Commonwealth Club

Décor is a bit hotel like but staff were fab, food amazing and they have a brilliant menu that changes weekly (I think) to reflect the different countries of the commonwealth. It is average price for where you are and what you get but I would recommend it if in the area and looking for some different, good quality food to try.

I dined here mid-​week recently. A choice of three warm bread rolls to choose from and a surprise to be served a delightful amuse bouche of an apple jelly with a celeriac cream before our starters.
The Market Menu (three choices for each course) was good value at £13 for a main course, 2 courses for £16 or 3 courses for £20. I tried the squid starter which consisted of eight delicate and non greasy crispy squid rings served with a lovely light tartar sauce. Slightly tough, but not chewy and some would likely be disappointed by the portion size. I tried the liver main course which was simple and edible, but far from remarkable.
My b/f’s choice from the a la carte of the wood pigeon starter with pickled chanterelles was lovely, and the beef main course was a pleasing dish. Whilst dessert of chocolate sponge with valrhona chocolate sauce and a eucalyptus and mint ice cream cleansed the palate quite nicely.
Overall it was an enjoyable meal offering relatively good value for money. I also couldn’t fault the service one bit (really friendly and warm staff, who got the balance just right in terms of their attentiveness).

It was time for one of our occasional meet ups with the lovely Ms Mapp and we booked a table at the Commonwealth Kitchen on the day we were eating (a couple of Tuesday’s ago) via «top table» to take advantage of the 50% off the food bill offer.
After a quick drink in the nearby Ship and Shovel we arrived at the almost totally empty restaurant at 7pm and we were shown straight to our very elegant table at the far end of the room. Before getting down to some serious chat and gossip we took a moment to admire the lovely, well thought out space and sophisticated décor; this looks and feels like a restaurant called the Commonwealth Kitchen should.
As ever with Ms Mapp the whole evening is a bit of a blur but I do remember that the amuse buche of apple jelly with celeriac cream and topped with nuts was a very unusual but tasty way to kick the meal off.
Our starters of «just in» Sussex asparagus with deep fried quails eggs was perfectly cooked and a great combination of delicate flavours. Presentation, like all of our dishes during the meal, was lovely without being over fussy.
My main was a trio of cuts of beef cooked in three different ways which came with black pudding and sat on a bed of almost risotto like braised beans and tiny vegetables. Very tasty but much too much for me to finish. The ladies had the ling which got a big thumbs up. A nice touch was that each main dish came with a choice of vegetables or potatoes included in the price.
To finish I had the pineapple which was fab; a combination of a roasted ring topped with scoop of sorbet, a small pile of shaved fresh fruit and a mound of mousse. Ms Mapp had the British cheese selection which was plenty for two to share and got big smiles from the ladies.
What we were washing this down with I really don’t remember but one of the bottles was the selection of the week which we seemed to like quite a lot.
Service throughout the evening was friendly and efficient; not much waiting between courses without feeling rushed. There was a bit of drama in the serving as the food was ceremoniously brought out on trays by one waiter and then served by another waiter with a running commentary on the dish being placed before you.
The restaurant had filled up a bit by the time we left around 9.30pm. It was by no means full and was a bit lacking in atmosphere; unless that it is you had brought your own. Hopefully this means that the 50% off deal will be running for a while yet and I can suggest it as a potential location for the future gathering of the supper club.

Went for a dinner on Mon, very disappointed.
The food was horrible, really sub-​average. Only the complementary bread was nice and warm.
There’s no ambience, just 2 more tables occupied.
The service was good though.
Even with a groupon discount of 60% I feel like I’ve overpaid.

