Covent Garden, American Restaurant Guide

2021 Review: In less than 20 years, Danny Meyer has transformed his New York City hot-dog cart into a global fast-food brand giant with eight outlets in London – including a Covent Garden flagship that was revamped earlier this year. Ratings remain remarkably solid for “a chain that does what it’s supposed to do”.

Giant nachos, a bucket of beer and a platter of jumbo shrimp – if that sounds, good head off to these “large and vibrant” US-style ‘Bar.B.Q & Crabshacks’, which have multiplied in recent years from their age-old Chelsea home to colonise Covent Garden, Canary Wharf and Westfield Stratford. They are the kind of places you can make a reservation for 20 and they won’t blink. Top Menu Tip – “great lunch and weekend deals”: e.g. “lobster, salad and chips with a glass of Prosecco for £15 in WC2 – what more could you ask for!”

This “big, buzzy faux-Parisian brasserie” in the heart of Covent Garden certainly looks the part, but it “can get very busy” and “extremely noisy” as a result. It provides “lots of classic French cuisine”, but with very mixed results: fans say it’s “executed pretty well” but reviews overall are often jaundiced – for example: “dull food, impossible to chat… really bad experience and a ridiculous bill”.

The Atrium – a “beautiful” glass-ceilinged space in a New York-style boutique hotel carved out of the former Bow Street Magistrates’ Court – is undoubtedly one of the most spectacular and “atmospheric” settings for a meal in Covent Garden. But one or two reporters feel that “they need a better menu” as the current one is “underwhelming” (“food was average with a few honourable exceptions”).

This Theatreland relic retains much of its 1970s Manhattan charm – it’s the long-established sibling to a famous NYC brasserie by Times Square, and moved five years ago to a new Covent Garden site just around the corner from the old one (though you’d never know: it looks just the same). As a destination for “great cocktails” it’s superb, but as a restaurant its retro American brasserie fare and steaks (with famous off-menu burger) is decidedly “tired and past its sell-by date”… as it has so often been over the decades.

Opened in 1870 as London’s first licensed casino, this impressive Covent Garden mansion is proof that it takes more than a fine space in a handy location to make a terrific eatery. Relaunched as a luxurious American restaurant in 1991 (by the son of a Tory grandee), it aims to import Manhattanite sophistication, top-quality surf ’n’ turf and high-class brunch to the capital, alongside a popular Martini bar. But, while it does still receive the odd nomination as a place for a business lunch, it’s largely ignored in our annual diners’ poll nowadays.

“Amazing grass-fed” USDA prime steaks (hand-cut and dry-aged for 28 days) are the USP of this NYC-based brand, whose London outpost has a Manhattan-esque location, on the ground floor of the landmark Adelphi Building, just off the Strand. No-one doubts the quality of the offering, and the odd reporter had their best meal of the year here (“amazing!”). But the level of value is a perennial issue and even a fan who rated their visit as “outstanding” noted: “the price is high… everyone seems to be either on holiday or on expenses!”