the ledbury

theledburyis not somewhere you will easily get a booking at short notice, full for months ahead and for good reason too, it's a restaurant whose global reputation is well justified, we had a fabulous long lunch and some truly outstanding food. open up your calendars, flick forward a few months and pencil in a day, you won't be disappointed.

a truly incredible dining experience.

theledburyis a fine dining restaurant with a real emphasis on fine, as every part of our visit was truly exceptional.

the staff were really friendly and from varied locations. they knew their products, dishes and menu very well. they managed to achieve the perfect mix between professional and personal.

when having a meal with diverse food and many courses, i like to ask that we only find out about the fish after we’ve finished eating it. it adds a whole extra level of enjoyment and appreciation to the food. plus, i always find that my tastebuds are more generous to trying new flavours and items in this scenario.

whilst it is a pricey experience, it is one that was 100% worth it. every dish was made to perfection and i couldn’t stop making yummy noises - always a very good sign.

16th february 2015 · by chris · in eating , england , london as you may have realised if you have been reading my blog for a while, i have been to theledburymaybe 6-7 times.  i always find it to be a very surprising experience.  usually in the form of a little unexpected but altogether very much welcome extra.  this visit was not to disappoint. upon sitting down, i found the table ornament to be extremely interesting. i did wonder if the feathers of that particular bird (you will have to forgive my lack of fauna knowledge here as i am unable to identify what bird this comes from) ended up in some dish. maybe it was from the bird which graced the covers of the menus. but in any case, onwards to what you come here for, to read about the food.  first up the amuse bouches. a lovely brioche. foie gras jelly on puff pastry. mussels on seaweed. the brioche was soft and airy with a light dusting of something crunchy on top. i think it was onion?  next down was some foie gras jelly.  not bad but a bit too light for my taste.  i do love my foie gras but am used to its heavy, cloying taste, uncultured barbarian i am.  lastly, blended mussels on reconstituted seaweed.  a lovely amalgamation of the sea.  you will have to forgive me here as although the intricacies of the amuse bouches were explained to me in depth by our waiter, i was too interested in savoring the food with my sight and smell senses to pay attention.  my hearing tends to turn off when i am distracted you see, much to the dismay of my friends.  which leads me to my most useful phrase when queried for my opinion after long monologues by friends.  “that’s interesting”. a beetroot and eel salad.  i am usually not a fan of beetroot.  it brings up childhood memories of trauma of that awful purple (why was it always purple) vegetable that i pushed around my plate as a kid.  thankfully, this white beetroot tried valiantly to address my unconscious fear about this root vegetable.  it provided an ideal contrast to the

there were two menu options. the special lunch menu at £45 or the tasting menu at £75, both available with matching wine. such a tough choice, but it was theledburyand we just had to go down the "more" route. we had matching wines for each course (including a matching wine for the amuse bouche) making a total of 8 glasses each (i think). pretty heavy for lunch time drinking i have to say. in retrospect the "less" route might have been the more sensible choice.

we started with chantilly of colchester oysters with a tartare of scallop and oyster, horseradish and dill - a very elegant dish, this was followed by flame grilled mackerel with smoked eel, celtic mustard and shiso. then we had hampshire buffalo milk curd with saint-nectaire and truffle toast. the truffle toast was the highlight for me, delicious. we were four glasses down at this point when we moved on to the fish course of roast native lobster with broccoli stem, natural yogurt and indian spices in brown butter. this was followed by pork cheek cooked in pedro ximenez with puffed grains and spiced cream and roast haunch of fallow deer with white beetroot and smoked bone marrow and several more glasses of well matched wines. we finished with a light pre-dessert and the dessert of pave of chocolate with milk puree and lovage ice cream.

the food was universally good, we just felt that we had over done it. i am always happy to go to theledburybut i think next time i will stick to the set lunch.

one tip though, if you do want to go down the tasting menu route, is to do it at lunch time - the tasting menu is £30 cheaper then than the one offered in the evening.

just about the best restaurant i've ever been to. could not fault any element of theledburyoffer. unconditional recommendation, unashamedly looking forward to the next visit.

a sensational eating experience. we were so happy to have chosen this restaurant, as everything was absolutely perfect. the food was incredible, the service was attentive and the restaurant had a lovely relaxed but luxurious vibe about it. i cannot recommend theledburyenough and would love to go back, this time attempting to take inconspicuous photos of the food, which i must say are works of art. the food was equally attractive as it was tasty and i found the evening to be a perfect restaurant experience.
food: 8.5 / 10
service: 9 / 10
ambience: 8 / 10

after having visited the taste of london last summer, theledburycatapulted to the top of my wish list. a strawberry and hibiscus bellini blew us away, and the inventive ash-baked celeriac left us seriously impressed. the michelin guide results were post

i have been trying to go there for a while now, ever since i read about how this restaurant was attacked during the london riots last year (story which i thought was so peculiar as this was the only restaurant attacked like this) and ever since i read that they had become the 14th best restaurant in the world (from 34 a year ago, so a big jump, highest climber in the list), and they also now have 2 michelin stars and is supposed to be one of the best places in london (note this year theledburyhas climbed 1 more place to become the 13th best restaurant in the world), but something always happened, and i kept moving my lunch reservation around for half a year, but i finally made it. theledburyis located onledburyroad in notting hill (not sure if this is named after a british town ledbury, located in hereford) and

theledburyhas quite a reputation. they hold two michelin stars and were recently voted the world’s thirteenth best restaurant in a poll which saw the fat duck come only thirty-third...

