The Cookbook Cafe

A group of friends and I chose the Cookbook Café for our Christmas Dinner. I had heard good things about this spot, and had high hopes, but the meal was a bit of a letdown. Their Christmas menu was a set menu… a seafood buffet for a starter… a number of dishes served family style for the main meal… and a dessert/​cheese buffet to finish. The seafood buffet was fairly good (though I did have what was probably the worst piece of crab meat I’ve ever tasted in my life). The mains were disappointing… nothing was outstanding, and the Yorkshire Pudding (which is a sentimental Christmas fave of mine) was a dried out burnt mess, and the accompanying gravy was much too sweet. To end the meal, I’m not a big dessert eater so I didn’t have any sweets, though I did try some of the cheese selections, which were very good. All in all, a bit disappointing, but I’m thinking part of the problem was the fact that it was a set menu. I’d be willing to give it another try in the future.

At such a beautiful hotel, you’d expect more. The service is very, very slow. We only noticed one or two people working — the hostess was our waitress as well.
My order was good, but the rest of my family was not impressed with theirs.
Second time we’ve been — a few years ago as well and it was the same the first time. Not going to return.

Was staying at the Intercontinental Park Lane on Christmas Eve so there were not a lot of choices for food in Mayfair so decided to try the Cookbook Café in the hotel and boy are we glad we did. Our party of three had the Pumpkin Soup, Grilled Prawns, Baby Chicken and Shepherds Pie. The soup was very good but basic (would have it again though). The Baby Chicken was very good. The Shepherds Pie seemed to be a deconstruction. The meat seemed like its was braised short ribs with a bit of brown sugar or something sweet in it. It was most excellent. We all agree dead that the star of the meal was the grilled prawns. I travel the world and I have never had prawn/​shrimp that were that tender. They’re were melt in your mouth tender. There was a saffron butter sauce that complimented perfectly. Next time back will be eating here again. Oh, service was «OK», nothing special but was fairly quick but very friendly.

Wow. The food was amazing. My wife had the prawns and I had the lamb. It was very good and the wine they suggested went very well with the meal. Great place and atmosphere.

I’m not entirely sure how I feel about unlimited brunches. I tend to eat way too much food that is A-​OK and a little food that is slightly better. I suppose the idea of bottomless glasses of prosecco (at times difficult to get that refill) is appealing but too much fizz and I get a bit of heartburn so what am I paying £50+ for?
There were a few good options to be had at the Cookbook Café and plenty of different options. The waffles were good and I ate a lot of the cold buffet. They have a few dishes that they bring to your table as sharing dishes — these tend to be the hot dishes and there were three options when we went. The beef was good so we ordered a second but the fish wasn’t great.
So after a number of hours I did roll out of here stuffed and tipsy but do feel my money could have been better spent on less gluttony. At least I wouldn’t have fallen asleep in Liberty afterwards.

After a disappointing 1-​star dining experience here, I returned to give them another chance with brunch — ever the eternal optimist! I joined a group of fellow Unilocalers to try out their Saturday brunch and drink the place dry of prosecco– ahem, I mean to responsibly enjoy their unlimited prosecco refills.
We’d booked for opening time 12.30pm, though the doors didn’t open until closer to 12.45ish — perhaps they were deliberately heightening anticipation?! A waiter explained how things worked which was initially quite overwhelming, as he gestured towards a cold buffet (of salads, sashimi, pastries etc), an egg man (making eggs, pancakes and waffles), a further dessert bar of sweet stuff at the far end, and told us to signal when we wanted main course (!), which would be served family style for sharing at the table.
We all ordered a drink (priorities!) then set about strategising the best foodie approach. Should I be a traditionalist and start with the cold stuff? Or go straight to the egg man given he didn’t have a queue yet?! The mind boggled as we all went for it; as a result I ended up with a slightly bizarre but full plate from the buffet (including both sashimi and cheeses!) and a poached egg with spinach and ham.
That kept me going for a good few drinks refills, starting with a pear bellini out of curiosity, but soon followed by a much better strawberry one. After that I continued with straight prosecco as it was taking far too long — we were seated tucked into a corner which made it tricky to get refills as quickly as I would’ve liked.
The food was just okay — my egg was a little cheerless (not that I know what a cheerful egg would look like exactly) but perhaps that’s what you get when they’re pre-​poached and just reheated at the egg stand. The main course took a step up with some really delicious beef, then a step back down with some less tasty fish. Thankfully we doubled up on the beef (and canned the veggie option altogether).
After a short time-​out to let the waistline rest I enjoyed a nicely made waffle, though my companion was less lucky with his pancake which arrived still liquid in the middle. Finally, the dessert bar probably summed it up as being style over substance — it all looked suitably delicious with some carefully assembled patisserie, but the taste just didn’t follow through. The ‘crème brûlée’ was soft on the top and thick in the middle! First world problems eh…
I’m generously upgrading to 3-​stars for the pleasant setting and extensive choice, but the execution definitely wasn’t good enough for anything more than that, particularly for these prices. Thank god for good company anyway!

