Siren at The Goring, London SW1: restaurant review

This summer (2019) The Goring officially opened the doors to its latest, most casual, dining spot – the first to open at the hotel for more than 109 years.

Who's cooking at Siren?

Inspired by The Goring’s strong family ties to Cornwall, the master of modern fish and shellfish cookery, Nathan Outlaw, has created the menu at Siren.

What's the vibe like at Siren?

Through the recently relaunched The Goring Bar is where you’ll find Siren, in the hotel’s orangery, overlooking a secret, perfectly manicured garden. This is The Goring’s take on casual – so it’s still fancy. Expect marble-topped tables, a mix of floral and velvet upholstered chairs, plush carpets (hooray for the acoustics!), glass sea urchin candle holders and a couple of living trees thrown in for good measure.

What's the food like at Siren?

You know you’re in a safe pair of hands with Nathan Outlaw at the helm – but at his new London home, he continues to surprise and raise the bar. From the bread – a fist-sized crusty loaf, warm and pre-sliced – arriving with a puck of seafood-speckled butter and creamy, sea-salty whipped cod’s roe flecked with paprika, right through to the seasonal desserts (on our visit, a vat of crème brûlée with diamonds of gently poached rhubarb).

Starters are a fresh and confident introduction to the seafood Nathan adores. Cornish crab risotto is the right side of soupy, still holding its bite and bursting with brackish flavour thanks to a shellfish stock and sea vegetables, plus sweet tomatoes and aniseedy tarragon. The best bit though, is that it’s piled high with delicate picked white crab meat. Cuttlefish black pudding is genius – surf and turf reimagined – with soft, spiced blood pudding peppered with bouncy pearls of cuttlefish, a crunchy kohlrabi remoulade, and an apple-tarte-tatin-like, deeply caramelised apple sauce.

Mains read like the best of Britain’s species – with the likes of baked hake and seaweed hollandaise, herbed and battered turbot with warm tartare sauce, and Dover sole with cockles and clams and clotted cream sauce, featuring on the menu. We’re wooed, though, by the daily special – on our visit, a platter of poached lobster, two variety of clams, mussels the colour of amber, and a pleasingly chubby scallop all bathed in a golden garlic, herb and chilli butter. Let yourself be wooed, too.

And the drinks?

Take advantage of the bar’s recent facelift and order a garden negroni (Grandpa Goring’s favourite drink, apparently) made with Cornish gin, vermouth, Luxardo bitter bianco, Seedlip Garden, matcha tea and red amaranth. Or make like we did, and stick to a bottle of aromatic Loire Valley sancerre (Lucien Crochet 2017), whose fresh and flinty flavour married perfectly with all that shellfish.

olive tip

Don’t skip the sides – crispy potatoes with garlic mayo and shredded herbs, a rainbow of marinated heritage tomatoes and pickled pink shallots, and buttered rainbow chard were all welcome additions to our seafood party.

Siren, The Goring, 15 Beeston Place, London SW1W 0JW

Words by Laura Rowe