Everyone sitting in Maison François watches as our server dollops heaping spoonfuls of chopped cornichon and diced red onion into a large bowl of raw beef. The contemporary French restaurant’s tartare de boeuf trolley has become rather well-known in London, serving the classic dish with customizable flair beside the table rather than simply bringing it out from the kitchen. More salt, more hot sauce, an extra helping of capers—it’s all part of the event. As is watching the meal be made by a friendly server who explains the process as he goes. It’s no wonder the surrounding guests are staring with evident jealousy, whispering in hushed tones, as he places the completed tartare on the table.
Maison François’ trolleys are part of a growing trend among London restaurants. Requisite champagne and cheese trolleys have given way to creative new means of serving starters, entrees and desserts right next to the table, from ice cream sundaes to smoked salmon to tiramisu. There’s something wonderfully nostalgic about the style of service, but it also offers a sense of added value that’s in high demand with the rising cost of dining out.
For Maison François, it’s a nod to the past with a modern approach. “Being in St. James, we wanted to respect the traditions of where we are,” the restaurant’s founder, François O’Neill, tells Observer. “It’s in the epicenter of club land, which was renowned for these kinds of carving trolleys. We started with the [dessert] trolley, and once we saw the success of what it offered, we started to evolve more ideas in terms of how to create trolley service.”
Trolleys aren’t new to London—in fact, they have a long history in the English capital. Simpson’s in the Strand, which opened in 1828 and will relaunch this fall under the ownership of Jeremy King, became well known for its carvery trolleys beginning in 1848. The Connaught Bar is famous for its martini trolley, which allows guests to build their own flavor profile with a choice of handmade bitters. Although some historic spots have continued the tradition of trolleys, they have fallen out of favor in recent decades, perhaps because diners have been looking for more modern approaches. Now, however, restaurateurs and chefs are hoping to revive tradition, encouraging the resurgence.
The Game Bird, located in the Stafford Hotel, currently has six different bespoke trolleys made by Rewthink, which have slowly been added since the restaurant’s relaunch in 2017. The trolleys serve champagne, a smoked salmon starter, beef Wellington, roast beef and crêpes suzette during lunch and dinner, and there’s a separate trolley used for pastries during afternoon tea.
“It gives the sense of old school service,” explains Luca Gaeta, maître d’ at The Stafford. “It opens the interaction with the guest and it gives them the feeling of being well looked after in a smart, elegant way. We start with the champagne trolley as a way to approach the table and to introduce ourselves and open a conversation with the guest. We can create a bond with the customers using the different trolleys.”
The highlight of the service is the smoked salmon trolley, an appetizer that showcases three varieties of smoked salmon from London purveyor H. Forman & Son. Each is carved tableside and presented alongside crème fraîche, diced eggs and Irish soda bread. It’s been part of the restaurant’s menu since The Game Bird relaunched, demonstrating their emphasis on English products. It’s also purposefully distinct. “Knowing all the business around London and traveling around, we never saw anything like that,” Gaeta notes. “It’s still our most popular trolley.”
At The Dorchester, trolleys have long been part of the DNA of its central restaurant, The Promenade. According to culinary director Martyn Nail, at least one trolley has been used since the hotel opened in 1931. Today, there are multiple, including trolleys that serve steak Diane and crêpes suzette. For Nail, the service brings “a sense of occasion.”
“There’s showmanship, yes, but also skill and connection,” he says. As the chef, he needs to trust the servers to execute the dishes “with finesse.” Nail emphasizes that there is a “crucial” level of collaboration. “From the moment the trolley arrives, it sets the tone: anticipation builds [and] the room buzzes,” he says. “You’re not just served dinner; you’re part of it.”
This sense of collaboration and showmanship is also evident at newer restaurants. 45 Jermyn Street, owned by luxury shop Fortnum & Mason, has three trolleys that rotate during lunch and dinner service, offering caviar, beef Wellington and lobster spaghetti. There’s a theatrical element to each, and the gas burners on the trolleys allow the servers to flambé the spaghetti and the Wellington’s peppercorn sauce at the table. “It’s almost like an open kitchen,” explains executive chef Sam White. “People like to see a bit of fire, and they like to see their food being cooked à la minute.”
On a busy night, the restaurant serves around 30 beef Wellingtons. That dish is slightly easier to serve than the spaghetti, which is almost fully cooked tableside. Both were developed for the menu because they could be flambéed. The tables are specifically spaced to ensure safety for the surrounding diners. When I dined, the spaghetti presentation, which lasts upwards of 10 minutes, created a genuine spectacle.
“As soon as you sell one, the tickets will start coming in,” White notes. “We’re constantly looking at what we can do as trolley service and different trolleys: Do we pimp up the trolleys we’ve got, or do we need a new trolley to execute that?”
