The Goring

The Goring has stayed in the hands of the same family since it opened in 1910, which in the churn of London hospitality makes it something of an anomaly among the city’s grandest hotels, and it holds the distinction of being the first hotel ever awarded a Royal Warrant, a fact the staff mention with evident pride rather than treating it as a line from a marketing brochure.

The Dining Room, refreshed in 2024, holds a Michelin star under chef Graham Squire, who has run the kitchen since 2019, and leans into properly British cooking rather than chasing whatever is fashionable elsewhere in the city: game in season, retro classics like Eggs Drumkilbo, a prawn, lobster and egg dish with genuine royal associations, sitting comfortably alongside more contemporary plates built on the same seasonal British produce. Afternoon tea in the Veranda is another long-standing draw, taken by guests and non-residents alike beneath a retractable glass roof that opens onto the garden in fine weather.

The hotel itself, tucked just behind Buckingham Palace on a quiet Belgravia backstreet that most visitors would walk straight past, trades on exactly the kind of understated, old-school English style that grander, flashier five-stars elsewhere in the city rarely attempt: chintz done properly rather than ironically, staff who have often worked there for years and know returning guests by name, and a private garden that few first-time guests realise exists until someone thinks to show them.

It suits a very specific kind of guest, someone who wants five-star comfort without ostentation and values continuity of staff and style over novelty, more than it does anyone chasing a design-led or nightlife-adjacent stay in this part of London. Rooms overlooking the garden are quieter and generally preferred by returning guests over those facing the street.

The honest caveat: that restraint can read as staid to guests used to more contemporary luxury hotels and their constantly refreshed interiors, and the Dining Room’s traditionalism, however well executed by Squire’s kitchen, is a deliberate choice that will not appeal to diners looking for anything experimental or trend-led on the plate.