Infinity Brunch Club Outing #5: Cookbook Café.
We decided to go to Cookbook Café to try their Infinity brunch. Their brunch includes a cold buffet, a hot egg and waffle/​pancake bar, some mains cooked in the kitchen served family style and a dessert bar. You also get infinity Prosecco/​Bellinis. If you go on Saturday it’s £49 with a slightly elevated price on Sundays (as I think they include a roast). We went on a Saturday as it was a bit more budget friendly.
Unfortunately, I was running a little late, but they don’t open the doors until 12:30, so I didn’t miss much. We were seated with our friends and given some Prosecco. I opted to go to the cold buffet fist which consisted mostly of cheese, salads and fish. There was a nice selection of sashimi which my partner went back to a few times. The cheeses were okay, but not spectacular. After that, I went to the egg bar. Someone else at the table had gotten some sort of Eggs Benedict sort of thing, but watching them overcook the poached eggs, I opted to get an omelette. Once I added some salt and pepper, the omelette turned out to be fairly nice. I also got a waffle and some pastries: also very good.
We opted not to get the vegetarian main and only went for the fish and the beef. The fish was overcooked and unpleasant, but the beef was tasty and cooked very well. I then went to the dessert buffet and tried several desserts. I got a pancake as well, but it was undercooked and when I cut into it, raw batter oozed out, but there was so much food I just didn’t eat it. We were there from about 12:30 to 3:00, and they said that they only served booze for two hours, but we did get a few drinks after that. And some coffee (although when I asked about filter/​cafetiere, I got a really cagey answer, so went for a double espresso).
For the price tag, I just felt it could have been a bit better. The food was really hit or miss for me, and nothing really wowed me (except the beef). The sashimi was a nice touch too. We were stuck in the corner, so getting service to get more Prosecco was frustrating, and we were often with empty glasses. It’s probably not a place I would come back to given the other options in town, but it also wasn’t terrible (except sometimes the service).

My friends and I were here for Saturday brunch at Cookbook Café. It is situated inside the InterContinental Hotel right at Hyde Park Corner.
The buffet food was good, but it was mainly cold cuts, cheese, bread, danishes, fish, salads, and desserts. The most impressive part of the buffet food was the sashimi — which was very fresh.
The main courses were much more impressive than the buffet food, with my personal highlight being the truffle ravioli.
However, I am knocking 1 star off mainly because I felt the servers were slow (or almost reluctant) to top up our prosecco. If they advertise unlimited prosecco, it should be unlimited! I’m from California, a land of bottomless mimosa/​champagne brunches, so I suppose I went in with higher expectations from Cookbook Café.
Overall — pricey but very delicious.

Visited for the Sunday buffet brunch. There was a wide selection of food including fresh sashimi, breakfast, made to order Sunday roast, pancakes and waffles, desserts and loads more,. The food was of decent quality and the roast was very tasty using very high quality beef.
All drinks including champagne were unlimited and included in the price.
Overall a very high standard brunch and definitely worth 55 pounds. Will revisit again for sure !

