An Exquisite Sunday Lunch in The Northall Restaurant at Corinthia London

Whats my least favourite meal you ask? It’s a Sunday roast! I know, shocking and I’ll no doubt lose a few followers for that statement, but it’s true. A British meal which most tourists don’t even understand (particularly all the gravy) and a plate of food which no matter where you go, they can’t seem to get it right. Especially the most important thing on the plate – the roast potatoes of course.

Thankfully, we have the Corinthia London Hotel to thank on this occasion because my food hell has just become my food heaven after a recent visit to their restaurant for Sunday lunch. The hotel was in full festive mode, the lobby was looking as gorgeous as ever and the dining room was a thing of beauty. I’ve only ever had afternoon tea (full review) here before which was exceptional and so like everything else this hotel offers – this lunch was no exception.

We started our Sunday lunch in true Corinthia style, with a glass of chilled Champagne and an expertly crafted Bloody Mary (plus some beautiful bread) as we looked over our delicious sounding set menus which have been created by the hotels brand new head chef André Garrett (ex Cliveden House). The Sunday menu is priced at £39 for two courses, £45 for 3 courses or as we ordered – £55 for 3-courses including a glass of Laurent-Perrier La Cuvée Brut Champagne, Bloody Mary or Bellini.

Choosing your starter here will be a rather hard task, but if you need help then try the hand-cut strozzapreti (which translates to “priest-strangler”). It’s probably one of the richest and decadent pasta dishes you’ll ever eat, but also the most satisfying. The strozzapreti was stunningly cooked, al dente, on the firm side and with a nice chewy texture which I loved biting into. It’s then generously smothered in sauce supreme and lashing of Winter truffle which wafts around the table. This pasta goes particularly well with a glass of Champagne, so either save a little or order another glass. I recommend the latter.

For mains there is so much to choose from (particularly tantalising at our neighbours table was the 48 hour pre-order Fruits de Mer), but we opted for a good old classic of sharing roast beef. But this wasn’t just any roast beef, this was roast Cumbrian beef Chateaubriand served with all the trimming. The meat if I’m being picky could have been a touch warmer (I think that’s always the case with a roast), but the cooking of it, the flavour and texture was just exquisite. I can’t remember the last time I had beef with as much flavour as this had.

The sides were excellent too. The crispest of roast potatoes, vegetables with a nice crunch and what might be the best Yorkshire pudding in history, filled with cauliflower cheese sauce and slow cooked meat (I think). It was all so good I ate most of it before taking a further look (or photos). The gravy was rich and glossy, the béarnaise sauce was a dream and braised onions and roasted garlic bulbs that came with the meat went incredibly well with everything on our table.

Looking back we wished we ordered the rice pudding baked soufflé to share, because it looked incredible at our neighbouring table and was the size of a small basketball – but the dessert table is equally as impressive, if not more. You can visit the dessert table as many times as you like and I really did try my best to work my way through them all – but only managed three. My favourite was this chocolate cake pictured above, it was moist, intensely chocolatey and visually it looked far too delicious to resist.

For the quality of food, opulence of the dining room and immaculate service, I think this Sunday lunch is a bit of a bargain to be quite honest. The Corinthia may have turned my food hell into my food heaven, but something tells me I’m not going to find another Sunday lunch as good as this one anytime soon. Would we come back? Absolutely. It’s London’s finest Sunday lunch – fact!

NB: My meal was complimentary. All views are as always, my own. My views are not influenced by anyone other than my own palate and slightly poor eyesight.