The caviar trolley is appropriately decadent. It offers the choice of three types of caviar, priced by the gram. The scale is the same type used to weigh diamonds. Instead of simply plating the caviar, the server cooks scrambled eggs on the trolley and then serves the caviar with the eggs, new potatoes and traditional blinis. On an average day, the caviar trolley is ordered 10 to 15 times over lunch and dinner, per White. The caviar types run between £2.50 and £9.50 per gram, with a minimum of 10 grams per table. “It was to make caviar accessible,” he notes. “It’s an affordable luxury, and it’s the sort of thing you might share for the table.”
At Il Pampero in The Hari, it’s the tiramisu trolley, launched in 2023, that creates the biggest spectacle. It’s a theatrical experience and plays to the impatient diner. “Sometimes you want to have dessert, but you don’t want to wait too long,” the restaurant’s general manager, Francesco Sardelli, explains. “Because it’s done in front of you, you don’t realize the time is going [by]. It’s psychological, but it’s also making the experience memorable.”
When you order the tiramisu, the requisite lady fingers are carefully plated and soaked on the spot in freshly-made coffee before being doused with a selection of Disaronno, Frangelico or Borghetti and topped with mascarpone cream and cocoa powder. “We know everyone has individual preferences,” Sardelli says. “Not everyone wants the liquor on their tiramisu. By serving it this way, we can tailor it to everyone’s needs at the table.”
Customization is an added bonus of the trolley experience. At Alfie’s, a recently-opened British restaurant inside Belgravia pub The Alfred Tennyson, Hereford beef tartare is seasoned to your liking before it is mixed together, with the option to add truffle or caviar. The server offers the guests a spoonful to taste before plating to ensure its flavors are balanced to your palate. Heston Blumenthal’s Dinner by Heston has featured a liquid nitrogen ice cream trolley since 2011, emphasizing both spectacle and customization.
Similarly, at Dovetale, diners can create their own ice cream sundae via the restaurant’s Knickerbocker glory cart. The elaborate trolley, conceptualized by Tom Sellers and Seymourpowell, pays homage to the traditional dessert, which is believed to have originated at the Knickerbocker Hotel in New York City. Dovetale’s pastry chef, Thanos Linardakis, likes that it gives guests a “personal connection” to the dining experience, as they can mix and match flavors, toppings and textures to create their own concoction.
At Hélène Darroze at The Connaught, guests can conclude the meal with the restaurant’s signature baba, served with Armagnac instead of the usual rum. It’s been on the menu for almost 17 years, and Darroze’s brother produces the vintage Bas-Armagnacs used in the dessert. “When a guest orders the baba, we want to bring energy and excitement to the table,” explains Kirk Whittle, executive pastry chef for the Hélène Darroze group. “Choosing their preferred vintage to be poured over the baba is a special moment of inclusion and engagement.”
For those who order the dessert, service begins with the arrival of the Champagne trolley and comes full circle with the Armagnac trolley.
Not all of the trolleys in London are about a luxury experience—the same kind of customization and interaction is possible on a more accessible level. At chef Vivek Singh’s Cinnamon Bazaar, the chaat cart has been a favorite with diners since 2016. The custom carts, which have a special tank for ice, are based on Indian street food and were painted for the restaurants by Diane Hill. For Singh, the carts are “convivial and democratic.”
“It creates this action in a dining room, which can otherwise be quite stoic,” Singh says. “Everybody carries plates of food in and puts them down solemnly and runs away. A trolley, or in our case, a chaat cart, breaks down that barrier and brings us closer to the guests. The guests feel special because they are being seen.”
The rapidly growing London restaurant scene means chefs have to do more to ensure diners want to spend money. Singh has noticed people are eating out less as prices have risen. Instead, they save their hard-earned cash for a special occasion, which restaurants have had to embrace. “When they do go out, they want to have this experience that is more special than the last time they dined out,” he says. “I think trolleys, whether it’s flambéing, mixing drinks or, in our case, assembling a chaat, give people experiences they don’t have every day.”
At Maison François, O’Neill is always looking for new ways to augment that experience, whether it’s pouring glasses of wine from impressive magnum bottles or mixing up a Caesar salad tableside. There’s “always room for more” among the restaurant’s five trolleys.
“It’s a great tool to get people in the mood and create the atmosphere that makes restaurants special,” he says. “Customers are becoming more discerning, so restaurants are becoming more competitive. And there’s a consistency to that old-fashioned style of dining that will never die because it emphasizes those special occasions that can happen in a restaurant. We offer the spectacle and glamour we associate with going out, when we’re lucky enough to go out.”
In that way, a trolley doesn’t just carry a dish or a bottle of Champagne; it brings nostalgia, whimsy and a sense of fun along with it. As more and more London restaurants take part in the whimsical trend, it assures diners that there’s more to eating out than just eating—it can be an event, too.
