Hotel dining is better now than it ever was, although hotel restaurants don’t always get the praise or the custom they deserve. Nowadays hotels compete very favourably with the best of the new breed of eating places. Mirrors is no exception to this rule.

The Venue
The Novotel St Pancras is located on Euston Road and shares its site with the Shaw Theatre, which adjoins the hotel with its own front door. Mirrors, the hotel’s restaurant, also has its own entrance on Euston Road for diners who are not actually in residence. It’s a bright, modern room, running the full length of the hotel’s ground floor, open plan with a bar at one end and the kitchen area on the back wall. It’s a comfortable place to be with well-spaced tables that avoid the inevitable clash of conversations.

The Atmosphere
As the colour scheme for the furniture is mainly a deep red wine colour, there is something immediately warming about the room. This warmth extends to the welcome from the young staff who are only too eager to please but without overdoing the pleasantries. The clientele appears to be a mix of local business people, some residents of the hotel and visitors dropping by before they board a train at the nearby stations of Euston, King’s Cross or the new St Pancras. It’s a calm oasis in the middle of what is one of the busiest areas in the capital.

The Food
Mirrors’ modern European menu offers a full a la carte plus a very reasonable set menu which at lunchtime costs £13 for two courses or £15.50 for three. Prices at dinner are £15.50 and £18.50. What is particularly good about the set menus is the choice of unusual dishes that are just as interesting as those on the a la carte. Prices on the main menu are between £6.95 to £8.95 for starters, £14.95 to £21.95 for mains, and from £5.25 for desserts.

The a la carte begins with a fennel scented gazpacho soup with black olive croutons, duck and Armagnac parfait with fig and apple jam and toasted brioche, red mullet with roquette and confit rhubarb, smoked chicken and leek terrine, seared tuna loin with fine beans and shiitake mushroom salad, and Cornish crab and mackerel spring roll with plum and ginger compote. The courgette and cheese souffle is a delight, a perfectly light and subtly-flavoured, fluffy square decorated with salad leaves, balsamic vinegar and shaved Parmesan. From the four starters on the set menu – seafood bisque, Ragstone goat’s cheese with a salad of beetroot, avocado and roquette, the bruschetta of roast peppers with olive tapenade and chargrilled artichokes, the choice has to be the warm ham hock salad with fresh peas, broad beans and a poached egg. This is exceptionally well-flavoured ham set off by the two vegetables, salad leaves and the egg to make a stunning combination of tastes and textures.

The set menu mains offer confit rabbit with pommes Lyonnaise, lamb cutlets with rosti potato and a vegetarian bake of roast tomato and pea puree. The homemade tonnarelli pasta vongole has tiger prawns, mussels and chilli and what a burst of tastes it is too, all that beautiful seafood heightened in flavour by the chilli and presented among the strings of pasta like sparkling gems hidden in a treasure chest. Back on the main menu for a choice of fish in the seared sea bass with tomato and fennel risotto or fillet of John Dory with crab cake. There’s also rump of Welsh lamb, poulet de Bresse, veal cutlet or aged Scottish rib eye steak. The saddle of rabbit wrapped in filo pastry is outstanding, presented on a bed of spinach in bite-size portions with a delicious and creamy wild mushroom puree. The rabbit is as light and as tender as can be with a fairly intense but not overly rich flavour. Side dishes (£3.25) of green beans and buttered spinach are a good accompaniment, but do try the fat cut chips, lovely oblong fingers of crisp hot potato, and the Anya potatoes in which the new baby spuds are sauteed whole, quite brilliant.

From the set menu a dessert of summer pudding and whipped cream is a favourite classic whilst from the a la carte menu the lemon craquelin is a luscious lemon layer cake layered with thin stripes of cream and served with summer berries and a dollop of mascarpone ice cream. Other choices include an apricot tart with fromage blanc ice cream, raspberry creme brulee with hazelnut tuile, chocolate fondant and mandarin sorbet and a creamy tiramisu.

The Drink
There are eleven reds and eleven whites on the wine list with several available by the glass (from £5.60 to £7.40) along with the bottle (from £16.50 to £22). They include Viognier, Pinot Grigio, Chardonnay and Sauvignon in the whites and Merlot, Malbec, Pinot Noir and Rioja in the reds. There’s also a selection of finer wines (£32.50 to £64) such as Gavi di Gavi, Gewurztraminer, Pouilly Fume, Chablis, Montrachet, Fleurie and Chateauneuf du Pape. The house bottle of Sauvignon blanc, South African from Drostdy Hof, at £16.50, makes a very good accompaniment to any of the dishes.

The Last Word
With a pleasant and comfortable ambience, great cuisine and excellent service, Mirrors cannot be faulted on any account. It reflects just how good hotel dining can be.

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