Ladies lunch at Wild Honey St James, Mayfair.

Since bringing Frank home back in November I haven’t had a huge amount of ‘time out’ from puppy duties. Every time I’ve seen friends, I’ve tried to go to dog friendly places so I could take him with me and get him well socialised. But recently C and I visited Wild Honey St James for a little dog-free ladies lunch, and it was so lovely to just feel a bit normal again and have some time away without worrying about Frank. Wild Honey St James is housed within the Sofitel London St James in Mayfair, and offers refined seasonal produce and contemporary French cooking.

We began with cocktails and homemade bread.

I then chose the Wild mushroom tart, fricassée of wild mushrooms and hazelnut sabayon to start, while C opted for the Grilled Galician octopus, sweet peppers and sea purslane. I had immediate food envy when I saw C’s ocoptus as it is one of my favourite foods, but as soon as I took a bite of the wild mushroom tart, I knew I’d made the right decision. It was really delicious, and a great veggie option.

For our mains C chose the Denbighshire Welsh lamb, roast sand carrot, broccoli rabe, fresh sheep’s ricotta and their own wild honey, and I went for the Grilled Hereford grass-fed beef, Swiss chard, mushroom ketchup and Bordelaise sauce. Both were excellent. We also shared a side of mouth-watering gratin dauphinois!

To end the meal I had the light and delicious English custard tart, golden sultanas, pine nuts, salted butter, and C the Wild honey ice cream, Bermondsey raw honeycomb, crisp wafers. The staff brought over an actual honeycomb to the table and sliced off a bit to put on top of C’s ice-cream!

The food at Wild Honey St James was exceptionally good and the restaurant is beautiful, elegant and relaxed, however the service – although very friendly – was a little slow and unorganised (although the restaurant was incredibly busy). I would definitely visit again though and would recommend it to anyone looking for a sophisticated and delicious meal in Mayfair.