Restaurant Review - Georgian Restaurant, Harrods

Restaurant Name: Georgian Restaurant, Harrods

Location: Harrods, London

Visited: December 2010, Lunch 

The Georgian Restaurant on the fourth floor of Harrods is a must for tourists seeking a quintessentially English Afternoon Tea in elegant surroundings.  For those in the know, it also delivers a sumptuous buffet (especially at Christmas) supported by an a la carte menu offering fine, and I would say traditional English, cuisine.  Service is hospitable and prompt and if you become a regular visitor, that 'old school' hospitality awaits you every time.

This is an annual visit and has been for many years.  Harrods at Christmas time is magical, although only if you enjoy the hustle and bustle of the Festive season.  It is also Foodie heaven (although it does necessitate a visit to Selfridge's Food Hall to make the Foodie trip complete!) so a day of Christmas shopping, browsing the finer things in life and food therapy, both retail and Lunch, makes for me a day not to be missed.

Our 2010 visit was a great one and lunch was enjoyable.  This cannot be said for the last couple of years and had it not been for visits years ago that excelled, we may not have returned this year (in fact we nearly didn't and had considered 'giving it a miss this year'.)  In 2008 and 2009 some changes were made to the food offering and the service and quality suffered also.  It has economic downtime all over it and it seemed it was time to lower the cost of the product but maintain those selling prices.  Recessions can affect even Al Fayed it seemed.  However I have to say that this year its 'hey day' glory was almost returned and there was a real buzz to the restaurant.  Sadly the food has not returned to the heights of the earlier years and clearly savings have been made (for example the cold buffet used to include lobster and crab claws before 2008 which have not made an appearance since.) 

Harrods is all about luxury.  The Food Hall delivers the same, the 'best of' suppliers and ingredients sourced, and the restaurant used to simply be an extension of this making use of the best ingredients the market had to offer and then prepared for the restaurant.  Now the restaurant seems to have stopped being about the luxury foods such as Foie Gras (no longer on the menu, ethics aside here for a minute) and Salmon en Croute with Lobster sauce.  The latter used to be served at the table and was sublime, silky and rich.  2010 unfortunately saw the end of this dish,  and the old the menu, and in place a shorter and less luxurious one with some major deletions.  A feast is still to be had with the like of fruits de mer, but some of the old favourites have gone.  Change isn't always about 'moving forward' and I do feel some 'modern' twists should not have been imposed.


I had the buffet for starter and it was very enjoyable, and followed this with wild smoked salmon (one of the best I have had at Harrods for year) and then a Christmas Roast.  Had it been the menu of old I would have opted for the a la carte menu but no need to go down that road again ... the carvery was excellent.  This was all finished off with plenty of Harrod's bread and butter pudding (worth a visit just for this), washed down with some Dom Perignon.  


Plenty of good champagne can often iron out the flaws ....