The British game season begins with a bang on August 12, when the first shots fired on the Glorious Twelfth mark the arrival of red grouse on our plates. Usually, at least: this year, the season it is a decidely inglorious twelfth, with very few birds expected to be shot. Numbers are low this year partly because of this year’s wet spring, a beetle destroying the heather they eat, and an avian parasite.
As such, far fewer London restaurants than usual are this year are expected to serve it. But those that do will relish it. Grouse is the sort of ultra-seasonal, quintessentially British ingredient beloved by many chefs.
“Grouse to me is the best-tasting game bird,” says Mark Kempson, chef of Kitchen W8 in Kensington. “You can tell by the deep and aromatic flavour of the meat that it truly is a free-range bird, foraging on the spoils of North Yorkshire and Scotland ’s purple moors.” The young, first birds of the season are most highly prized for their sweet, succulent meat and delicate, gamey flavour.
The purist approach demands that grouse be served roasted whole, served pink and garnished with game chips, grouse liver pâté, bread sauce and braised red cabbage. Some chefs maintain that the flavour is improved with a couple of days’ ageing, which is partly why none of the restaurants below will be serving grouse on the Glorious Twelfth itself. Don’t wait too long, however: as the season develops, the older birds can become tough and strong-flavoured, which is why grouse has something of a reputation as an acquired taste.
Ordering grouse breast rather than a whole bird can be a gentler introduction, or forego the British approach altogether: the Cinnamon Club offer their birds vividly seasoned with Indian spicing. So whether your taste is trad Brit or not, below are the best London restaurants serving the bird this autumn. Do check, though, that grouse is on the menu before arriving (and book an early table in case that day’s delivery runs out), and note that the prices below may change according to availability.
And when the grouse season is over in December, the arrival of snipe, partridge, pheasant and woodcock means there is nothing to, ahem, grouse about. Let the game begin! This article will be updated over the coming days as what availability of grouse there is becomes clearer. No surprise, at his Farringdon restaurant, chef Henry Harris is offering a French take on grouse.
He will be roasting his, then serving it on a liver toast with an Armagnac gravy, served with pommes gaufrettes — ok, ok, game chips — and, er, some bread sauce. Right, so it’s not that French after all, but that Armagnac sauce is hard to resist. Price TBC, from August 14 66 Cowcross Street, EC1M 6BP, bouchonracine.
com Famed Swedish chef Niklas Ekstedt has taken on this most British of dishes with his own usual smoke-fuelled gusto. Here he prepares the bird by smoking it over juniper wood, before plating it up with smoked celeriac purée, grilled blackberries, girolle mushrooms and a port wine jus. It comes as part of a three-course or six-course menu; starters might include the likes of scallop with an ember-baked leek or a smoked veal tartare, while the highlight of the puddings is the wood oven-baked cookie dough with smoked caramel and malt ice cream.
Either £85 (as three course menu) or £115 (six courses), from August 14-21 3-5 Great Scotland Yard, SW1A 2HN, ekstedtattheyard.com Upmarket Mayfair restaurant Mount St is sure to get in on the action as it in 2023, when there was a grouse starter, as well as a main of the game bird. For the moment, though, details remain scarce; the restaurant has told the Standard that chef Jamie Shears has specially prepared a grouse menu for this year, but is waiting to see what birds are available before launching it.
But broadly speaking, expect the traditional roast Yorkshire grouse for two, at about £60ish-a-head, served with all the trimmings. TBC 41-43 Mount St,W1K 2RX, mountstrestaurant.com Game cooking has an illustrious history on the Indian subcontinent, though hunting has been illegal in India since 1972.
