The Glorious Twelfth, 12 August, signals the official start of Britain’s shooting season. On the moors, it’s all tweed jackets and grouse in flight. While Scotland’s moors and Yorkshire’s heather fields might be the heartlands of the tradition, the flavours of the season filter quickly into London’s dining rooms. The city’s most ambitious chefs sharpen their knives and prepare dishes that celebrate wild flavours — partridge, venison, pheasant, quail and duck. From classic roast grouse with bread sauce to Indian-inspired partridge and silky duck Madras, the capital’s chefs use the season to showcase both heritage recipes and modern twists.
Here’s where to sample the very best of game season this year.
Kutir, Chelsea
If game dining had a crown jewel this year, it would be Rohit Ghai’s Hunter’s Expedition menu at Kutir. Set in a townhouse off Sloane Square, the restaurant’s opulent interiors, all jewel-toned silks, gilt mirrors and candlelight, make it the perfect setting for this decadent, £75 per person journey (or £130 with wine pairings).
The parade of dishes moves with elegance and heat: partridge paired with puffed bread and pumpkin chutney, rich with spice and autumnal depth; quail brightened by harissa against buttermilk and almond; and venison kebab, charred and glistening with clarified butter. The guinea fowl korma is delicately spiced, the cashew lending a nutty, golden richness, while the duck Madras — tender breast in a silky tamarind and curry-leaf sauce — is a true highlight.
The wine pairings are equally thoughtful: brut rosé Champagne alongside partridge, a lively New Zealand Pinot Noir with quail, and a deep, fruit-forward Rioja with venison. For dessert, it’s a toss-up between the chocolate–peanut Valrhona ganache or the date–pecan kulfi with caramel and pistachio, each matched to a Languedoc Grenat. From start to finish, the menu is a feast that feels like an autumn festival.
Where: 10 Lincoln Street, Chelsea, SW3 2TS
Cubitt House, various locations
Cubitt House pubs — from Belgravia’s Alfred Tennyson to Marylebone’s Coach Makers Arms — are making game central to their seasonal menus this year. Expect hearty, fireside plates such as venison with celeriac gratin, roasted pheasant with bacon and red cabbage, or grouse served with classic bread sauce. It’s all elevated pub dining, with a convivial, bustling atmosphere that makes these pubs perfect for autumn evenings.
Where: Various central London locations
The Harwood Arms, Fulham
The Harwood Arms is London’s only Michelin-starred pub, and it wears that accolade with pride. Under head chef Josh Cutress, whose career has taken him through The Square and The Ledbury, the menu is grounded in seasonal British cooking with game at its heart. Cutress continues the pub’s reputation for big, bold flavours: Berkshire fallow deer with pale ale and wild mushrooms, muntjac with celeriac and walnut, or partridge with damsons and bread sauce.
Behind the scenes, directors Brett Graham and Mike Robinson ensure the supply chain is as impeccable as the cooking. Graham, also of three-star The Ledbury, founded Capability Graham, a farming and food company that provides venison, Jersey beef, Iberian pork and more, all produced with sustainability in mind. Robinson, meanwhile, oversees more than 60,000 acres of land dedicated to deer management and supplies wild venison through his company Deer Box. Between them, they ensure The Harwood Arms has access to some of the finest wild ingredients in Britain.
Where: Walham Grove, SW6 1QP
Cicoria by Angela Hartnett, Royal Opera House
Angela Hartnett’s first new London opening in over a decade launches with sweeping Covent Garden views and ingredient-led Italian cooking. Game makes an early appearance with guinea fowl agnolotti enriched by lardo di Colonnata — silky pasta parcels that nod to both Italian tradition and the beginning of Britain’s game season. Surrounded by marble, amber glass and one of London’s most atmospheric dining rooms, it’s a glamorous way to celebrate the Glorious Twelfth.
