Oil everywhere, and definitely not enough napkins. I wish they had cut the bones in half.
Near the end, we were ready to order dessert and we could not find our server. I think it took us 20 – 30 minutes after being done eating to finally order our desserts. We were also ready for the check, and our server again was no where to be found. It easily took another 20 – 30 minutes to close our tabs. We were definitely waiting for about an hour total wondering where she was.
Now to the ugly – 20 minutes after my friend finished eating her food, she complained that she didn’t feel well. We raced home, and she threw up. She threw up 10 times over the night, and had a very high fever. She got food poisoning! The only thing that she ate that the rest of us did not eat was the squid. It was awful to see her like that, and it was the worst part of our vacation.
I don’t know if this instance was a fluke or what. I so badly wanted to love this place, but it was a huge letdown. I am in no means high maintenance, but when you win an honor as highly coveted as a Michelin star, you must expect high standards. We ate at Duck & Waffle two days later and this far exceeded our dinner at St John. The service was 20 times better, and the food was great as well.

Popped in for lunch without a reservation and was very lucky to get a table as they are usually fully booked. I have been told previously about their famous bone marrow with parsley salad and had to give it a go. The dish was well balanced and extremely more-​ish. I was also very impressed with my main of crumbed veal and kale. The staff were very helpful and had a great knowledge of the whole menu and matched wine for the dishes. I was soon full but wanted to try one of their fresh doughnuts from their bakery and took one to take away, I wish I had got two. There was one small annoyance about my experience with my table being uneven and not stable. They tried to fix it during the service but it didn’t help. For on average £20−25 a main they could get this fixed on a permanent basis rather than just using a cork top. (Visit — 28/​11/​2014 Lunch)

The most enjoyable experience my mouth has had in a lonnnng while…
Relax, I’m talking about the food! ;) Although the staff did make our afternoon there even more pleasurable because of their laid back yet attentive professionalism.
The food was unpretentious, simple food that allowed each part of the meal talk for itself instead of trying to prepare it in 7 different ways and to experiment with how many flavours you can add before it all just turns from rainbow to brown.
Started with rabbit offal and what I’m presuming was butter bean mash (can’t actually remember, but it tasted like that) — It was truly a perfect match. The few bites I had of my dining partner’s dish seemed to have been cooked just right.
Potted beef and pickled cabbage on the yummiest bread made in-​house everday (so I was told) seriously tho, that bread! I won the starters round, it was a perfect portion but it was very morish.
Well, we actually started with a glass of champagne, but that was just a sneaky starter, shush ;)
Mains then came, sweetbreads for my friend and pigeon pour moi.
The sweetbreads has this creaminess to them that I would never have expected paired with the crispy lardons and slightly crunchy peas in that sauce was just magical!
Pigeon was served simply and rare with a beautiful braised chicory. Although my pigeon was delicious, Naomi won the mains round… I didn’t expect the sweetbreads to be that fantastic.
All washed down with a delish house red.
Dessert… nom nom nom.
Gingerbread loaf, butterscotch sauce and icecream… But what made this even nicer was that we asked our server for an apéritif to compliment the dish and we both have different tastes so he suggested two different ones. You all need to try the Pineau des Charentes! Just even put your nose in it and the smell is divine!
I had an amazing lunch on my last day in London visiting an old friend in between work so I was over the moon that I stumbled by accident into the place a couple of nights prior looking for a place to chill while waiting to catch up with said friend.
I forgot to get their names but to the lovely lady who served me my g&t that night and told be about «zetter townhouse» thank you, you were right, it was totally up my alley and they were nearly as nice as you guys.
To the very charming man who served us at lunch, it’s really great to have someone who is knowledgeable about flavours and indeed about different palates and what will suit different clients. Thanks a million to you all at St. John!
Sooz x

Great place if you like to try adventurous cuts of meat prepared and cooked excellently. Highlights for me were:
— Sweetbreads with bacon and peas — if you’ve never tried sweetbreads, I would recommend trying them here! They had a subtle flavour and the texture was quite soft and pleasant. The sauce with bacon and peas was delicious
— The fresh bread served at the start of the meal, a lovely tangy sour dough
— The desserts. I had a very rich, moist ginger loaf with butterscoth sauce and ice cream. It was sooo good, and the dessert wine recommended by the waitress complimented it perfectly
Not all of the dishes were to my taste, however — I personally thought the pressed ear that my dining companionion ordered was disgusting, basically fat and gristle (he thought it was ‘ok’). My starter of deep-​fried Lamb’s fry was pleasant, but didn’t wow me — it reminded me of chicken nuggets, but with a slight lamb flavour. Having said that, seeing as the Lamb’s fry was lambs testicles, I liked this dish more than I was expecting to!
Overall, the evening was great. The service was attentive, without being rushed, and we had the opportunity to try things we’d never normally eat.

