Review: eating well at Ekstedt at The Yard and The Parlour at Great Scotland Yard (Part 2)

This is our review of the Great Scotland Yard Hotel, part of Hyatt’s Unbound Collection and probably the best Hyatt property in London.

Part 1, click here, looked at the location, the rooms and the gym. In this part, I look at the bars, the impressive Ekstedt at The Yard restaurant and The Parlour, where I enjoyed afternoon tea.

Breakfast at The Yard

Ekstedt at The Yard is the main restaurant of the hotel which I will cover in a minute. It is here where breakfast is served as well, although it is not run by the Ekstedt team.

It was not busy when I was there, but clearly there are plenty of competing breakfast options near the hotel. The price for the continental buffet is £25 and if you add an option from a la carte it is £30. I’d recommend the latter as the extra £5 is well worth it to receive a hot item as well. A World of Hyatt Globalist member would get breakfast for free, of course.

The continental buffet is relatively small but very well equipped and very good quality. Below you can see the salmon and cold cuts as well as various cheeses. Further back in the picture are a few dips and fresh salad.

Yoghurts, dried fruits and cereals are offered in this section:

In another part of the room are bread and pastries. Croissants and pastries are kept under a warming lamp for that ‘fresh out of the oven’ taste.

and

The a la carte choices are quite extensive including an Apple Bircher Muesli & Berry Compote, various egg dishes, porridge and a Breakfast Sandwich (basically a bacon or sausage roll) served with fried egg. You can order an a la carte item on its own if you don’t want the full buffet.

I had avocado & tomatoes and cherry molasses on sourdough bread with poached egg, which is £16 if ordered on its own. It was big, filling and very delicious.

The 40 Elephants Bar

The bar is entered from the lobby and is named after a famous all-female criminal gang operating from Elephant & Castle in the last century. The chandelier design is apparently a reference to glass shards from broken shop windows ….

…. whilst the wall seats are a reproduction from old Metropolitan Police carriages. It’s not a huge space but was never busy – some people had a drink here before heading into Ekstedt.

The bar offers snacks, larger bites, sides and desserts between 12pm and 10.30pm. Larger bites include guacamole, roast feta and homemade tortillas for £12 and a club sandwich served on pain de mie for £24.

Sibin Speakeasy

Great Scotland Yard also has a ‘secret’ speakeasy bar, originally a whisky bar but now offering other spirits as well. The entrance is somewhat obscured behind a “book shelf” and you can get in by pressing a button to the right or moving a specific book.

This bar has a stage and the ceiling is decorated with empty bottles!

Besides the long bar itself there are cosy corners to sit in groups and enjoy drinks and music.

Every Thursday and Friday is live jazz night from 8.30pm to 11pm organised in collaboration with Jazz London Radio. I was there on the Thursday night and the music was impressive. There were only about 10 people in the bar when I was there around 9pm – the rest of the hotel guests were missing out.

Dinner at Ekstedt at The Yard

Ekstedt at The Yard is a real destination for foodies. Even if you have no need to ever stay in the hotel due to living in London, I’d recommend a meal here.

Overseen by Michelin starred chef Niklas Ekstedt it offers his signature dishes prepared in wood fire, smoke or ash in traditional Scandinavian style using British ingredients.

It is genuinely something different. Note that Ekstedt only operates from 6pm to 9pm, Tuesday to Saturday, with the restaurant operating as a more ‘standard’ hotel dining room at other times.

As I mentioned above when discussing breakfast the restaurant is very inviting, even more so at night in the dimmed light.

The kitchen is open and you are sitting very close to the open fires as the food is prepared.

Guests can chose from an a la carte menu or a six course ‘Journey to Scandinavia’ tasting menu for £115. Two optional wine pairings are available for an additional £85 or £115 per person.

Rob had popped along for dinner and we went for the a la carte option. Three courses cost £85 but hotel guests will receive 20% off their bill. Our meal was comped by Hyatt as part of the review.

