The best restaurants for game this season

Mouth-watering mid-season menus

The shooting season might have begun with a bang on August 12, but for those who were sunning themselves on that Glorious day and missed the first feasting, there’s a second shot later in the season as another wave of London restaurants devise mid-season menus and dishes. The most enticing include…

The Cinnamon Club, which will be spicing up the game with a five-course tasting menu from Monday September 28 to Saturday October 10. Head chef Rakesh Ravindran Nair has devised dishes including venison and juniper berry kofta, tandoori breast of Scottish grouse with curried legs, and chargrilled breast of red-legged partridge with pear and raisin chutney. The restaurant will also host a Wine and Spice dinner (£120 per person) on Friday October 16, pairing game with fine French wine. The menu will include chargrilled partridge breast and clove-smoked venison saddle with pickled root vegetables in a tamarind sauce (first picture).

Bentley’s restaurant will host a Game Season Cigar dinner (£75) on the terrace on Wednesday September 30. A specially created seasonal menu, including a rump of Highland venison with smoked red cabbage cooked with whisky, has been designed to complement the rich flavours of the chosen cigars.  

Lyle’s in Shoreditch will see the most all-embracing and international of occasions, as the second year of Game Dinners unfolds. Seven chefs from around the world will be flown to Scotland to hunt the meat that they will then prepare for two dinners (£120 including wine) back at Lyle’s on October 16 and 17, only announcing the menu on the night. Last year’s menu saw game jelly and egg; hay-seared red-deer sashimi; teal breast and legs with cabbage mustard; mallard in achiote; and a grilled pear and hare-blood cracker. Be warned: last year the 60 places for each dinner sold out in four hours, so put a note in your diary, as booking opens on Monday September 21. How To Spend It readers will have an advantage – there will be 10 places put aside for them.

Alain Ducasse at The Dorchester, meanwhile, will be serving special game within its three-course set lunch menu (£60) for one week only, from Wednesday October 28 to Tuesday November 3. Starters of wild-boar ravioli in a delicate consommé or mallard duck with pâté en croute will be followed by mains of braised shoulder of venison and celeriac (second picture).

Game on.