Order the roast bone marrow if they have it. Thank me later.
Meat lovers have a lot to experience here. No matter what part of an animal you want — or think you want — they’ve got it, and the staff can make recommendations should their visceral vocabulary twist you around. Last I was here we had a variety of items, all prepared expertly. Their menu changes daily, so my recommendations probably wouldn’t be that useful…
Find St. John’s a short walk from Farrington station.

Came as we were in the area, and glad we did!
Just at the end of lunch, and a nice menu and some great dishes on offer, and the crowd is having a great time, and the server is friendly and helpful and we had a great meal. The baked good were fantastic.
Enjoy!

A real treat as always.
Started with brown crab meat on toast, which was very good
Followed with roasted bone marrow on polaine toast with a delicious onion salad
And then gorged on roasted hake, fantastically fresh
Excellent meal

The reviews for this restaurant have been all over the place lately, and because of that I very nearly didn’t book a table here. In fact, I waited until we were actually in London to contact the restaurant to see if we could get a table. After some email back and forth with a very nice woman we were squared away for 7:30 p.m. on a Wednesday night. After a long day of site seeing we arrived early for our reservation, but we were seated immediately with no fuss. I really enjoyed the spare décor and the layout of the restaurant. When we first sat down, we were one of only a handful of diners but by the time we left the place was packed.
Like all good gastronomes, we started our dinner off with the bone marrow. It was good. In fact, it was the best darn bone marrow I’d ever had. But … I just don’t think I’m a bone marrow kind of gal. Too much effort (strangely, I love picking at Dungeness crab). Next came our main dishes — I ordered the grouse and the husband ordered a pork dish served with a really lovely sauce and stewed dates (or something like that). I would have taken pictures but the menu clearly states that no cameras are allowed. Unlike some people posting here, I chose to observe the request.
I can see here that not many liked the grouse. Myself? I’m very happy I ordered it. Our waiter warned that it was an adventurous bit of protein and that it was rather gamey. If I wanted roast chicken, I would have stayed home and cooked one myself. You go to St. John to taste something you haven’t had before. At least that’s the way I look at it. The grouse WAS gamey, but it was also so very interesting with so many different flavors in each and every bite. I would definitely order it again.
We finished our meal with a wonderful holiday-​esque dessert which is currently escaping my memory as all I can think about is how truly eye opening the grouse was.
If I were to return to London, I would definitely go back to St. John.

Just a short warning, not for the weak heart.
It was probably my palate, but everything I tasted here were bad and meh. I knew this was a place for adventurous meat and I think I was just not ready for this. The grouse was so awful that I only took three bites of it. It still had this ‘nature’ and ‘animal’ flavor that I can’t get rid of. That’s the worst part of the dinner.
The good part of the dinner was the bone marrow. It was good, but again, just good.
The best part of the night was, the madeleine. Warm and fluffy, not too sweet and fresh from the oven. Not a single meat, no venison, no rabbit, no grouche. For a moment, I felt the blissfulness of being just a vegetarian.
I was not blaming St John for my experience, it was kinda funny and interesting and we laughed it away, and it taught me one important lesson, that I would stick with a normal kind of meat anyday rather than being too adventurous. I am no Anthony Bourdain after all.

i’m a huge anthony bourdain fan so as soon as i booked my vacation to London… eating at St. John was at the top of my to-​do list haha. it was easy to get a reservation a couple months out on Open Table UK and even though we showed up a few minutes early for our reservation, we were seated right away. the host was super friendly and immediately asked to take our jackets (really cool that there are so many coat hangers around the restaurant too haha). our server was really helpful too at explaining certain dishes on the menu to us since we had never heard of some of the entrée items haha.
we started with a bottle of the St. John Cabernet that was really easy to drink and for our appetizers, had to order the bone marrow along with the smoked cod’s roe on toast. both were absolutely delicious! the fresh baked bread along with the salad on the bone marrow made the dish actually refreshing to me and i was surprised at how much i liked the smoked cod’s roe dish. it wasnt overly salty like i imagined and i quite liked it. for my main dish, i ordered the venison haunch. this was a first for me and i absolutely loved it. the venison was cooked a beautiful medium rare and didnt taste game-​y or anything to me.
overall this was definitely a highlight of my London visit. from start to finish, it was an amazing meal. i was proud of myself for trying a lot of new/​different items that i normally would never order haha. it’s definitely not a cheap meal, but well worth the splurge — vacation or not!

Can’t fault the institution. Been a couple of times but felt to write a review after a friend kindly took me for lunch last week.
I sat in the courtyard area, which is beautiful on a sunny day, to enjoy a glass of wine and felt instantly relaxed. No pressure from the staff to move into the dining room, even though we’d passed our booking time. I expect this would be different at dinner.
Classic décor, excellent service and the Great British menu. Bone marrow toast, welsh rarebit, saddle of rabbit. spring asparagus and a bottle and a half of white — £90 including tip. Not cheap but not ridiculous.
Love this place.

