hélène darroze at the connaught

the connaught has always been one of my favourite hotels in london particularly because despite the ritzy ambience and sophisticated design, service really lies in the heart of everything they do. plus, on a more personal level, the connaught bar plays a very strong martini game and they definitely have the best dirty dry tipple here.

also, it introduced me to two rather inspiring women who, coincidentally, are proteges of the only three-michelin starred chefs in london (ramsay and ducasse). angela hartnett’s menu was my first favourite london restaurant until it closed when the hotel had a £70m refurb in 2007. when it re-opened, hélène darroze took over the kitchen and has gained two michelin stars.

amazing place in london. i love the food. can’t wait to come back here again. congratulations to the staff.

getting up close and personal with the lunch menu at 2 michelin star london restaurant, helene darroze at the connaught. helene darroze was voted ‘best female chef’ for 2015 at the world’s 50 best restaurant awards and has restaurants both in london and paris. you won’t believe the dishes i’m served – combinations that are inventive, yet somehow strangely work!

situated at the connaught in central london, this is something that i always wanted to try, and certainly did not disappoint and perhaps even exceeded my expectations

when you see extremely creative menu presentation you know you are in for a great treat. we had a 5-course menu with wine pairing - the lobster and ravioli was a fantastic choice, and the mystery item (?), in our case john dory for the night, certainly impressed. the plate presentation was faultless, and the sauce that accompanied these dishes certainly gave a very zesty/refreshing kick to these dishes.

the japanese wagyu beef was good (but perhaps a tad bit too fatty/oily for me) and i'm surprised i had a full stomach by the end of the meal (with 6 glasses of wine as well)

definitely looking forward to my next visit at this place in the not too distant future.

the idea for the dimanche poulet at hélène darroze at the connaught came out of one of the side-effects of having your fine dining restaurant hosted inside a 5-star hotel. if you're a standalone operation like gordon ramsay on royal hospital road or five fields, then you have the freedom to open monday-friday only and give yourselves a couple of days of well-needed rest on the weekend. and nobody at all will blame you for doing so. but hotel guests need feeding on weekends too, and refusing to do anything as ordinary (or, let's face it, english) as a usual sunday roast, darroze decided what she'd do is introduce londoners to the joys of landes chicken from her homeland of south west france.

judging from the sample menu, it has a mixture of dishes in the manner of classic fine dining style as well as some global influence, such as the tortilla stuffed with chicken confit leg...

it seems that people are keeping tally of where i eat.  nosy people that they are, i think i need to maybe consider moving to a larger yard. they remark with surprise (some of you are rather bad at acting) that i had not yet been to helene darozze.  how could you not?  it’s such a squawking shame.  when they offered the best poultry in town, i decided to give it a go.  i could kill two birds with one stone.  try the restaurant and see if their boasts of the best chicken in the world were true.

i had heard wonderful things about hélène darroze who had won best female chef and had multiple accolades so we decided to try her sunday chicken dinner - le poulet du dimanche, a five course menu celebrating this bird. the roasted chicken was one of the tastiest ones i have ever tried and the entire experience was delightful.

hélène darroze at the connaught hotel has held its two michelin star status for over 5 years now. everything about the place feels glamorous and special, from the dark wood panelled walls to the plush carpet and immaculately dressed staff. as fine dining restaurants go, y’know, ones with tablecloths, this is one of the best.

it's taken years of procrastination (and eating) for me to finally start this blog, what better way to introduce "i will be the judge of that" than with a saturday brunch at helene darroze. helene darroze is a 2 michelin star restaurant located in the connaught hotel. on saturdays, the restaurant offers the ultimate weekend brunch where starters and desserts offered are buffet style, while the main course is chosen from the menu, all for a fixed price. my boyfriend is a firm lover of hotel buffet breakfasts, so for his birthday, i treated him to the brunch of his dreams.

hélène darroze is a fourth generation chef in her family and according to wikipedia, she was the inspiration for the character collette in the pixar movie ratatouille. if that isn’t cool enough, she holds two michelin stars at her london restaurant and won the san pellegrino best female chef award in 2015. she is an inspiring woman and when picking a restaurant for our two star michelin experiment, it was an easy choice.

i went to hélène darroze last night hoping i'd still be able to say it is my favourite restaurant in london. i am happy to report i was not disappointed. this is definitely a well-oiled haute cuisine machine!

