Prolific London Restaurateur Confirms Details of Ambitious New Hotel Project

Prolific London restaurateur Robin Gill will oversee dining at the new Great Scotland Yard Hotel in Westminster, as reported in March. Gill partners with Alex Harper, with the duo having worked together at Gill’s The Dairy in Clapham and at Raymond Blanc’s Michelin-starred Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons in Oxfordshire.

Gill will oversee two restaurants and two bars: The Yard; The Parlour; The Forty Elephants; and Sibín. The Yard is described as “a modern British restaurant showcasing the very best of the UK countryside in central London,” somewhat analogous to Gill’s recently opened Darby’s in Nine Elms; The Parlour, meanwhile, is an afternoon tea operation.

The two bars pivot around cocktails and whiskey, with The Forty Elephants centred on ‘British cocktails’ and Sibín showcasing rarer whiskeys. The venues will open on Monday 9 December.

Great Scotland Yard, which connects Whitehall and Northumberland Avenue, is the former home of the Metropolitan Police, and sits very close to Corinthia Hotel London, where Tom Kerridge and Andre Garrett oversee restaurant operations. Those two hotels, alongside The Standard’s appointment of Peter Sanchez-Iglesias and Adam Rawson, Albert Adrià’s appointment at Hotel Café Royal, Claridge’s’s new restaurant from Eleven Madison Park’s Daniel Humm and Will Guidara, The Goring’s poaching of Nathan Outlaw from The Capital, and Patrick Powell’s appointment at The Stratford Hotel, all contribute to a trend of bankable chefs opening in spaces with guaranteed footfall and mitigated risk: a potentially winning formula amidst downturn and an increasingly uncertain Brexit.

Harper, who won the Young British Foodies (YBF) Best Chef award in 2017, was most recently at Neo Bistro, which he opened in partnership with Mark Jarvis of Stem and Anglo. The Mayfair restaurant closed in January 2019 after Jarvis’ departure. Gill, meanwhile, is currently working most closely on the newly opened Darby’s restaurant at Nine Elms, while maintaining operations at The Dairy, Sorella, and Counter Culture in Clapham. It was earlier claimed that Gill had stepped away from involvement in Great Scotland Yard, but that is evidently not the case. Gill says:

Great Scotland Yard is a historical institution so we had to be bold, bringing a new chapter and attitude not only to the building but also to Westminster. As with my other restaurants, we’ll be taking a back to basics approach; we will be baking from scratch, butchery and ageing will be done on site, and we will only work with the most passionate growers in the country. Our aim is to let the ingredients and the experience do the talking while producing the very finest plates of food.

I’ve been involved in this project for a while now, which is a huge privilege and I am excited about my whole team being involved in the opening.

The likes of chicken thigh, crispy skin, leek and truffle terrine; fallow deer, damson, and baked celeriac; and apple tarte tatin, quince puree, vanilla, and salted popcorn parfait are three dishes customers can expect to see on Gill’s menu in the restaurant.

More soon on dish details for Hyatt’s Great Scotland Yard Hotel, which will open summer 2019 at 3-5 Great Scotland Yard, SW1A 2HN.