There’s always a new trend to know about on the London restaurant scene. Some are short-lived and social-media-fuelled: hot chocolate drooping over the side of a teacup; pistachio everything; croissants the size of a small toddler. Others are the result of a new generation rediscovering the joys of something more nostalgic, of a shift towards a slower-paced, retro-tinged way of life that’s fuelling a collective fondness for the past.
Enter: the restaurant trolley, wheeled by a smart waiter towards your table for a bit of theatrical dining that even the most jaded Londoner can’t resist right now. Trolley service is nothing new – that’s where its charms lie.
At Simpson’s in the Strand, Jeremy King’s new restaurant in a mammoth West End grand dame, silver trolleys have been at the forefront of proceedings since the 1840s. “Everybody has been asking, ‘Will you still have the trolleys?’” King told us a few days before Simpson’s grand reopening in March this year. The team faithfully restored the once-gleaming silver trolleys, left behind when the restaurant closed in 2020, which are now a key part of dinner service. Roast rib of Devonshire beef is carved tableside, and there are plans to increase what King calls “trolley work” soon.
The history of trolley service here, King tells us, isn’t well known. Simpson’s was once the world’s premier chess club (you don’t have to look far to find chess motifs throughout the renovation, from chequered carpets to chess figures on the lamps). “The trolley was brought to the table while they were playing,” he explains. “It meant that they could carry on playing chess as it was finger food.”
Trolley work originated in France around the same time that Simpson’s started whizzing its own carts around the Grand Divan. In formal French restaurants, rolling carts were convenient for transporting food across large houses or dining rooms, and the potential for a bit of drama was soon realised. Meat was carved right at the table, while puddings were flambeed in front of diners. By the mid 20th century, trolley service was associated with a certain type of nice restaurant. Pudding trolleys, cheese trolleys, and drinks trolleys were a highlight of the luxe-y dining scenes of the ’70s and ’80s.
