Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Trip Report Dinner at The Wolseley

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Dinner at The Wolseley

Dinner at The Wolseley, Piccadilly.

The place was packed with Hen parties, ladies having fancy tea. Thankfully, I had made reservations.

Keith and I shared oysters, a bottle of Pommery, and each had Eggs Benedict. My eggs were with salmon and Keith's were with ham. The bill was sky high because of the Champagne.

The food was good, but the oysters weren't properly prepared. The adductor muscle was not severed on any of the oysters and we had to dig at them with prawn forks. WTF? I just couldn't believe a place like this doesn't know how to prepare oysters.

I would never return.

Thin,aristocrat 🥂

Not even an icy granita. I do like the silverware.

Too bad about the oysters...I have always enjoyed the Wolseley, breakfast being my favourite meal there...will be returning in December and look forward to my soft boiled egg and toast soldiers!

Love the Wolseley. We usually have breakfast there but I guess we need to try dinner some time.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pepper_von_snoot (Post 16980716)

If I saw a restaurant packed with hen parties, the last thing I would be is thankful that I made reservations. I would only be thankful if I made reservations somewhere else.

Local business people and others in the know (likely proper 'aristocrats' would also fall into this category) go to the Wolseley for a relatively cheap and quick breakfast and coffee over a newspaper. It's reasonably good for that. Just a moment of relaxation in a nice environment and fuel for the day - not much more. You don't do expensive dinners there unless you want to set yourself up for disappointment. Let the hen party types indulge in that. I don't mean this in a rude way and in fact, I felt sad for you when I read how you had oysters and spent a lot of money on champs there. So many better choices for a nice dinner.

My biggest complaint about the Wolseley is that it’s always so noisy. I do love their Eggs Benedict and, of course, fresh orange juice.

We had dinner at W some years ago..probably fifteen+.
It was a very nice (and rather expensive ) evening.
I walked in at lunch time this summer...the atmosphere seemed different.
Didn't stay.

Been to the Wolseley lots of times for dinner, most recently 3 weeks ago with friends. Never seen hen parties there & wouldn’t want to either, can’t imagine that in the evenings nor in the main part of the restaurant. Food has always been good enough for me, oysters would not be my thing to order in a restaurant but I believe that’s they way they serve them in some places.

The OP seems just a little contradictory (sorry thin) . . .

>>Dinner at The Wolseley, Piccadilly.

The place was packed with Hen parties, ladies having fancy tea.<<

Hen parties having posh afternoon teas the same time you and Kieth were having a fashionable dinner?? I've been to the Wolseley many times and have never seen a 'hen party tea' after maybe 5 PM. Just perhaps was the OP a teensy exaggeration??

The hen parties I’ve seen usually take place at a pub and the so-called hens are usually in silly dress and mostly drunk. Not the done thing at the Wolseley

Quote:

Originally Posted by janisj (Post 16981133)

I'm not an expert on hen parties but I can imagine that a boozy 'tea' at a place like the W would not be uncommon so I did not get the same alarm bells. 'Tea' may be used loosely here and while precision in whether they were in fact having the tea menu or not is probably not vital to the OP's point, the tea menu at the W apparently is offered until 6:30pm (plus 'lingering' time), overlapping with the dinner menu which apparently starts at an early 5:30pm. Anyway, the W is a rather casual place that serves food all day, non-stop (7am to 11pm) so hard distinctions in what meal people are eating is less important.

BTW, I realise that the view of the W in my previous post sounds more negative than I intended. My point was that (like just about everything) it's good for some things (simple breakfast which is pretty good value for money) and less good for others (expensive dinners), IMO.

I'm glad to see a post from Thin. And I love the photos.

The rest of your can figure out the "alarm bells" of your overactive imaginations.

Quote:

Originally Posted by suze (Post 16984156)

I'm glad to see a post from Thin. And I love the photos.

The rest of your can figure out the "alarm bells" of your overactive imaginations.

For the record, I got no alarm bells. Hen parties at the Wolseley when trying to have a 'classy' dinner there? Sure. Who eats dinner there anywhere? Hen parties? yeah, we can see that.:)