I was recently given the pleasure of dining here as part of a qype preview evening on January 19^th, along with a number of other qypers, to mark the change of the restaurant from private members only to open to the general public. I’d never known there was a restaurant at the Commonwealth Club and the idea of opening up to the public sounded like it would be the start of something special, so I jumped at the chance to get involved.
We were to have a five-​course taster menu with each course accompanied by a specially suited glass of wine, which I thought was a really nice touch and I found all of the wines rather nice, particularly the Rhine Reisling (South Africa).
We were seated as a group with a row of two-​person tables collected together in the centre of the room, which is enormous, with a very high ceiling.
The ambience of the place really does not suit a restaurant, sadly: the large space with mostly plain white walls and bright, sharp and non-​defused listing makes the room feel more like a gallery than a restaurant. It was, sadly, not the most intimate of locations which is a quality I look for in a restaurant (Thyme in Greenwich or Arbutrus in Soho are great example). Thankfully, the walls were not plain white but instead featured a few large-​scale paintings, one of which was a rather dissapointingly cheesy shot of London.
To my mind, with the white walls and high ceilings, I think it would be hard to improve the atmosphere, but I have an idea: how about hanging paintings around the room, possibly a few rows up each wall and perhaps alter the lighting to give a more diffused, warm light.
The food, however, is primarily what a restaurant is for and we sat and were brought rolls and butter. I felt somewhat disappointed by these as they were (for each variety) almost exactly identical as if stamped by a machine which somewhat jaded my experience. foodservice quality wasn’t something I was expecting; what would’ve been ideal would be bread made on the premises — a restaurant whos appearances made me this it was high calibre wouldn’t use food-​service products. Served with cold, hard butter meant I made a bit of a mess of mine. The best way, in my mind is to have butter at room temperature, or olive oil, so people’s gastronomic experience begins right at the start.
Starter 1: we were treated with a starter of scallop, something I’ve never had before. I’m normally squeamish of shellfish but thought I’d give it a try — I was pleasantly surprised. Nicely cooked, well presented and quite tasty.
Starter 2: smoked wild duck, lightly curried lentil soup, pomegranate salad. This was rather nice and again well presented but quite a small portion. It was after this that I started to wonder what the restaurant was trying to do, as I thought that the combination of flavours was just a little, well, odd.
Main 1: North Scotland monkfish, mussels, orzo pasta and shellfish nage. This was wonderful, although the smell of the ‘shellfish nage’ (I’ve no idea what ‘nage’ is but I assume some form of sauce), permeated the room for a while afterwords. Lovely fish, nice pasta and, sadly, I couldn’t bring myself to try the mussel.
Main 2: Chard farm venison ‘roast and braised’ confit celeriac, red cabbage and bitter chocolate jus. Lovely flavours, great presentation but a little cool when it reached me. I’ve never had a roast and braised combination and I’m happy to say it works well.
Dessert 1: Blood orange sorbet, candied ginger. To me, this was my favourite dish of the evening, after the monkfish (in spite of the seafood smell). The sorbet was wonderful — tangy and only a little sweet, as sorbets should be. The candied ginger seemed pointless and came over a little crunch; I would like to see the sorbet served on a restaurant made thin ginger biscuit. I think the extra ‘crunch’ from the biscuit, combined with the tang of the sorbet would be a hell of a way to end a meal.
Dessert 2: Spiced apple cake and blackberry variations. Oddly enough, I don’t remember the apple cake. I guess it really didn’t leave that great an impression on me. The blackberry variations did, however and I was very impressed by how these tasted and were presented. Odd time of year for blackberries though, so I wonder where they came from.
Overall, I had doubts about this restaurant. I was lucky enough to be seated two seats from the manager, who was kind enough to join us and he told me that, as they were new to the public, they were still finding their feet.
I entirely understand this because the restaurant, as a whole, appears confused and, sadly, very overpriced. Portion sizes such as were provided were quite small, which would be fine in a very fine restaurant but the atmosphere we were in simply did not suit that and the food-​service rolls were a real turn off, as was the random way the waiting staff were dressed: everyone differently, although to a same basic colour scheme. The high ceilings and long history

