Strongly recommend this Mich 1star restaurant in London’s Mayfair area right on Piccadilly. I can’t recall all the little things they rolled out, but the amuse bouche was excellent. My apologies on the ordering of these dishes. They may not be correct. Big take away should be that the execution of service and food was wonderful and the food delicious.
Starter is charcuterie of goose with pickled fruits and veggies with an aioli dipping sauce and wonderful bread with salted butter. The goose neck and breast charcuterie was great, and the veggie dipping sauce both satisfying and light enough not to weigh down the slightly pickled veggies.
Next was leeks with black truffles and “leek soup.” This was one of my favorites of the night. Spectacular pairing, wonderful execution. Delicious flavors.
I believe bream was next with a sauce. This was the most forgetful of the dishes and I quite literally forgot all details about this. I recall eating the bream thinking the cooking was spot on and that my champagne, Marie Courtin 2013 Efflorescence, was excellent.
Smoked egg custard with mushrooms was next. Presentation was gorgeous. Black little pot with a birds next inside with an egg shell sitting in the middle filled with the wild mushroom custard. Top of the pot lifted and wonderful smelling smoke wafts around. Exciting and gorgeous and fun. Unfortunately I thought the custard was very heavy. The flavor was pretty good, but there was no lift here and it seemed a dense, umami driven dish all around.
Roast duck was next, with a jus of duck and a BBQ tomato/chili looking thing with it. The duck breast was cooked perfectly, with a nice crispy skin and lush ducky jus/gravy. The little tomato/chili thing was delicious and smoky and went very well with the duck. Excellent and satisfying. With the duck came a little duck bun with 5 spice pulled BBQ duck inside. Then a little thing of duck broth soup. The bun was interesting. The 5 spice was very significant, but the pulled duck was just a hair dry. I would have preferred a little more sauce of some kind inside the bun. The broth was a delight.
Next was a cheese course. I specified that I did not want any bleu-like cheeses, but was good on just about anything else. My cheeses were the best 4 I’ve ever had on a cheese plate, and I wish to god I could remember what they were. A soft, mild goat. A tasty triple cream with a hint of bite that I loved. An aged, mild cheese with beautiful flavor, and a crumbly hard white cheese that was wonderful. No help there, but the take away is that the fromagie was on her game, listened perfectly, and delivered. A little quince and apple jam (I think) was spot on too.
Next was baked alaska. Just insanely good and eaten up in a heartbeat.
I’d love to go back and wouldn’t hesitate to recommend the restaurant. 5 course tasting menu was 115 pounds + 14 for the cheese.
Wine list has a total of about 3000 choices as the restaurant list (hundreds and hundreds) is supplemented by an affiliated retail/brokerage shop that will bring any bottle in their inventory in 15 minutes. Now that’s brilliant.
2013 Marie Courtin Efflorescence
1967 BV Georges de Latour in half bottle.
Shared a good bit of each with the absolutely glorious staff. Impeccable service, impeccable somm work.