Something out of a Spectator reader’s dreams: The Guinea Grill reviewed

Back to the past: it’s safer there. There is a themed restaurant dedicated to George VI of all people, near Berkeley Square – a sort of Rainforest Café for monarchists who won’t sink to the Tiltyard Café at Hampton Court. I was looking for a restaurant my husband might like – Brexit, meat, maps of the Empire at its height in colour – and I found the Guinea Grill in Bruton Place. George VI isn’t a vivid monarch. He lived in the shadow of queens – one Mary, two Elizabeths – and on film he is always crying, or dying. In The Crown (Jared Harris, marvellous) he lost his lung. In The King’s Speech (Colin Firth, good, but handsome) he lost his happiness. I like to think George was tougher and less pitiable than the chronicles suggest. A themed restaurant is a start, and a good thing always: it believes in something.

There are two halves: the Young’s pub, which is all bustle and hot, male breath, and the restaurant, which is something out of a Spectator reader’s dreams

The shadow of queens is long. The Guinea Grill is George VI-themed, it is true, but it sits in Bruton Place because his famous daughter was born at 17 Bruton Street, the home of the parents of his famous wife. (The Queen Mother – ‘the steel marshmallow’ – loved Mayfair. When exiled to White Lodge in Richmond after her marriage, she sulked until George facilitated her return.) You can see the spot. The house is demolished but Elizabeth II’s birthplace is marked by a plaque on an office block near the Bentley showroom. George got the mews for his tribute restaurant and, if it feels typical, it also works. I can’t imagine his themed restaurant in marble.

Bruton Place is a mews in denial of its status: it’s the class system in bricks.