After a delicious amuse bouche we received our starters. Here is the Seaweed Baked Carrot (fermented carrot, sea buckthorn foam) which was very tasty.

Between the starter and the main (not, note, at the beginning of the meal) we received some fantastic bread with home made butter which was placed into a sour liquid dip.

For my main I had Juniper Smoked Duck Breast which was left to smoulder at the table ….

…. and was then served with butter vinaigrette and Jerusalem artichoke. We try to avoid in-depth food reviews on HfP but honestly, it was divine.

Dessert was toasted almond ice cream in poached rhubarb and charcoal torched meringue. (What does this mean? It means your plate comes with a large chunk of meringue and then red hot charcoal blocks are brought to the table and pressed into the meringue, hence the scorch marks you can see below.)

The menu then said FIKA which I needed to look up and means “The Swedish Art of FIKA: Coffee, Cake and Catch-Ups”. So Rob and I did our best.

Each course came with an optional wine pairing recommended by the house sommelier.

The atmosphere in the restaurant was very laid back and not in the slightest bit stuffy. There was a group of business people, there was a family group with small children, there were solo diners and there were young couples. Ekstedt is definitely not the preserve of wealthy retirees, which is the core client at many high end London restaurants these days.

Champagne afternoon tea in The Parlour

The Parlour is on the lobby level and offers afternoon tea (12pm-7pm), lunch (12pm-2pm) and earlier dinners (6pm-8.30pm) for anyone who doesn’t want a gourmet experience at Ekstedt or the bar menu. Dinner options include squash soup for £13, Scottish salmon with Jerusalem artichokes, dill and samphire for £26 and baked cheesecake with berry compote for £9.

The decoration reminds you of colonial life and is in fact based on the Imperial Hotel in Delhi, which I visited around 2005 and was – hopefully still is – a beautifully maintained historic hotel.

…. and from the other side:

The highlight here is definitely the afternoon tea. My stay included the Champagne afternoon tea (£70 per person) for two, so I invited Katie over from the HfP office for a break from negotiating ad deals!

It was quite a sophisticated affair, as you’d expect from the price, with the tea preparation celebrated on a tea trolley. The Parlour collaborates with heritage perfumery Floris London, both to scent the room – which changes every season – and to add traces of fragrance to some cakes. The current spring fragrance can also be purchased.

This is the sweet étagère (we had a savory étagère before that) which also included scones and a wonderful rhubarb and rose jam.

Here’s a close-up of the cakes which tasted as good as they looked, although they were rather big.

The Parlour is definitely worth considering if you are looking for a different afternoon tea venue, especially as you can also check out the mini museum of police memorabilia in the lobby.

Conclusion

The Great Scotland Yard Hotel is a success on all levels – location, interior and food. I have rarely stayed in a hotel where every detail was so well thought through from a practical and aesthetic point of view.

The location is great for most tourists – central but on a quiet street – and is perfect starting point to discover the key sites in London. Ekstedt at The Yard was a revelation to Rob and myself and we fully intend to return.

The Great Scotland Yard Hotel is a Category 6 hotel in World of Hyatt which means you’ll need 25,000 points per night on a ‘standard’ date (it is 21,000 points off-peak and 29,000 points peak).

Cash prices start at £285 in early April. If you have children, the hotel sells guaranteed connecting rooms with a king bed linked to a twin.

You can see more, and book, on the hotel website here.

PS. If you are booking a stay at Great Scotland Yard, even for just one night, you will receive Hyatt Prive benefits if you book via our luxury hotel booking partner Bon Vivant.

Your booking would come with:

• $100 hotel credit valid against your incidental spend
• One category room upgrade confirmed within 24 hours of booking
• Daily full breakfast for two
• Early check-in (from 9am) and late check-out (to 4pm) subject to availability
• Welcome gift and letter

You would pay the same as the Best Flexible Rate shown on hyatt.com and you pay on departure as usual. You can contact Bon Vivant via the form here. You can learn more about how Hyatt Prive works in this article.

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