The Guinea Grill
A FAVOURITE HAUNT of generations of the cognoscenti, the pub in which The Guinea Grill is housed has the longest pedigree of any business in this book. Indeed, it’s older than the adjacent Berkeley Square by more than three centuries. Since its earliest days, when it functioned as a de facto social club and speakeasy for American diplomats and senior officers stationed in London during the Second World War, the Grill thrives off its reputation for discretion. That makes it extremely attractive to those who like to enjoy a capital lunch without attracting unseemly attention. The fact that it was frequented in her day by Greta Garbo speaks volumes. Elizabeth Taylor, Audrey Hepburn and Princess Margaret were also known to drop by, although there’s no escaping the fact that this is, at heart, a male-oriented establishment.
Unpretentious, timeless and traditional: the same adjectives can be applied to The Guinea Grill’s cooking as to its pleasantly shabby but clubbable décor, which hovers somewhere between that of a Victorian boozer and the Peers’ Dining Room in the Palace of Westminster. Prawn cocktail, smoked salmon, award-winning steak-and-kidney pie and truly exceptional dry-aged beef: this is uncomplicated grub geared towards the appetites of ex-public schoolboys and business bigwigs who’ve been known to close mega-deals over the crisp tablecloths and bottles of burgundy.
See also: Noble Rot, The Quality Chop House, Simpson’s Tavern
