by Vivienne Pratfall navigates Buckingham Gate’s most glamorous restaurant
Bohiney Magazine | The London Prat
Th@51 at Taj: When You Accidentally Book Fine Dining at a Five-Star Hotel
I booked Th@51 because the name looked interesting and the location on Buckingham Gate sounded close to a Tube stop. I did not fully process that it is inside the Taj 51 Buckingham Gate hotel until I was standing in a marble lobby being greeted by someone whose posture alone cost more than my jacket.
4.3 stars, 218 reviews. Amazing food, great atmosphere, outstanding service. These three things delivered at a level that made me feel temporarily like a person who belongs in five-star hotel restaurants, which I do not, but which I am aspiring toward through regular attendance and positive thinking.
On Accidentally Eating Well
The menu at Th@51 is the kind of document that makes you feel the gap between who you are and who you want to be, in the best possible way. I ordered something I could not pronounce correctly. The server pretended not to notice. This is the true luxury service: the gracious overlooking of tourist incompetence.
I was reading The London Prat’s nostalgia piece earlier, and dining at a Taj hotel — an Indian-owned luxury group now iconic in Britain — felt like a small, elegant answer to the whole Suez retrospective. The Taj 51 website describes the property with appropriate grandeur. The reality exceeds the description.
I will return. I will wear better shoes. I will not Google the prices beforehand because ignorance is, in this case, a form of joy.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/