I was one of the lucky bods who got to sample some of the very first public servings of the gorgeous nosh at The Commonwealth Club. There’s so much to gush about I’ve forced myself to nail the best three things for your reading pleasure:
Number 3: Slithers of duck, rocket and bright pops of pomegranate can be intoxicatingly good when lavished in a lightly curried dahl. Who knew?
Number 2: Orzo, must cook more orzo. This creamy dollop of goodness was full of flavour. Think ‘essence of the ocean’, crank to 10. Outstanding.
And coming in at number 1: Iced cider. I’d never even heard of iced cider before, but now I know it is about a gazillion times better than dessert wine but incredibly difficult to find. The stuff smells like a good night out and tastes as sweet as the freshest picked baby apple you could ever imagine. Definitely one of your five a day.
I would highly recommend Commonwealth Club as a seal the deal kinda place. And I mean the traditional, business kinda deal. Also, I imagine its history would make a great spot to entertain guests from out of town.

I was another one lucky enough to be treated to a taster menu as part of a qype event, and I was definitely glad I put my name down. It was a lovely night of great food and great company in a really interesting setting.
The restaurant itself, as others have mentioned, does lack the intimacy you might expect from a members’ club, but the high ceilings and light paintwork give it an airy, welcoming feel that makes you feel a little more like you won’t be chucked out for, say, balancing a spoon on your nose (you know who you are…). This is a venue for business meetings where you need to impress rather than romantic dates, which makes sense given its history.
The food was hard to fault, from beautifully cooked orzo and seafood through to my favourite, the venison. Portions were small in a ‘give us a Michelin star’ way, but everything was cooked so well it was nice to savour what was there. I have always been wary of restaurants that put more effort into the presentation and ‘trendiness’ of a dish than the taste, but here they seem to have balanced the two well. There were plenty of unindentifiable reductions smeared artistically on plates — which to be honest is not my type of food — but they all tasted like they were there for a reason and I cleared my plate with every course. I would say that I thought one solitary scallop on a plate was particularly measly, but at that point I hadn’t realised it was the first of half a dozen courses.
The wines we tried were well chosen to accompany each course — especially the red — but I think most will agree that the iced cider was the hit of the night. Apparently it’s difficult to get hold of, so if you do visit, make sure you try some at the end of the meal, especially if you’re getting something with apples or blackberries for dessert.
Service was generally good, with friendly and attentive staff, though I was inexplicably missed out of service at one point, and had to wait a while for my duck while everyone else had theirs. I’ll put this down to teething problems, and it was rectified with many apologies as soon as someone noticed, so no harm done.

Had I been around 50 or 100 years ago, I imagine myself to be the type to recline on a large leather seat, sherry in one hand, Financial Times in the other, sharing stories of my visits to India and South America and other important conversation with similar notable gentlemen at a members’ only club in central London. I should like to be called to dinner, after which I should like cheese brought out for my choosing on a trolley with the option of graduating to the cigar terrace afterwards to discuss matters of life and politics. Pretentious, yes. Deluded, probably. Irrelevant to this review, er, possibly.
Anyway the upshot is that I’m drawn to places that are equally good for business meetings as they are for romance. (Many find this odd, I know.) Searcys gets this spot-​on, whether you are drinking Champagne at St Pancras or Westfield or enjoying fine dining at the Commonwealth Club.
It’s an interesting place with what I can only imagine is an even more interesting history; the interior is glassy and classy, set upon a ground floor and mezzanine with bars on both, and tables arranged cleverly throughout the ground floor restaurant. I say cleverly because each table has a unique spacial character (I mean spacial, but it’s special as well), different height ceilings, built-​in seat backrests, some facing only one way. The one thing they all have in common: lots of surrounding space. This makes it the perfect place for a romantic, quiet dinner for two whilst still catering for e.g. a large family party of 10. I personally find table layout and atmosphere something that is really important in good dining, and I really enjoy large spaces. The Commonwealth Club was lovely for me in those respects.
Rather than give a detailed review about everything I ate (I’ve done that elsewhere), I’ll summarise quickly by saying that if you like a minimalistic style of food — that is where portions are small but the ideas behind them are big — then the food will make you very happy.
The presentation of every single dish I had was absolutely perfect. Neither a misplaced crumb nor errant spot of sauce. But more importantly each and every dish brought out was something to talk about in itself; the flavours well-​combined and intense (for example the combination of venison and a bitter chocolate jus), the textures varied within the plate (for example our dessert which was a bready apple and raisin cake combined with the creamiest blackberry ice cream, a blackberry sugar snap, some crunch, and a delicious blackberry sauce), and the experience a little left of centre (for example the very random side plate of Romanesco broccoli, a delicious (ironic?) nod to the British ‘side plate of vegetables’).
As other reviewers have pointed-​out, the Ice Cider was a superb hit. Right up until the point it hit my lips I was expecting a dessert wine. I have trouble with dessert wine and its associated connoisseurship; to me there are not nearly as many flavours as in wine or coffee, they all taste fortified and a bit syruppy. My delight when this dry apply stuff hit my lips then? I have been talking about it ever since.
Service was top-​notch too. The waiting staff and manager were extremely efficient, polite, and personable. This is doubtless five-​star dining without any of the hype, and with reasonable prices to boot.
When you make a visit, be sure to wander around the block a few times and take in London at its very loveliest, Whitehall, Great Scotland Yard, Horse Guard’s Ave, Downing Street.

