We have all been there: standing on that iconic Whitehall rooftop looking over the corridors of power, with a sulky, silken grey sky providing a suitably moody canvas to that stone turret to your left. And while you idly wonder when M is going to turn up so you can discuss your latest mission to save the world you crash back to reality and remember that your are not in fact James Bond…. you are actually on the roof of Raffles Hotel at the Old War Office and are on your way to what I think it the coolest private dining – it is in one of those turrets that we all instantly recognise from the Bond movies.
Now few things in life make you feel as special as heading into the private dining room of a great restaurant. It is the land-based equivalent of turning left on a plane. So unless you are seriously rich it is not going to happen very often, therefore on the occasions that it does happen it is well worth making sure that you make the right choice. To continue with the analogy, you don’t want to do a once-in-a-lifetime flight in First Class and then discover that you are flying on Aeroflot.
Now as you would expect there are some serious options in London – such as the second floor private dining room at Noble Rot in Soho with it’s leather banquettes, the beautiful new private rooms at The Guinea in Mayfair, the atmospheric private dining vaults at Gymkhana to the light, airy rooms at Quo Vadis that float over Dean Street on a warm summer evening. And that is before you get to the stunning rooms available at the various members’ clubs – the circular domed room at Brooks’s being a particular favourite.
But the private dining room here is the daddy: they have converted one of the octagonal turrets that teeters over the edge of the building into a private dining room. It has the most spectacular views down Whitehall to the Palace of Westminster, up to Trafalgar Square and across to Horseguards Parade. You can also glimpse the London Eye hovering over the rest of the building, and it shares with the Eye the sense of a having a forbidden view over secret places, albeit in a slightly more exclusive way.
It has also been decorated beautifully with a large central table and those picture windows framed with elegant sash curtains. Flower arrangements both inside and out are exquisite. It feels both open and private at the same time. Perhaps the only drawback is at least a part time one: to get there you have tp walk over a simply but perfectly planned series of outside terraces. More great views, somewhere nice to sit in the sun after an especially long lunch. But I do wonder what high heels would make of it in the rain.
This place has another star attraction up its sleeve too: superstar chef Endo as culiary director. Currently on a brief bs taking a brief break from Michelin sushi spot Endo at the Rotunda, he has also opened Niju, Humo (which scored a star just over a year after opening), Notting Hill’s Sumi and brand new Colombian chef’s table Abajo.
Luckily he was very much present at the lunch I attended, with a charm and playfulness which only made his dishes make more sense. At Kioku the idea is Japanese technique filtered through the Mediterranean. ‘Kioku’ means memories in Japanese. He also makes the point that this is fusion from the other end of the telescope to what we are accustomed. It is “Japanse first” fusion, in other words it begins with a Japanese dish or concept which is subtly and gently altered by a mediteranean element rather than being a western dish with asian flavours tacked on.
The merit of the approach was in the dishes themselves – smoked yellowtail, with apple, aged caviar, ponzu and sobacha guanciale managed to be both decadent and fresh in the same mothfull. A plate of fresh, glistening white tubot with a smoked emulsion, girolles, yuzu, shiso and see beet sauce was among the best things I have eaten in years, and for the carnivours among you an epic wagyu fillet was covered in a sauce from its own bone marrow to bellow at you as to why the Japanse love Wagyu.
It was an epic lunch, in a spectacular room, with wonderful staff and all framed with movie-set views of one of London’s most iconic areas. If there is a better private room in town then I very look forward to seeing what it is, because to better this place will take some doing.
Raffles Hotel at the Old War Office, 2 Whitehall Place, 6Th Floor, London SW1A 2BD
Email: [email protected]
Opening Hours: Tuesday & Wednesday: 6pm – 12.30am (last reservation 10pm), Thursday – Saturday: 12pm – 5pm (last reservation 2.30pm) / 6pm – 12.30am (last reservation at 10pm), Sunday: 12pm – 11.30pm (last reservation at 9pm), Monday – Closed
Related post: Sunday Lunch at The Twenty Two, Mayfair