le gavroche

went for a special occasion dinner. food was brilliant,winechoice great, service impeccable, atmosphere perfect for a romantic dinner. nothing to criticize at all. expensive but worth the money. visited nov 2012

i first ate at le gavroche almost three years to the day from this meal. it was at a time when this blog was a distant dream and we ate for pleasure only.  oh, how i miss those days.  it still stands as my favourite ever meal; perhaps not the best food, but certainly the best overall experience.  there was, and still is, something uniquely special about walking underneath the famous signage, through the heavy doors, down the stairs and into that dimly lit basement dining room.  there is ceremony with every nudge of a chair and pouring of wine, and touch of class at every detail with custom made table sculptures, plates, and silverware.  we ate chicken with parmesan risotto, drank our body weight inwineand overindulged michael roux jnr himself in person at our excessive praise of the soufflé suissesse – a long standing stalwart of the menu here so light it threatened to drift back up those stairs and off into the clouds.  i consider myself lucky enough to have eaten at birmingham’s five michelin starred restaurants on many occasions but our pursuit outside of my home town has never led us back to the same place.  now, with phil howard departing from the square there was only ever one option for a celebratory return meal:  three months back we decide to hammer the phone lines at 9am and secure a table at le gavroche.

sometimes you really want to splurge and go all out. for this occasion, it was my partner’s birthday. i gave him a voucher for the tasting menu andwinepairings (x2 because i’m coming along too) at le gavroche, michel roux jr.’s two-michelin star restaurant. after seeing him on masterchef and countless other tv shows, i decided we needed to give the restaurant a try. plus i had done my cooking course with monica earlier in the year (although by the time we got to the restaurant, she had moved on and is apparently starting her own venture that should be open sometime in 2016). he finally decided we should go in late january, and we paired it up with seeing a matinee of the curious incident of the dog in the nighttime.

we friends had dinner at this place few days ago and it was a great experience. food was delicious and place was no so expensive. you totally get for what you pay. menu was great because the kitchen really sophisticated, and a sequence of serving dishes is better to leave the opinion of the chef. greatwinelist. an ideal place to meet friends in a comfortable atmosphere.

i was very fortunate to get a table for six guests at short notice at le gavroche last friday night. 

it was an opportunity to celebrate some forthcoming family birthdays and also for me, having recently dined at parliament square and at the landau to experience the flagship roux restaurant in london. we could not have been more pleased. it was a perfect evening. 

first impression is important. the staff who greeted me on arrival and the use of the bar, with its thematic les miserables cocktails and reception area upstairs before dinner while waiting for my guests to arrive got me off to the best of starts. 

the restaurant is elegant and i appreciated some of the rather old world niceties: there is no background music and only the hostess/host received the priced menus. 

all the different dishes our group had were wonderful, great ingredients, beautifully prepared and presented in classic styles often with a characteristic twist. 

this is definitely high-end fine dining and some dishes are quite expensive but the overall experience is very much worth it.

thewinelist is comprehensive and i benefitted from reading it at the bar before dinner which saved a little time at the table, but the sommeliers were also knowledgeable and helpful. 

it was impressive to see the chef patron, michel roux, visiting tables and greeting guests at opportune moments during service of multiple seatings. 

it is a busy restaurant which runs like clockwork largely no doubt due to the excellent staff who collaborated very well.

nowhere better for the fixed price lunch menu, service and food the very best. this is the benchmark for how a restaurant should be run. they have it all including a celebrity chef who takes time out with his customers. excellent house wines and fantasticwinecellar with the serious bottles!

i know i will visit this place again for sure! everything that is said about the service here is probably less. in my experience i have never been so glad with the service ever!
the great attention to the details make this place stand out form the rest of the two star michelin star restaurants.i award five stars to all the elements that make the place what it is.
the staff was sweet enough to lend me a signature jacket when i had forgotten to put one on!
the best way according to me to maximize the benefit of ones meal would be to order the tasting menu.it gives you a great insight into some of the most incredible dishes!
thewinerange and the prices are pocket friendly.
this place is truly amazing!

le gavroche opened as far back as 1967, moving to its current mayfair location in 1981. it featured in the inaugural uk michelin guide in 1974, gaining a second star in 1977, and a third in 1982, which under albert roux it retained until 1993. at this point albert’s son michel roux jr took over the kitchens, and it transitioned to the two michelin stars that it has retained ever since. its basement dining room has the feel of an old fashioned club, though this may change in january 2014 when the restaurant closes for a refurbishment. there is a bar area on the ground floor, where you can read the menu and enjoy a drink. le gavroche is noted for its unashamedly classical french cooking.

a tasting menu was priced at £120, with a la carte dishes varying significantly in price. however with starters from £19.80 to £60.80 for lobster mousse, main courses in the range £28 - £60, and desserts from £14.80 - £26.90, a three course meal will still be a pricey affair. the vast, mostly frenchwinelist includes wines such as leon beyer pinot gris 2008 at £44 for awinethat you can find in the high street for around £13, berchet de vaudieu blanc chateauneuf du pape 2011 at £83 for awinethat retails at £31, and chave hermitage blanc blanche 2005 at £121 for awinethat will set you back about £36 in a shop. relative mark-ups are kinder higher up the list, such as lafon perrieres 2005 at £435 for awinethat retails at £360.