After much anticipation, I was excited (even a little scared) about our dinner for St. John. Having seen pictures about the various animal parts, strange dishes, and other weird but delicious food, I was going into this with a very open mind. I will caveat things right by saying that a) I’m an American, who doesn’t venture too far beyond meat and potatoes for a main and b) as a result of the former, I tend to think that I have a rather «limited» palate when it comes to various types of game.
Ok, so anyway, now that I’ve put that out there, here’s what went down during our meal. The scene wasn’t what i was expecting, it was on the louder side, but very casual, and very open-​aired. Service right from the onset was mediocre. In aggregate, our waitress probably visited our table about 4 times the whole time we were there, some of which was a function of us trying to flag her down. Anyway, we had scoped out the menu beforehand so we knew almost right away what we were going to be ordering.
For the appetizers, we ordered the following:
Brown shrimp and cabbage salad: When they say «shrimp», they mean itty bitty bay shrimp, not the shrimp you get in shrimp cocktail (those are prawns). The salad was fresh and light, but not anything to write how about.
Bone marrow salad: WELL OF COURSE WE WERE GOING TO GET THIS. The components of this dish were outstanding together. The bones were served hot with a few pieces of toast, some parsley salad and onion, with some sea salt on the side. The bone marrow comes out spreadable on the toast, and when you make yourself a small sandwich, this is absolutely delicious. The only qualm I have about this dish is that it’s definitely on the messy side. You will DEFINITELY need your napkin.
Mains:
Greg had a venison dish served with a side of mash, and I ordered the grousse.
Here’s where my naïve mind thought of prior to ordering: Grousse, being a bird, must be similar to chicken.
Reality check: Grousse and chicken may both be birds, but that’s about as far as it goes in terms of similarity. There was a fair amount of clove spices on the bird, and I absolutely butchered it throughout the process trying to find bits and pieces that were edible. Grousse meat is most definitely game-​y in my opinion. It’s dark, with a lot of «nature» tastes to it. Although I thought I did a good job getting through most of it, I’d be lying if I said that I completely enjoyed it. Again, maybe this is because I’m just not used to eating overly gamey meats, but I just couldn’t turn the corner and start enjoying it. Greg, on the other hand, seriously enjoyed his venison dish. We had gone to Harwood Arms for dinner earlier on, and Greg thought his dish a St John outdid his dish at Harwood.
Desserts:
Buttermilk pudding: Holy cow this was delicious. Not really 5 star delicious, but it was definitely good! I would certainly order this again
Blackberry swirl ice cream: what surprised me the most about this was how much ice cream they gave you! That was seriously impressive!
Anyway, after all of this, I just couldn’t get around the idea that I didn’t really enjoy my main. I don’t want to be overly critical of the place since some of this may certainly be a function of my palate, but it seems to me that places where I’ve given 4+ stars out is because i was blown away with whatever main I had. I guess I don’t quite get that here. Overall, I thought this was a 5 star experience, but only a 3 star assessment for the food.

Oullllla
!! que du bonheur je suis allé en 2011 avec des collègues! Un lieu tout
simplement typiquement chic et anglais! La
clientèle y est snoble mais l ambiance y est de bon gout ! le chic a l anglaise. Concernant
le prix comment dire compter franchement a la carte pour 90 £ par personne et
encore sans le vin ! il y a une formule pour 210£ avec vin, mais je né sais pas
s il y a tjrs!
Bref
pour y aller sortez vos portefeuilles, mais sa vaut le coup!!!

At evening booking recommended. Traditional food in best quality. Not cheap, but highly recommended. Try bacon sandwitch for breakfast

Le St John est un de mes restaurant préférés à Londres. La philosophie du St John est la suivante: des plats très simples d’inspiration typiquement british, préparé avec des produits d’une qualité extraordinaire, sans chichi. Ah et j’oubliais ils appliquent le «nose to tail eating» notre quasi-​équivalent français du «tout est bon dans le cochon». Vous trouverez donc au menu tripes et autres foies. Evidemment si comme moi vous n’êtes pas une adepte il n’y a pas que ça!
Le décor et le service sont à l’image de ce que l’on a dans l’assiette: simple mais chaleureux.
On ressort avec l’impression d’avoir découvert une bonne adresse dont on souhaite né jamais oublié le nom.
A noter qu’un dictionnaire francais-​anglais peut vous être utile tant les ingrédients utilisés sont méconnus et pourtant très souvent utilisés dans la cuisine anglaise. Que celui qui sait ce que sont en français les «rape greens, leeks et turnips» se manifeste.
J’ai entendu dire que le St John Bread and Wine était très bon aussi.

It was awesome! The location is great, the drinks are great everything was great. I’m excited about the next time I’ll visit London!