we were welcomed to our table despite a ridiculous delay due to the tube strike. the friendly french sommelier asked us to choose from five types of champagne by the glass (three white and two rosé). we went for one of the rosés, and it was a very pleasant way to forget about our traffic trouble. our (french) waitesss arrived with the menu - an innovative affair that looks like a game of marbles. you are supposed to choose either five or seven (or, if you are brave, nine) of the main ingredients for so many courses on your menu. we were reasonable (for once) and went for the five courses!

the amuse-bouche consisted of a pea velouté, cheese croquettes (delicious) and a confit tomato tuile with freshly cut ham from the south west of france (where hélène is from herself). they also have amazing artisan bread and two types of butter (one of them with chilli pepper!).

for our first course, my wife went for the caviar dish, which was nicely presented in a bowl with tiny beautiful garnishes, but we were unable to tell what they were, as they were quickly drowned in a sauce. my foie gras starter was beautifully presented and was also very tasty. it was placed in a jelly with cherries and wild berries.

for second course, we both went for the smoked eel - this was really good and we wished there were more of it!

my wife then went for one of hélène's signature dishes: the tandoori scallop - a good size and beautifully presented. the spice was not overpowering, but you could certainly feel it.

my choice of lobster was a bit less inspired, not because of the lobster itself (a few nice pieces were served), but because of the garnishes (i'm not a big fan of vegetables on the best of days, but these were definitely not so impressive).

for the fourth course, we both went for the fillet steak (which is only served for two diners). the steak was beautifully cooked medium rare, cut in half at our table and presented to us with a minced snail crust on top, some extra snails on the side, fennel and a bordelaise wine sauce. this was all very very good.

before our dessert, the waiter asked us if we wanted to add a cheese course - goat's cheese with honeycomb. we said yes, of course (who can resist cheese?), and,again, this was beautifully presented.

for dessert, my wife went for a decadent savarin with armagnac, and i chose the strawberry panna cotta (with rose jelly and lychee). we were also served macarons with salted caramel and blackcurrant jelly and some choux with a tonka bean cream.

the wine list is impressive, but we decided to follow the advice of our friendly sommelier and opted for two glasses of a beautiful mosel riesling and two of a very nice italian red, whose name i forgot. to finish it all off, while my wife was sipping on a fresh mint tea, i just had to have some of their fabulous armagnac (courtesy of another branch of the darroze family).

the staff were all very attentive, chatty and friendly, and they also went above and beyond when i asked them for a painkiller for my terrible tooth ache. they did not find any at the hotel reception, but one of them returned a little later with a fresh box of ibuprofen from the pharmacy - amazing service.

this does not come cheap, of course, but it is definitely worth it for a special occasion (and ours was a double special one!)

visited for brunch yesterday after hearing great things. hmm! two michelin stars! either we were an unlucky 8 diners or the people at michelin went only for dinner, which i presume was a vast improvement on brunch.

the food was ok, not outstanding, just ok. the only dishes of note were the asparagus soup from the starter buffet, and my main course of the signature burger, which was delicious until i found a hair in it! unfortunately the serving staff didnt seem as perturbed by this as myself. the waffles for dessert were also worth mentioning, being very light, but not particularly inventive.

the restaurant wasnt half full and yet the majority of the serving staff were inattentive. water was constantly being asked for as well as our wine. no adjustment was made to the bill regarding the hair/burger incident, and even when questioned the only adjustment made was to take off the £8 supplement for the burger! after pressed a further £20 was taken off, by which time everyone at the table felt suitably uncomfortable by the situation.

i doubt i would return here to try the dinner even with someone else picking up the bill. i dont understand how these two michelin stars were awarded. all in all a pretty disappointing experience that i had really been looking forward to!

in our house, i usually have control of the tv remote and because of that there is normally some cooking show or other on the box. while watching one such show (i forget which one) the contestants had to prepare the cakes and pastries for an afternoon tea. the better half's interest was piqued....he loves anything sweet and since he has never experienced afternoon tea before, i thought it high time he did. afternoon tea has become really popular here in london and there are lots of places offering some very quirky teas, but for his first i wanted tbh to experience the traditional type. the one that i chose was espelette at the connaught hotel. english grandeur at its best...

too much art and not enough food !
i miss the likes of the lancashire hot pot etc