Went for a meal to their new Restrauant. The menu is limited but good, in fact I feel that due to the smallnes of their options it makes it better.
The food was good, well cooked and well presented, we had a 50% voucher, so was quite cheap. Bill for 4 would have been £200, which would not have been worth it. But for £100 was very good.
As it has just opened, can not be critical of service, but only a few people there yet we still had to wait over 30 mins for our food and to be served.
The décor is minimal, and does not really work.

It’s very easy to walk past this restaurant, as from the outside you’d have no idea that it housed a bar and place to eat. I imagine this is because a lot of members clubs deliberately want to hide themselves, so only the select few know where they are.
Luckily for us The Commonwealth Club’s kitchen is now open to the public and it’s a great place to enjoy some extremely well presented and tasty food in a light and airy non crowded environment.
You feel as though you’re in one of the more accessible private member’s clubs, with very attentive service and attention to detail, but without having to pay for the privilege of joining.
Monkfish with orzo pasta was wonderful (although I probably could have done with a larger portion), but that wouldn’t have left room for the very well cooked venison & pretty tasty apple cake with blackberry variations which followed. One of the better combinations of Apple & Blackberry (although a tech partnership of mobile handsets did come to mind).
The dessert came with a standout glass of sweet cider which was a real eye opener (or should that be tongue opener) for me, as I’m not a fan of cider.
I was kindly treated to a meal here as part of a Qype Guru event, but having looked at the prices on the menu, I’d definitely return, as it’s very affordable for the standard of food & general ambience.

Every now and again, one comes across a restaurant that’s worth not eating much in the daytime for. Ah, here’s one. I found this place because I was invited to attend a Qype event here and try out the menu. Looking at the prices I would say that the value /​tasty ratio is favourable and this place is going straight into my Good Value Grub guide once I’ve penned this missive to you, gentle foodie reader.
I say, old bean, walking into the Commonwealth Kitchen felt like I was being allowed into a rather swanky, yet (thank goodness) relaxed old members’ club. Don’t worry, one don’t have to dress up too much, all the same I was glad I didn’t have one’s Three Keyboard Cat Moon t-​shirt on. One could even rock a cocktail dress here.
The contemporary-​designed dining area is part of the Commonwealth Club situated just next door to the Sherlock Holmes pub, and a couple of minute’s walk from Nelson’s Column.
Right. You will need a couple of hours to get the best out of this place, it’s a destination dinner as opposed to a transient one you’d gobble down on the way to the cinema. You will also need to make sure to wear loose clothing.
Initial thoughts were on how friendly the staff were, and their willingness to change what I had to accommodate the fact that I don’t eat seafood was greatly appreciated. I called it a very unshellfish act.
Puns aside, my broccoli veloute was a smooth and shiny soup which had a pleasing texture and fresh flavour. I then had the monkfish with baby gem foam and savoy cabbage, but the standout for me was the butternut squash risotto, which probably counts among the top 5 risottos I’ve had in my life.
The other winner was the palate cleanser after the main course, a blood orange and candied ginger sorbet. This was delicious, despite the fact I don’t really like blood orange or candied ginger. Of course I had room for dessert, which was duly stuffed in along with the rest of the banquet.
So, here’s a place where you can dress how you like, like eating stuff you might not like — and — like the food, like the décor and if you have good company (like I did), you’ll like the entire evening. What’s not to like?