Delicious! We’ll worth every penny. I am not mug of a buffet person but this one was well worth every calorie… Quality of food was very high end. Mimosas were flowing — good quality champagne.
Must go when in london.

I went for the Ludlow food festival that they were hosting, and it was amazing!!! For £18 you got an all you can eat buffet of Ludlows finest meats, cheeses, salads, fruits and pastries. I’m not usually big on buffets as it usually means sloppy presentations and rushed food. That was totally not the case here! Everything was laid out nicely and tasted super fresh. My guest from out of town was equally impressed with the presentation and food.
Having been to Ludlow a few months back for the Spring food festival, I thought The Cookbook Café did a really nice job. I would totally go back to try their regular offerings. Kudos to them though for hosting an event like this!

Right. Let’s start with the facts.
I love sushi. Even for Breakfast. Check.
I love Bellinis. Especially endless supplies of them. Check.
I love tasty roasts being brought out to my complete surprise. Check
So what happened? Where di this go wrong? We went for a Sunday brunch here and, while lovely, there was just something that didn’t sit well. The waitresses/​serving staff didn’t seem to know what was gonig on. We asked how the unlimited brunch worked and received a blank stare. We asked if the bellinis were included in the deal, to a response of ‘I don’t know.’ We were caught completely unaware that they would be brining us even more food besides the enormous buffet already out. finally, the restaurant was not signed very well in the hotel and we got lost and had to ask two different employees where we were going.
Such potential… So sad.

I won a dinner for 2 here during the Taste of Israel campaign. For starters we have the seared red tuna and the beef salad. Both were very scrumptious and full of flavour! Each one had it’s own Mediterranean feel to it. For mains we had the Sea Bream and the beef tagine. The mains were also very good, but not as delicious as the starters were. The staff were very nice and helpful. The only issue with the place is that it is in a hotel and feels like a hotel restaurant. As yummy as the food was, I don’t think I would return again due to the ambiance being quite sterile.

My friends and I came here for Sunday lunch and it was pretty empty. Apart from our party, there were only another table occupied which made the ambience a bit stale.
Since there weren’t that many people in the restaurants, we had pretty good services and the food was ok. It wasn’t exceptionally fantastic but could have been worse as the feeling I was getting was that this wouldn’t be a good place to eat.
I had the Lobster & Shrimp potato cake. It was actually the best dish out of the lot but way too tiny, for even a starter. I also had the grilled sea bream which was ok but my friends weren’t impress with their Singapore braised chicken. The dessert, flourless chocolate cake, was way too sweet… and I was glad I wasn’t the only one who thought of that.
I hope they have improved since our last visit and I’m not sure whether I can recommend this place for other Unilocalers to try it out.

I went here for their Sunday brunch which is all you can eat for £49 + service. It includes a cold bar with cold meats, cured fish, salads (including pasta and cous cous ones), selection of cheeses, pastries and breads; a hot station where they make eggs (including omelettes), pancakes and waffles «fresh», plus pre-​cooked stuff including roasts, veges and a selection of desserts. Included drinks were coffees, teas, juices, sparkly and bellinis.
For the price I was paying and what I saw on the website, I have to say I was disappointed. The bellinis were delish (especially the pear one that I discovered at the end) — hot tip: ask for double the amount of fruit purée as I found it wasn’t fruity enough otherwise! But if you don’t want bellinis or sparkly, then I would definitely say it’s not worth the money (the Asian in me ensured I got my monies worth through all the bellinis I drank!). Also, the service for a restaurant in a 5 star hotel was not up to the standard I expected. The waitress that served our table had serious difficulty speaking English, to the extent that she couldn’t tell us what one of the specials was and struggled to explain to us what was included by way of drinks (maybe she was new, but still!).
In terms of food, we started with the pancake specials they had (due to Pancake Tuesday) — a savoury one with smoked salmon and a sweet Caribbean one with bananas and pop rocks! Have to say the pop rocks in the pancake batter was a work of genius — will definitely try that out the next time I get a hold of some popped rocks (for those that don’t know, pop rocks are little sugar bits which fizzes in your mouth and «pops» — love the sensation!). We also had poached eggs and an omelette. Omelette was good, but poached eggs were a serious disappointment. They were pre-​poached and thus weren’t runny — not my definition of «fresh». Definitely expected better from the Intercontinental for £50!
The rest of the savouries weren’t bad, but nothing outstanding (the sashimi they had looked questionable in terms of freshness to my eye) and in my opinion not breakfast foody enough (more lunch food I thought). But have to say the sweets definitely gained it an extra star — there was probably about a dozen desserts with one of the chocolate ones, the meringue and the custard one in the glass highlights!
All in all, for that price and type of place, I reckon they could’ve done better!

