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Evening Standard rating
Reader rating
Description: This "spacious" year-old venue, overlooking Trafalgar Square, makes an OK business rendezvous; early-days excitement about its "pricey" British food has faded, though, and service still "hasn't got its act together"; (there's also a snack bar section, which gets better reports).
Food: 
Service:
Ambience:
Phone: 020 7747 2525
Website: http://www.thenationaldiningrooms.co.uk
Good for: Good food, Ambience.
Payment options:
Back in 1988, when the V&A advertised itself as "an ace café with quite a nice museum attached", the venerable institution was widely condemned for its cack-handed attempt to appeal to young people.
Since then, several of London's museums have revamped their cafés in the hope of sprucing up their images, the latest being The National Gallery in Trafalgar Square.
However, if the idea is to attract a younger demographic, it hasn't been very successful.
When I paid a visit to the gallery's new restaurant last week, the average age of the customers was about 120.
"I love the grannies, I really do," says Oliver Peyton, the charming Irish boulevardier who's been given The National Gallery's restaurant concession.
"The problem is, they tend to limit themselves to a bowl of soup and a glass of tap water."
The cafe at The National Gallery used to be called Crivelli's Garden, named after the huge Paula Rego triptych that still dominates the back wall.
Since Peyton took over, it's been given a makeover by David Collins, the ubiquitous restaurant designer, and rechristened The National Dining Rooms, but it still looks like a museum cafe.
Indeed, if you turn right as you walk in, you find yourself in what Peyton calls "The Bakery", a buffet area where you can enjoy a cup of tea and a scone for under a fiver.
This must make it all the more shocking if you happen to turn left by mistake.
Without any noticeable change in decor - the tables, chairs and cutlery are all exactly the same - you unexpectedly find yourself in one of the grandest restaurants in London.
A starter of roast scallops, for instance, costs £12.50, while a main course of sea bass will set you back £18.50.
Admittedly, those are the most expensive dishes on the menu, but my companion and I didn't have either of those things and our bill still came to nearly £100 (and that was without wine).
No wonder the grannies who wander into this section of the cafeteria confine themselves to a single starter. A three-course meal would cost them their entire weekly pension.
In fairness to The National Dining Rooms, the food is of a fairly high standard.
The menu reflects the all-pervasive influence of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, even going to the lengths of including a mission statement that boasts of "fresh and seasonal ingredients" that are "sourced from producers from all over the British Isles".
Nevertheless, I'm quite partial to modern British fare and my meal - I started with smoked mackerel pate and followed with grilled Old Spot pork chop - didn't disappoint.
My companion was slightly underwhelmed by his starter - pork terrine with nettles and fried capers - but he had no complaints about his main course of roast Norfolk lamb.
Overall, my only quibble was that our rather dimwitted waiter forgot to bring our side orders of mashed potatoes and buttered cabbage.
Oliver Peyton has already launched one successful museum-based restaurant - the Admiralty at Somerset House - and, later this year, he's opening another at The Wallace Collection.
His ambition, he says, is to improve the reputation of British cuisine overseas - and what better place to start than in London's great museums, given that they receive coach-loads of foreign visitors every day.
That's a laudable aim for any restaurateur to have - particularly if he's an Irishman - but Peyton doesn't seem to have taken on board the fact that most of these visitors are quite elderly.
Even the two-course set lunch, which is pretty reasonably priced at £23.50, may be too rich for their blood.
My advice is to increase the number of soups on offer each day and take mineral water off the menu.
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
