There's nothing like a good birthday party – something the legendary team at iconic London restaurant St John Smithfield know all too well. So to mark the restaurant's 30th anniversary, founders Fergus Henderson and Trevor Gulliver will be putting on what might just be the table to book this autumn: a limited run of the restaurant's original 1994 menu – at original prices, no less.
The special menu is the first in a run of celebrations that mark the long-standing allure of the London institution. What's now one of London's best-loved restaurants opened its doors for the first time at an ex-smokehouse in Spitalfields Market in 1994. The nose-to-tail, stripped-back yet elevated cooking was a game-changer on the capital's food scene, leading the charge on a wave of restaurants that would embrace British cooking, seasonable ingredients and a sustainable cooking style that never skimps on flavour in the decades that followed – the restaurant's impact can be felt all over our dining scene 30 years later. Plus, it's been a hotbed for nurturing some of the most exciting talent on the food scene – think Ravneet Gill and Black Axe Mangal's Lee Tiernan.
Available on weekdays from 9-27 September, the twice-daily changing menu will include many of the classics that eager London foodies have come to love, such as crispy fried pig tail, eel, bacon and mash and, of course, arguably London's most recognisable dish – the roast bone marrow and parsley salad. “Generous slabs of sourdough (baked in-house) are toasted over open flames, perfect for soaking up a glorious scoop of roasted veal bone marrow,” we explained when we tried the dish recently for our feature on London's most iconic restaurant dishes.
Bookings open at 10am on Thursday 22 August 2024 via OpenTable and are set to be the most coveted lunch in town this September.