Skip to main content

VICTORIAN LONDON MENU

A delicious 3-course menu that harks back
to the time of Queen Victoria.

BOOK A TABLEVIEW MENU

Victorian London comes to Caxton Grill

Head Chef Alex Boyd at Caxton Grill has created a delicious 3-course menu that harks back to the time of Queen Victoria, but with inventive modern twists. St. Ermin’s Hotel, where the restaurant is located, has strong links to this period, as the original mansion blocks that were the basis for the hotel were built in 1889.

Alex has delved deep into his historical gastronomic cookbooks to devise a menu that celebrates some of the Victorian’s favourite dishes, with modifications for today’s palette. Every part of the menu has a historical or social relevance to the Victorian era, a soup that recalls London’s fogs, an ale from the capital’s oldest brewery and a dessert invented to celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee are just some of the highlights.

This menu is not just a culinary history lesson, it’s also a showcase of Alex’s skill at cleverly evolving original recipes into contemporary dishes, that are still recognisably Victorian. Alex has used the abundance of organic herbs, vegetables, salad and fruit harvested from the hotel’s rooftop kitchen garden to highlight provenance, seasonality and freshness, all equally important factors in Victorian cuisine. He has also worked closely with local butchers to source the finest quality meat and ale from Fuller’s, London’s oldest, still operating, brewery in Chiswick, so ensuring that while the cooking might be influenced by today, the ingredients are authentically Victorian.

3-Course menu £45 pp, add beer tasting +£20 pp

VICTORIAN LONDON
3- COURSE MENU £45PP

Add beer tasting £20pp

Available from 1 – 26 November

STARTERS

London particular soup
Split pea soup with carrots & celery

or

Mock turtle terrine
Veal terrine with sweet onions & sherry gel

or

Eel pie & liquor
Potato terrine & parsley

Fuller’s Golden Pride

MAINS

Ox cheek braised in London ale
Celeriac purée and malt foam

Fuller’s 1845

or

Pan-fried cod
Gin batter crisps, watercress emulsion, triple cooked chips

or

Luxury Bubble & squeak
Braised cabbage & mustard

Fuller’s ESB

DESSERTS

Apple charlotte with brown bread ice cream

or

Cherries jubilee

or

Orange and rose trifle

Fuller’s London Porter

BOOK A TABLE NOW

VICTORIAN LONDON
TASTING MENU: THE INSPIRATION

STARTERS

London particular soup
London in Victorian times was notorious for the dense fogs that would often cover the city, especially in winter. They became known as ‘pea soupers’ after the thick soup popular at the time made from split peas. Dickens described those fogs as “London particulars”.

Mock turtle terrine
Real turtle soup was extremely expensive so mock turtle soup became very popular; we’ve created a version as a terrine using veal with a touch of Madeira, a little sherry, sweet onions and a jus to accompany.

Eel pie & liquor
One of the most iconic Victorian London dishes, sold from street barrows or Eel Pie and Mash shops, mainly in the city’s East End – eels were fished from the Thames in huge numbers. The liquor, or gravy, to accompany is made from fish stock and parsley – giving it’s famous deep green colour.

MAINS

Ox cheek braised in London ale
London Ale is brewed by Fuller’s, the oldest London brewery still brewing from it’s premises in Chiswick where the company began in 1845, the 26th year of Queen Victoria’s reign. Beef cooked in beer was, and still is, a traditional dish across the country.

Pan-fried cod
The earliest known fish and chip shops opened in London around the 1860’s. Dickens talks of ‘fried fish’ in Oliver Twist and ‘chips of potatoes, fried’ in A Tale of Two Cities. Gin was the most popular spirit of the age whilst watercress was cheap, popular and nutritious – many tons a day would be brought into the capital using the new railway system.

Luxury Bubble & squeak
Traditionally made from cabbage and potatoes, the name may have originated from the noises made during cooking. Popular in the 19th century as a thrifty breakfast using vegetables from the previous night’s roast supper; today a dish in itself.

DESSERTS

Apple Charlotte with Brown Bread Ice Cream
Queen Charlotte, married to George III, was thought to be the patron of apple growers and this dessert was first named after her around the 1800’s. Grandmother to Queen Victoria, Charlotte, North Carolina was also named after her.

Cherries Jubilee
Invented by French chef Auguste Escoffier in honour of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee in 1897, using one of the Queen’s favourite fruits. It was served to the Queen during one of her (many) celebration dinners and became a royal favourite.

Orange & Rose Trifle
Although the first recipes for trifle date back to the 1500’s by the Victorian era the dessert had become a firm favourite, and made in ever more decorative ways. Ours also takes advantage of the increasingly available ice cream at that time, as ice became more common and could be stored through the summer months

To book call 0207 227 7777 or email info@caxtongrill.co.uk

Subject to availability. Please notify us if you have any allergies or food intolerances. Prices include VAT at the current rate.

A discretionary 12.5% service charge will be added to your bill all of which goes to the team.

BOOK A TABLE

Book a table below or call us: 0207 227 7777

LOCATION

Find us just next to St. James’s Park Station:
2 Caxton Street, Westminster,
London SW1H 0QW

Close Menu