Where: Royal Opera House, Bow Street, WC2E 9DD
Corrigan’s, Mayfair
Richard Corrigan is a chef who lives and breathes game. Owner of the historic Virginia Park Lodge estate in Ireland, he’s both hunter and chef, equally at home in the field as in his Mayfair kitchen. That grounding shows in Corrigan’s autumn menus, which read like a hymn to the land. The legendary shortcrust game pie, packed with grouse, partridge, pheasant and mallard, is the headline act, but this year Corrigan’s is also serving Yorkshire grouse, salt-baked beetroot, blackberry and fragrant Manjimup truffle. Head chef Luke Ahearne oversees the sourcing and preparation, with the first birds expected to arrive mid-August, sometimes just days after being shot on the moors.
Where: 28 Upper Grosvenor Street, W1K 7EH
Wiltons, St James’s
Wiltons has been serving roast grouse since 1742, making it the city’s original temple to game. In the Victorian era, Wiltons was where aristocrats and politicians would gather after a day’s shooting, bringing their own birds to be cooked by the kitchen. That tradition of game excellence continues today, with the restaurant racing each year to serve the very first grouse of the season. Diners can expect the most classic presentation imaginable: roasted grouse with bacon, bread sauce, redcurrant jelly and crisp game chips, all served under chandeliers in wood-panelled rooms. And did you know? The classic side dish of game chips — thin, crisp potato slices fried until golden — was created specifically to accompany roast grouse, and is still considered the traditional garnish across Britain’s most historic restaurants!
Where: 55 Jermyn Street, SW1Y 6LX
Trinity, Clapham
Adam Byatt has built Trinity into one of the UK’s most admired dining rooms — not just for its classical cooking but for its sense of theatre. During game season, Byatt celebrates the full breadth of Britain’s wild larder, from grouse and pheasant through to the rarer snipe and woodcock, birds that are seldom seen on London menus. Byatt has previously described game as “the heartbeat of classical cookery,” explaining that it forces chefs to respond to the natural world’s rhythms, rather than bending ingredients to their will. That respect for the season comes through in every plate. Dishes are often paired with the sort of full-bodied reds that can stand up to game’s intensity, think Rhône blends, mature Bordeaux and earthy Burgundies. It’s the kind of restaurant where you feel you’re experiencing both a masterclass in technique and a seasonal ritual.
Where: 4 The Polygon, SW4 0JG
Elystan Street, Chelsea
Phil Howard is one of London’s most quietly brilliant chefs, revered for his precise, ingredient-led cooking. At Elystan Street, game is handled with the same restraint and clarity that defines his entire approach. Howard famously holds back on grouse until later in the season, when the birds are plumper, more complex in flavour, and far better value. It’s a patience rooted in his belief that the bird should be eaten at its best rather than rushed onto the plate. When it does arrive, expect clean, elegant flavours: roast grouse paired with earthy root vegetables, bitter seasonal greens, or a glossy reduction sharpened with fruit.
Where: 43 Elystan Street, SW3 3NT
From Kutir’s dazzling Indian-inflected tasting menu to Wiltons’ centuries-old roast grouse, London offers a remarkable spectrum of game cookery. Whether you’re after a glass of claret and a pie in a pub or Champagne with partridge in a townhouse, this season proves there’s more than one way to celebrate the Glorious Twelfth.
Every year, London’s top restaurants quietly compete to be the first to serve grouse on 12 August. Birds are shot on the Yorkshire or Scottish moors at dawn, flown to London by helicopter or private plane, and sometimes on plates by lunchtime. Wiltons and The Ritz have historically been the frontrunners in this race.
Supporters of grouse hunting argue that controlled burning of heather on moorlands, to encourage young shoots for grouse to eat, is what keeps the landscape alive, while opponents see it as damaging. It’s one of the quirks that makes the Glorious Twelfth so culturally and politically charged, and a reminder that game season, in all its tradition and controversy, is as much about culture as it is about cuisine.