We were looking for somewhere to go after a meeting at the House of Commons and they’ve just opened up their restaurant to the public. In January there’s a 50% off deal on the website which seemed too good to pass up. The dining room is a bit hotel-​soulless, but we were given one of the comfy circular banquettes, which was more cosy. They offered a choice of warm rolls — including walnut and multigrain, once we’d sat down, which was a good start… and as soon as I saw my favourite butternut squash risotto on the menu (with roasted salsify and a blue-​bark pumpkin purée) — I was pretty much sold. It arrived very prettily presented with a disc of parmesan crisp balanced on top of the salisfy — the risotto was delicious, very silky with a beautiful flavour. My friend enjoyed her cod dish (I’ve forgotten what fancy accompaniments it came with, some kind of mushroom foam concoction) and we both had slightly cold side dishes of kale. But hey, it’s good for you. Rather eccentrically I ordered the rice pudding for dessert (twice the rice is twice as nice?) as there wasn’t another pudding I liked on the (shortish) menu… it was really good too, and came dotted with some beads of pomegranite and a very crisp, buttery cardamon biscuit. Service was very sweet but not exactly brisk … but with the 50% off deal it was amazing value. And there’s nowhere else in Westminster…

Founded in 1868 as a gentleman’s club where entrepreneurs and businessmen gathered to discuss issues of colonial interest, The Commonwealth Club is today an accessible and modern members club.
Newly refurbed with a contemporary feel while still retaining the right bits of old school charm, it’s a lovely venue in a central location with a tasty modern European menu served in its swish, new restaurant operated by Searcy’s under the guidance of head chef Oliver Tobias.
The club’s restaurant, Commonwealth Kitchen, is a comfortable place for a fine meal. Setting a historic tone to this otherwise contemporary setting is an impressive and rather large colonial style clock suspended above the dining room’s entrance. Commissioned by Edward VII before he died in 1910, the clock tells the time in all 54 Commonwealth countries and links the club to its British Empire past.
Perhaps more deserving of consideration than the Imperial clock and the swish setting is the restaurant’s menu. Starter courses like poached sea bass with pumpkin, cranberry and tarragon vierge and marinated squid with stuffed queen olives, red pepper and caper ketchup are as attractive in presentation as they are intriguingly flavourful. A main course of Chard Farm venison with roast and braised confit celeriac, red cabbage and bitter chocolate jus was ideal for my blustery December night visit. Butternut squash risotto with iron bark pumpkin purée, salsify and parmesan crisp was satisfying too. And a milky, refreshing and palate cleansing peppermint tea panna cotta with Turkish delight and almond grue might actually be worth a repeat visit alone.

I came here for a planning meeting. I had heard that this place was posh so I expected posh interiors and pretentious staff. While the interior is beautiful/​amazing/​modern, the staff were surprisingly friendly. This place is huge and suitable to fit groups of 2 to well over 300. There are numerous rooms of various shapes and sizes depending on whether you want to have a meeting or a wedding. The prices of refreshments isn’t too bad. For our meeting we ordered a two carafes of coffee, one pot of tea and three bottled waters which added up to a 42 quid bill. Split between eight people that works out to less than 6 GBP per person. That isn’t too bad considering we each had about two cups of coffee/​tea each and two glasses of water. I unfortunately only got to check out the basement area. I would love to be able to explore the rest of the venue.