as an amuse-bouche, a little piece of deep fried crab with mango salad was rather ordinary, though pleasant enough – it seemed a rather unambitious offering for a two star restaurant. it had a bread-crumbed coating but was rather curiously described as tempura (15/20). we were on firmer ground with the next dish. soufflé suissesse is a signature dish of le gavroche, an old fashioned, rich and delicious cheese soufflé cooked on double cream that has been simmered and reduced. the texture was very light indeed, the cheese (gruyere) flavour wonderful, the cream rich and smooth (18/20).
snow crab gratin (£24.20) with parsley and espelette pepper in a hollandaise sauce had good quality crab, the cheese topping enjoyable and the pepper well controlled, but it was quite salty, even to my taste. this also seemed a rather unambitious dish for a kitchen of this calibre (barely 16/20).

roast suckling pig (£34.10) came with crackling, pepper sauce with golden raisins and confit shallots. the crackling was excellent, with firm texture but not rock hard as some crackling can be, the pork of good quality, the pepper sauce adding some useful balance to the meat, which would have been too dry without it (17/20).

turbot (£48.60) was served with heritage carrots, radish and chive butter sauce; this generous piece of turbot had lovely flavour and was superbly cooked, the simple chive and butter sauce letting the fish be the star of the dish without too much flavour distraction (18/20).

caramelised apple (£19.60) with calvados cream was served with breton shortbread biscuit. this was a pretty and enjoyable dessert, the apple and calvados a classic combination (18/20). passion fruit soufflé (£26.90) came with white chocolate ice cream. desserts are a highlight at le gavroche, and this soufflé was hard to fault, the texture light, even cooked through with plenty of fruit flavour (19/20).

service here is always extremely precise, with waiters paying careful attention to every detail of the meal. the bill, with plenty of good wine, came to £180 a head at dinner. hardly a bargain, but the top dishes here are very good indeed. ingredients are of high quality and the cooking technique is hard to fault. the set lunch here is a relative bargain but you should not expect the same level of dishes: clearly a whole meal withwinefor the price of a main course in the evening is going to involve compromise. i have always found the dessert course at le gavroche to be the highlight, really top class. some of the other details, such as the nibbles, can be less impressive, and the odd dish may be merely pleasant rather than striking. however the best of the cooking here is very fine indeed.

disclaimer - this review is entirely biased as 1. i love michel roux, and i got to meet him 2. birthday dinner 3. tasting menu withwinedrunkenness. le gavroche was made for special occasions, it's warm, and gleaming, with gorgeous flowers and linen, and welcoming service, and the nicest chef who walked the planet. the attention to detail is meticulous, the standards (and the calorie contents) are stratospheric, yet, the experience is overwhelmingly friendly and warm. and unforgettable. i don't need to gush over the food, if anything, the tasting menu and it's accompanying slew of wines was a bit too much for me...and i ate barely a piece of the most delicious birthday cake that they brought out :(( if i had the chance to go back, i'd get the cheese souffle, the veal, a bottle of red, all of that incredible cheese tray, and a lighter dessert. but as i said, a special occasion, a special menu, a special experience. magnifique!

excellent food although expectations were high and had not been met for all courses, except two of them. interesting cheese platter and an amazingwinepairing (expensive but good!). too formal as jacket is needed sitting at the table.

like a mini break to heaven. had a wonderful treat of a lunch yesterday at le gavroche. it's one of those places where the world goes into suspended animation for a while until you emerge blinking into the light...clientele is hilarious, we must have been a third the average age, but twas fun guessing life stories. and his royal michelness himself came to talk to us (though we could think of nothing remotely witty or interesting to say to him and just babbled about it being beautiful in classic girlie crush way - which we both have, of course).

nibbles were foie gras with caviar, and then a celeriac remoulade with mojama. amuse bouche was a tiger prawn fried in something akin to panko and a little dice of mango and chilli. i started with steak tartare with quail eggs and a truffle cream. god it was velvety goodness. best thing i've eaten in the past 12 months. the steak just melted and it had exactly the right balance of acidity. the truffling was generous. we added a souffle suisseuse between courses, natch. like god had perfumed his clouds with cheese. incidentally, we asked for one to share with two spoons. they brought out two normal sized portions. we both thought, cripes, that'll be another £20 on the bill...but they only charged for one. how good is that?

then a slightly bland though well cooked rock salmon on a potato/artichoke rosti with sauce choron (like bearnaise, with tomatoes) and lovely braised celery. my friend's duckling was much better, beautiful saucing. then the cheese. oh my lord the cheeeeeeese. best looking and stored trolley i have seen in a long while. my friend's posh take on mint choc chip ice cream was also pronounced ace.

so, strongly recommend it. service is stunningly competent too. we pigged out by having champagne to start, then the extra course, then a couple more glasses ofwinein addition to the half bottle included per person...with service it came to about £80 each. but you could easily get away by sticking to the £48 deal, more than enough a) to eat b) to get the gavroche experience.

marvellousness.

this includes a three course lunch, with an accompanying half bottle ofwine(from a selection of 4), a half bottle of mineral water and coffee and petit fours. given this, the initial feeling of intimidation faced by this price begins to weaken.