St Pancras Renaissance – The Booking Office Bar & Restaurant

Posted By Ben Nickel-D'Andrea on Feb 1, 2017 | 2 comments

Of all the times we’ve stayed at the St Pancras Renaissance hotel in London, we never ate at their Restaurant, the Booking Office. Mainly because we were under the impression that, being a bar, they would have primarily bar bites instead of proper sit down dinner dishes, and to be honest, we never stopped to check their menu.

Big mistake. 

The Booking Office, from stpancraslondon.com

As we had already arranged to meet with our friend and fellow blogger Anne from TravelTheGlobe4Less, we decided it would be an awesome opportunity to check them out and the St Pancras Renaissance hotel gave us the chance to try them out for the first time. It definitely felt like a very special occasion, not just because of the lovely company, but because their menu just blew our minds (and taste buds too!).

Their menu includes a variety of options that will certainly please pretty much everyone with a mouth, and ranges from soups to salads and fish, meats and poultry to go around. Here’s the current menu they’re offering, and the one we chose from. 

I chose the Roasted Bone Marrow for starter, and had the Squid Ink Braised Monkfish as a main. Both were unbelievably delicious and portions were appropriately sized (aka bigger than I would expect!). Jon would have none of my marrow so he went with the Cornish Hand Dived Scallops and then the Gressingham Duck Breast. Anne will tell you all about her own experience and the delicious choices she made. 

Here are some mouth watering pictures:

Roasted Bone Marrow

Squid Ink Braised Monkfish

Cornish Hand Dived Scallops

Gressingham Duck Breast

Our waiter was Francesco, and he was amazing, and not just because he’s also Italian and shares a passion for food like me. He made sure to make all the recommendations he thought we’d be interested in, wine pairings and also made us laugh a few times. You can tell he likes what he does by the way he takes care of the Booking Office’s guests.

As a dessert, Francesco suggested that we go with The Ladies Smoking Room. Words cannot describe how tasty this dessert is, or how beautifully presented it is, so here you go:

 

Our stay at @stpancrasren vanished as quickly as the smoke from this Ladies Smoking Room #dessert from the @bookingoffice but we surely won’t forget it anytime soon! #foodie #foodporn #stpancrasstories

A video posted by No Mas Coach (@nomascoach) on Jan 28, 2017 at 11:45pm PST

Something that absolutely adds to the menu is the ambiance. The venue is located where the original station’s ticket hall used to be, and the bar itself is what used to be the ticket booths, and is about 100 ft long. There, you can get the yummiest drinks from this time as well as Victorian drinks (yes, they’re making a comeback). Nothing like having an old timey drink in an unbelievably old timey setting – kinda makes me wish I had donned a 5 piece suit with a bowler hat and a pocket watch to sip it at the bar.

The Booking Office Bar

The Booking Office

The Booking Office updates their menu regularly and they offer special occasion menus. For example, this Valentine’s Day menu, which includes a glass of Veuve Clicquot Rose Champagne, Oysters, a choice of Burrata, Scallops or Tomato Carpaccio, and a choice of main between Pan Fried Lemon Sole, Braised Ox Cheek or Pumpkin Gnocchi. Dessert consists of a White Chocolate Macaron, and Dark Chocolate and Raspberry Mousse, Coffee and Tea with Macarons and Chocolate Truffles. I’m already salivating just typing this out, so you should probably hurry up and make a reservation for Valentine’s Day – or really any other day, just go there and try them out. For all of us point addicts, they’re on OpenTable.