Oxford’s Randolph breakfast has come under fire from top food critic Giles Coren, who branded it “unfit for consumption in all but the grisliest prison”.
The five-star hotel located on Beaumont Street charges £21.50 for its fry up, which the Times writer awarded a 0 and branded “scandalous” in a tweet of the fry-up last Saturday.
The Randolph Hotel hit back at the review saying it was “disappointed” that Mr. Coren’s experience did not reflect its high standards.
It was also pointed out that for this price of £21.50 the food critic could have helped himself to 58 different products, including a range of cheeses, cold meats, pastries and cakes.
Despite his scathing review of the fry-up, columnist did give the hotel, which is situated just across the road from the Ashmolean Museum, a ten for its location.
In his review, he compared the mushrooms in the cooked breakfast to “cuttings from the scrotum of a tanned badger”.
He also added that the sausage was partly burnt and the single hash brown cold in the middle, claiming it is the “worst meal” he has been sold.
To test the accuracy of Coren’s claims, Cherwell sent an undercover reporter to the Randolph Thursday morning to sample the hotel’s full English breakfast. “To be honest, the bacon was undercooked, which is a cardinal sin,” he said. “But the breakfast did come with complementary tea and orange juice, so I think that’s more or less a wash. The eggs, as it so happened, were overcooked: I like a good runny egg, but the yolks were almost hardboiled. I have no complaints against the hash browns, black beans, or mushrooms, but I don’t think that says much at all. It is hard to butcher beans.
“More fundamentally, it remains unclear to me why anyone would enjoy an English breakfast at all. And the fact that the Randolph in no way impacted my view on this probably shows the meal wasn’t worth the £24 post-gratuity.”
