Happy Thanksgiving! I will confess that I had other plans for Thanksgiving this year, but I could not do them in the end as "home renovation phase two" is taking place at the moment, and I've got to save money and also be around for input. So, I booked the Riding House Cafe for Thanksgiving a few weeks ago. This Thanksgiving had come up on my radar, so I had high expectations.
Riding House Cafe is located at the top of Upper Regent Street and a couple of blocks past Great Portland Street. It is a trendy bar and cafe, and it is often frequented by television and radio personalities.
The Thanskgiving menu is a set price including sharing platters of the sides, main, and dessert. It also includes a pre-dinner cocktail, known as "Ginger Pilgrim", a cocktail made of bourbon, honey, lemon and ginger. Thanksgiving begins at Riding House Cafe from 4:00pm. Apparently, the day is popular at the cafe and they struggle to fit everyone in.
The meal was brought out all at once with the plates to eat off of. There was a slice of turkey each, sausage stuffing, maple sweet potato mash, macaroni and cheese, creamed corn, glazed sprouts with bacon, green beans with praline, Calvados gravy, and cranberry/orange relish. For dessert, we were brought a sliver of pumpkin pie and a sliver of pecan pie.
I had high expectations and did not really care much for the food. We only got one slice of turkey, which was mainly brown meat but reformed slices. The green beans and sprouts were too under-cooked and needed a few more minutes because they tasted raw. I did like the creamed corn and the macaroni and cheese. Unfortunately, Riding House Cafe did not really wow me.
If you're looking for Thanksgiving Day feast in London, please also read some of my other posts and reviews for the places that I have tried:
Thanksgiving Day with Benjamin Franklin House @ Clothworker's Hall (London)
Thanksgiving Lunch @ Jackson + Rye, Chiswick
Thanksgiving at The Jones Family Project
Thanksgiving at Balthazar (Covent Garden)
Thanksgiving at Christopher's Restaurant in London (Covent Garden)
If you're not in London but in England for Thanksgiving, you can also try to find a Toby Carvery. I've eaten a Thanksgiving meal there before as well, and it's a standard British roast carvery meal, and they have a selection of meats (and vegetarian options) to choose from in case you don't want just turkey or want to avoid the turkey on Thanksgiving Day.
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