Chef Vivek Singh preserves tradition at his smart Westminster restaurant housed, appropriately enough, in a converted library that acts as a custodian for an aspect of Indian cooking that would otherwise be lost. This year Singh is will serve a Rajasthani-spiced tandoori grouse breast with yellow lentil tadka, cumin and garlic. £36, from August 18 The Old Westminster Library, 30-32 Great Smith Street, SW1P 3BU, cinnamonclub.
com Part of Rebecca Mascarenhas and Phil Howard’s upmarket group of smart restaurants in smart neighbourhoods, Kitchen W8 is not only one of the very few decent European restaurants near Kensington High Street, but it also won the Eat Game Award for Best Game Restaurant a couple of years back. Owing to the poor season, chef Mark Kempson will be serving just one grouse dish: a roast breast and glazed sausage of grouse, with barbecued celeriac, damson and caviolo nero. £52, from August 19 11-13 Abingdon Road, W8 6AH, kitchenw8.
com It might be one of London’s oldest French restaurants but L’Escargot is as much about Gallic art de vivre as gastropod-based gastronomy, which is why British grouse makes an annual appearance on the menu. The first birds will arrive on August 13 to be served as grouse à la anglaise (cooked as one wishes and served on the bone) with pommes gaufrette, bread sauce, fried breadcrumbs, lamb's lettuce salad with a lemon dressing and a crouton of grouse liver parfait. L’Escargot does traditional dishes with a sense of mastery; expect this one to be very good.
£48, from August 13 48 Greek Street, W1D 4EF, lescargot.co.uk The Belgravia and Canary Wharf outposts of Ranald MacDonald’s restaurants will each be serving Highland grouse with the traditional trimmings this autumn.
Expect roast grouse with game chips, bread sauce, grouse liver pate crouton, watercress, redcurrant jelly and gravy or a grouse Pithivier, which sounds particularly good. Both can be had for £48, which includes a choice of glass of either Boisdale Claret 2020 Chateau Reynier or Boisdale Bekaa Valley Grande Cuvee 2020. Wherever you eat, expect tartan-clad interiors, live jazz, cigars on a terrace and a whisky bar to make the most of the late licence.
£48, including a glass of wine, from August 16 15 Eccleston Street, SW1W 9LX and Cabot Square, E14 4QT, boisdale.co.uk The empire of the farming and foraging Gladwin brothers extends not only to a Sussex farm but a handful of London restaurants.
Normally, the entire brood serve the bird, but this year it looks like just Sussex itself will. Expect various grouse specials from August 15, with a special, one-off Grouse Dinner (£150) on August 15, where whole red Yorkshire grouse will be roasted and served with watercress salsa, bread sauce, game crisps and cherry jus. There are matched wines from Famille Perrin, and starters including “hare bombs”.
Various, from August 15 Various locations, gladwinbrothers.com This restaurant in Belgravia has a charmingly eccentric design aesthetic of junky farm-shop bric-a-brac and candlelit romance. For the season, it will offer roast grouse covered in bacon with a side of daily vegetables, celeriac mash, and a rich game sauce.
It’s open daily, from noon till 10pm, for those needing that all-day grouse fix. £39.50, from August 14 231 Ebury Street, SW1W 8UT, pouleaupot.
co.uk and 6 Old Court Place, Kensington Church Street, W8 4PL, maggie-jones.co.
uk August also marks the start of the hare season and the namesake dish will be on the menu of this this City pub and dining room by the Barbican (for £38, braised in its own blood and very with mashed potatoes, cabbage and bacon) which specialises in game, foraged and wild food. Grouse, though, is likely to be the star attraction, brought down from Eggleston Moor in County Durham and served the traditional way with Savoy cabbage, bacon, game chips, liver pâté en croûte, bread sauce and red wine jus. That’s what happened last year; given the shortage of birds in 2024, it’s not yet been confirmed, but the next few days will reveal all.
TBC 49 Chiswell Street, EC1Y 4SA, thejuggedhare.com One would expect a restaurant attached to double royal-warrant holder Fortnum & Mason to go big on seasonal British ingredients and so usually proves with grouse, handy for those Londoners who don’t have the luxury of a country estate to use as their larder. This year’s offering is yet to be confirmed but we’ll update this page when news comes in.
TBC 45 Jermyn Street, SW1Y 6DN, 45jermynst.com @mrbenmccormack.
