Simpsons-in-the-Strand has just reopened under Jeremy King’s stewardship after a nearly 6 year hiatus due to Covid, and its widely slated revamp back in 2017.

There are two restaurants, two bars, and one event space. At the Grand Divan, the subject of today’s visit, you get classic British silver service from trolleys at breakfast, lunch and dinner. Although at breakfast this is rather amusingly kept to dispensing ketchup and brown sauce from cut glass decanters.

  • Ten Deadly Sins (breakfast) £33
  • Kipper (breakfast) £21
  • Bullseye Eggs (breakfast) £11
  • Cold Trolley – smoked salmon and duck rillettes (dinner) £20
  • Roast Beef with veg (dinner) £45

Service charge of 15% included in the prices.

The breakfast was good, often substantial, and hot (more on temperature shortly). My kipper and bullseye eggs couldn’t be improved, they are classics done very well and, in the case of the bullseye, reasonably priced. My companion’s full English / Ten Deadly Sins, however, felt meagre for its price, though naturally a lamb chop (one of the ten) doesn’t come cheap.

The dinner that I chose suffered by being silver service. By its nature, this food is less fresh and less hot. Today we are used to food being cooked just for us, called service a la russe.

The smoked salmon had clearly been out all day and was oxidised and cardboard-y in texture. The duck rillettes was much better, and with its remoulade rich and decadent. The roast beef for main was fine, helped by it being a fresh joint, but friends who have visited and had less fresh joints have said the quality was bad.

The service is impeccable, often friendly to a fault, the place elegant, and the customers old. It is of its time and place, and despite the comments I make above about the food, if you meet it halfway and enjoy the theatre, it’s jolly if expensive.

I’ve been to Romano’s (the second restaurant) and it was far better and better priced, plus I am returning to the Divan to try the non-silver service items, and to be honest, I’m still excited, because overall I enjoyed myself in a rather old fashioned British way.

I paid in full, and have written more here.