I recently attended an afternoon of tea tasting at the Cookbook Café, which was followed by a selection of CC’s Spring Tea Palace Afternoon Tea cakes and sandwiches.
I was very impressed with the quality of the food and thought that went into the afternoon tea; Executive Chef Paul Bates has created a very succulent afternoon tea menu that is matched to the teas.
My sky-​high favourite was the cucumber-​chervil, duck egg, mayonnaise, and mustard cress sandwich. It was so good that I think it has put me off any other version of egg salad sandwich.
I would go back anytime — besides offering excellent food, the teas are top-​notch and highly recommended. And at £18 it is not too expensive.

Another Qyper here who was there for the blogger brunch a few Saturdays ago!
It was probably one of the best brunches I have ever had in London. What was amazing was the different style of the Cookbook Café to other brunch buffets; although there is the market table with cold dishes and starters and dessert, you order the hot main dishes from the menu. This to me is a major plus as other buffets often fail when the hot food has been stewing there on the table for hours before you get to it.
The main courses — lamb, monkfish, and vegetable filo pastry — were amazingly tasty and very well cooked. The market table had a great spread of vegetables, salads, cold cuts, cheeses, bread, and sushi and sashimi. Best of all was the dessert table, with the standard cheesecakes, chocolate brownies, and profiteroles, but also a very delightful custard that you absolutely must save some space for.
The £39 bubbles and brunch buffet on weekends does not come cheap, but it does come with unlimited bellinis, tea, coffee and water, as well as some really quality food.
Reviewed by The London Insider

Another lucky Qyper here.
I don’t spend enough time in hotels. I feel like I’m missing out on a whole other world of fantastic bars and restaurants. The Cookbook Café is yet another example of how I’ve been missing out by ignoring them all this time.
The amazing thing about the brunch here is that they’re really putting the lunch into proceedings. It’s a proper 3 – 4 course affair with copious amounts of bubbles, bloody mary’s and top quality coffee to get you through all the food.
First course is an excellently stocked breakfast bar, complete with flawless sashimi, salads, cheeses and meats. Following that you’ve got your more traditional breakfast fare: wonderful pancakes, the best malted waffles in town and an extremely serviceable eggs benedict.
Then, there’s the lunch part. The beautiful lamb and mash was the standout dish for me, washed down with an expertly poured blackberry bellini. And more coffee.
Although I was too stuffed to take full advantage of the dessert array, the custard was the winner. Soft, sweet and french.
I can’t recommend the Cookbook Café highly enough for a group blowout brunch. They’re a wonderfully attentive group running it and deserve their accolades.

