The Seven Most-Ordered Dishes at Gina

Whenever I’m talking to someone visiting Gina for the first time, I usually explain the restaurant like this: we take good, seasonal ingredients and use them to make food that feels both familiar and a little bit special.

The menu changes regularly, but a handful of dishes have become firm favourites. Some have barely left the menu since we opened, while others have disappeared briefly before being brought back after enough people asked where they’d gone. The monkfish salad, I’m looking at you.

We recently looked at the numbers to find out which dishes have been ordered the most. The number one spot will surprise absolutely nobody, but a few of the others definitely surprised me.

For the purposes of this highly scientific ranking, I’ve included starters, mains, cocktails and puddings.

Starting at number seven…

We’ve served a few versions of this dish, but the centrepiece is always the same: tender, juicy lamb from Swaledale Butchers, cooked until perfectly pink and well-seared on the outside.

I’d order it with a glass of our Côtes du Rhône from Domaine de l’Amandine, a family-run producer in the Rhône Valley.

This dish has only been on the menu for a few months, but it has already made its way into the top seven.

The cod is gently steamed, then served with grilled flat beans and an almond beurre blanc. It is absolutely a sauce that requires a spoon, or at the very least a good bit of bread to mop up what’s left.

The first drink on the list, and easily the cocktail people return to most often.

It’s also rare to see somebody order just one. The heat comes from our house-made chilli tincture, made using dried chillies and Ancho Reyes, and it has just enough spice without overpowering the drink.

This was one of the original dishes on the menu when Gina opened. It disappeared for a while as the seasons changed, but people kept asking when it was coming back.

As soon as the weather turned warmer, it returned. Monkfish, salty bacon and soft oakleaf lettuce might sound simple, but together they really work. It has firmly earned its fan-favourite status.

This was the biggest surprise for me.

It hasn’t been on the menu for very long, but it has already taken the number three spot. It is essentially a collection of very good ingredients that don’t need much interference: sweet peppers from northern Italy, creamy buffalo mozzarella, slow-roasted tomatoes and anchovy.

Simple, salty, sweet and very difficult not to order when you see it on somebody else’s table

I knew this one would make the list.

Our beef tartare has become a Gina staple. Instead of using egg yolk as the binding element, the kitchen makes an anchoïade with anchovies, capers, garlic and olive oil.

It gives the aged Highland beef a salty, savoury richness and is probably one of the dishes I recommend most often to people who can’t decide what to order.

How could it be anything else?

People travel from down the road and from across the country to try this cake. It is our most-ordered dish month after month, regardless of what else is on the menu.

The cake is light, soft and deeply chocolatey, served with warm Original Beans 70% dark chocolate sauce, home made salted milk ice cream and fresh cream to pour over the top.

Well done, Rav.

So there you have it: one cocktail, a few starters, a couple of mains and one completely unsurprising pudding.

Every dish on the menu is made with the same care, but the numbers don’t lie. Whether you’re coming to Gina for the first time or have already worked your way through most of the menu, these seven are a very good place to start.

Anna.

P.s. Try one of the top seven dishes by booking online here