august-2011

~ le petit-déjeuner ~
BREAKFAST IN LONDON
WITH JOE WARWICK
ST JOHN HOTEL
long-delayed london openings tend to be cruelly cursed
with premature evaluation. The St John Hotel – the third
venture for the St John team aft er the legendary Farringdon
original and its widely loved Spitalfi elds sibling – is a clear case
in point. When it fi nally opened this spring aft er a series of
construction obstructions, some critics impatiently piled in
with lukewarm praise.
The St John Hotel is located on the site that was previously
Manzi’s, on the edge of Chinatown just off Leicester Square,
which back in the day billed itself as a “famous seafood
restaurant” and served curried halibut, stewed eels and the
like for some 60 years until it closed in 2005. If its walls could
talk, legend has it, they’d tell tales of old-school Soho ad
agency sorts engaged in the sort of post-prandial activities in
its upstairs bedrooms that could have graced a Carry On fi lm.
Having eaten breakfast, lunch, dinner and tried its bar
(although not yet one of its 15 rooms), I’ve decided that the St
John Hotel is, unlike a lot of restaurant critics, at its best fi rst
thing in the morning. The dining room, which has been
criticised for being cramped, feels more spacious at breakfast,
its cause helped on a good day by the morning sunlight that
pours in from its windows.
The breakfast menu off ers breakfast buns, Fergus “Nose to
Tail” Henderson’s take on the croissant, the morning
three-strong selection of which (there are diff erent varieties
off ered from 3pm to 5pm) includes plain butter, cinnamon and
raisin served with lashings of marmalade and golden
raspberry jam.
Assuming you don’t approach a St John menu looking for
granola, I can also recommend from my various visits: the
devilled kidneys on toast; the blood pudding and beans; and
the pig’s cheek, peas and Berkswell cheese omelette.
The service from the boys and girls in the white jackets is
unrushed and invariably polite. Although it’s an admittedly
luxurious start to the day it doesn’t have to be expensive if you
can somehow stick to an order of buns and a coff ee. But if you’ve
got the time you’d be foolish not to make a proper meal of it.
Breakfast, coff ee, juice, £18-£25 including service.
St John Hotel, 1 Leicester St, WC2, +44 (0)20 3301 8020,
stjohnhotellondon.com
Joe Warwick is editor of Eat London and captain of restaurant
fanzine Galley Slave, galleyslavery.com
48 metropolitan
Petit-déjeuner à Londres avec Joe Warwick
ces derniers temps, une malédiction semble frapper
les établissements londoniens qui repoussent sans cesse
leur ouverture : les critiques prématurées. Voyez le St John
Hotel : à son ouverture au printemps après moult ratés, ce
troisième bébé de l’équipe du St John (après la légendaire
première adresse de Farringdon et son très apprécié petit
frère de Spitalfi elds), fut tièdement accueilli par une
critique impatiente.
À deux pas de Chinatown et de Leicester Square, le St
John a pris la place de Manzi’s, « célèbre restaurant de
fruits de mer » où furent servis pendant 60 ans curry
de fl étan ou ragoût d’anguilles jusqu’à sa fermeture en
2005. Les murs, dit-on, bruissent encore des galipettes
digestives auxquels se livrèrent à l’étage des publicitaires
plutôt vieille école échappés de leurs agences de Soho.
Ayant testé son petit-déjeuner, son déjeuner, son
dîner et son bar (mais malheureusement aucune de ses