A sunny afternoon and a hungry family were on the hunt for something a bit different in town. With the youngest doing German A-Level it was back to Kings Cross to test out the quality of the Gymnasium’s sausage.* This made a serendipitous finale to the weekend after seeing Victoria, recommended viewing for its spectacle if not for its improbable storyline concerning the stupidest, yet surprisingly effective bank robbers currently on a screen near you.

The room is fabulous, a historic building transformed into an elegant room with several different dining/drinking spaces and a gurt high ceiling which gives an airy feel. On sunnier days sitting on their terrace of an afternoon would be an admirable thing to do. A smattering of customers chattered to the strains of Europop blanding discreetly in the background.

In between lunch and dinner the menu is restricted to a selection of Mitteleuropa staples (wurst, goulash, fish, cakes and strudel) but we didn’t mind that. Tasty bread to kick off is a nice touch and then we looked at drinks. The youngest took a pint of beer (good call) and we looked at the wine list which features a more extensive selection of German and Austrian wines than you’re likely to find elsewhere in London. A Trocken from Baden was a thing of utter yum and on reflection I wish I’d had more of it.

Food when it arrived (and the service was faultless) was tasty and generous. Two big knackewursts on a good dollop of mash with sauerkraut (and not too sour) on the side was dispatched without mercy. The goulash soup looked good too but was maybe a little on the small side for a man-sized appetite. We were nearly tempted by the desserts but caution prevailed and we strolled off in Teutonic contentment. I can’t break the rules and return for food but I can predict with certainty that the GG will rival Bar Pepito for a pre-train aperitif when out with northern friends in the years to come.

8/10

*The last time I was here was for a Monocle event in 2012 at which the deputy mayor of Rio gave a presentation outlining his vision of Olympic renovation for the city, after which I got into an improbable conversation with a representative of GE about advancements in turbine technology. Given that I was the only person in the room who looked neither like a supermodel nor a captain of industry it took him a surprisingly long time to twig that I had a limited budget to spend on his heavy duty Jenbacher model.

To see which other restaurants I’ve visited in 2016 check out my GoogleMap

London Restaurants German Gymnasium Kings Cross London Restaurant Review