A great restaurant in a lovely and comfortable setting with an inspired head chef dishing out delicious and season food!
Saturday brunch is a brilliant reason to give Cookbook Café a go. Just make sure you’re hungry when you do!
The buffet-​style market table offers a wealth of seasonal dishes, but save room for eggs (any style), waffles and pancakes as well as bottomless drinks (Bloody Marys, a range of fruit flavoured Bellinis, sparkling Cremént, juices, coffees, teas and still and sparkling water). And then of course there are the mains, which on my visit included rack of lamb with shallots, creamed potatoes and garden peas; monkfish and prawn casserole with lobster butter; and grilled courgette, aubergine and goat cheese tart. Dessert options were just as copious and mouthwatering. For me, highlights were the best pastrami I’ve had outside New York, perhaps the best Bloody Mary I’ve ever had anywhere, the tender lamb, the chunky bites of monkfish and an egg custard pudding with just a touch of nutmeg.
What’s the damage for such a feast? £39. And considering the quality, variety and sheer quantity of the food along with the unlimited drinks, I reckon brunch at the comfortable Cookbook Café (mere steps from Hyde Park for post-​face-​stuffing ambling) is excellent and delicious value for money.
More about my brunch on the Qype does London blog:

I was one of the exceedingly lucky Qypers who got the opportunity to check out The Cookbook Café’s brunch menu, and chat with Esther Williamson and Charles Yap (both from the hotel’s Communications department) and head chef Paul Bates.
The restaurant is located on the ground floor of the hotel, and to the side, so that it benefits from lots of natural light (I’ve been property hunting recently, and the lingo is starting to rub off on me). It’s spacious as well — no inadvertent bumping into people as you walk through the restaurant and around the market table where the buffet is served.
Brunch costs £39 for which you can partake of the good spread that is the buffet, as well as dishes on the a la carte menu. This includes unlimited drinks: deliciously spicy Bloody Marys, lush-​looking bellinis (with many flavours too — peach, passionfruit and berries being just a few of them), sparkling wine, juices, coffee and tea.
Given the no-​rule nature of buffet eating, we ended up eating backwards (not literally, that would be silly). First, we had appetisers from the buffet table (salads, sashimi, cheese), followed by malted waffles and pancakes which were served with a huge array of condiments (fantastic clotted cream, delicious berry compote and very thick if unexpectedly cold chocolate sauce). I love waffles — I really do — and these were great.
After that, we had the main dishes — rack of lamb with shallots, creamed potatoes and garden peas, monkfish cheek prawn casserole, and grilled vegetables on filo pastry — and these were, at the risk of sounding like a broken record, delicious as well.
The lamb was probably the rarest lamb I have ever eaten, but tasted unexpectedly good anyway. It was soft and tender and didn’t taste gamey at all. The mash that accompanied it was velvetly smooth and delicious. If only it were zero calorie!
The monkfish was an unexpected touch. I wouldn’t have expected to come across it in a non-​Asian environment, so I was delighted to eat it because it’s something which reminds me of back home.
The grilled vegetables on filo pastry was also very good. Crispy pastry and crunchy fresh vegetables. Yummy!
After this, I had to take a break. I may have a separate stomach for dessert, but, still, even I have limits. During the interval, we got to play with the iPad, which was an unexpected bonus. I didn’t play with it for that long though. I could see some of the male Qypers eyeing it hungrily!
Then, back to the market table for dessert. I tried the hazelnut brownies, profiteroles, chocolate cake and — I think — a crème brûlée cake. My favourite was the brownie. It had a crunchy top and a soft and almost gooey interior, just the way I like my brownies.
This was finished off by a round of coffee and tea. The Cookbook Café uses Union coffee (in my opinion, the best there is in London) and while I committed the unforgiveable crime of letting my cappuccino grow cold while I was trying to finish off my food, it was still good to drink. I was a little surprised that my cappuccino came served in a glass (usually only reserved for lattes, so I have been told by those in the know), and the main difference between the cappuccino and the latte is that the former has one shot of espresso, and the latter, two.
I was told this snippet by our friendly waitress who overheard my observation that my neighbour’s latte and my cappuccino looked remarkably similar. In fact, service was really good across the board. All of the wait staff that attended on us were nice and friendly, and they always had smiles on their faces.
All in all, a great way to spend a lazy afternoon. Delicious food, unlimited drinks, great ambience… and all for £39! If that still seems pricey, you should also bear in mind the fact that you probably won’t need to eat for the rest of the day (and shouldn’t have eaten before the brunch, in fact), and you’ll realise that it’s incredibly worthwhile!