theledburyhad been on our hit list for quite a while. with a coveted two michelin stars, and an australian chef/owner - brett graham - it really was more of a must-do. so we did - and we are so pleased we visited. it’s been permanently on the worlds 50 best restaurants and the worlds 120 best restaurants lists since 2011. for 2019 it sits just outside the top 50 at number 64 but it has been as high as 10th previously!

it’s not often you get a chance to dine at the ledbury, but when the opportunity arises make sure you jump right on it. currently placed at 27th of the world’s 50 best restaurant list. theledburyalso has been accredited with two michelin stars, one from 2006 and the second in 2010. brett graham is the man behind the acclaimed restaurant hailed from australia bagging the josephine pignolet award, giving him the opportunity to come to london.

they say that lunch is the inferior meal of fine dining. then again, “they” are usually the same smh’ers that throw shade on british food, and once again they are wrong. though theledburymay be more casual by day, their flavors are anything but. i often enjoy the amuse bouches even more than the apps. i love the sneak preview of all that is to come, and the momentary mouthful allows a glimpse into the fleeting whims of a beautiful mind.

we love food and have been lucky to go to a number of fine dining restaurants around london, this has been our absolute favourite experience to date. everything was perfect, the staff were so welcoming and not at all stuffy like other establishments, the wine was heavenly and the food. wow. there aren't enough words in the world to describe how awesome the food the was. it's the best tasting menu, we were very full by the end, we went for the eight dishes. i would have been fine with the six and more than full but we didn't want to miss out on tasting anything as it all sounded incredible. we're only sad we didn't have room for the cheese! i highly recommend theledburyfor any special occasion, it was a real treat.

my last meal at theledburywas back in january, the day after new year’s day to be exact. the kitchen was working on a limited menu and they were very upfront with the fact that this was because of restrictions to supplies at that time of the year. nevertheless, it was a very solid meal and it was nice to see brett cooking in his own kitchen during the holidays, a refreshing change in this day and age when many chefs are much more interested in showing up on tv than they are maintaining the high standards in their own kitchen. for this meal, kang of londoneater had kindly gone to the trouble of booking us a table which these days are booked solid two months in advance. you can read his take of our meal here.

it's weird, i've never liked the look of theledburymenu so i've constantly put off going despite it constantly coming out as the no 1 tasting menu in london and often the uk. every tasting menu i've had anywhere there's been an item on it that i don't think works, and i'm consistently proven wrong, given that, i figured that a menu where i didn't think anything worked must mean that i was again wrong about it, and i was - it was superb.

let's start at the beginning; the ledbury's a small restaurant in notting hill, located on the corner of 2 residential roads and is utterly unassuming, from the outside it could really be anything, inside it oozes style, the tables are laid out such that you're not sitting on top of each other and it's all nice and serene as you'd expect. so, to the food....

we had the 8 item tasting menu with paired wines, the first course was tomatoes and langoustine oil, i don't really know how to describe it except textures and flavours of tomato, each different but excellent together, the rich langoustine balanced it all and held it together really well. the white beetroot with smoked eel (and i admit i'm biased as i love smoked eel) was again perfectly balanced as i expected the beetroot to overpower the eel but no, it was mild enough to complement it perfectly. the warm bantam's egg with dried ham and truffle was a sunday morning fry up given an up market make over, absolutely awesome (i admit to holding some bread back to mop up the egg), it was the mildest dish with truffle i have ever encountered and this is a good thing as i find truffle more often than not kills the flavour of everything else on the plate, this was really well balanced and the truffle was just one of the flavours not the heavy flavour killer i'm used to. the steamed romanesco with shellfish, crab and parmesan crisp was full of the flavour of the sea and the parmesan just enhanced the sea flavours with it's own saltiness. the glazed aubergine if i'm honest was the weakest item on the menu, more a texture than a flavour but then i dislike aubergine, however the meat sauce was amazing. the galloway beef was to die for, perfectly cooked, melt in your mouth beef with bone marrow, just perfection. the first dessert was a set custard and doughnut, i loathe set trifle, mainly for the horribly gelatinous cold custard within so this was a massive shift from what i was expecting, far from being the claggy lump of vanilla i expected it was a light delicate little thing with tasted amazing, coupled with the tiny delicate doughnut it was a real surprise, two things that should be heavy both in taste and texture were light, delicate and refined. the brown sugar tart with stem ginger ice cream was a struggle, not because of anything to do with the food just because we were stuffed. even though we'd only eaten brunch that day and it was now 10 hours later we had to fight to make room for it.

so, the service, there's no dress code, which is great, and the service is as informal as the dress, this is no bad thing, no stuffy waiters, just attentive, friendly staff who realise that the slightest slip up from them can ruin your meal. sam was excellent, a really nice guy, happy to answer questions about the food and everything a good manager should be, he gets himself out to the front of house and meets the diners rather than hiding out the back. our sommelier was excellent (i'm really sorry i can't remember her name which is appalling as she was fantastic), explaining every wine and very helpful when i explained that i don't particularly like red so she swapped out the heavier of the 2 reds (a malbec) for a south african white which was not dissimilar to a white burgundy and could hold its own against heavy flavours (great choice btw). and of course dylan with his very dry sense of humour. i have to say that i think the service here was better than at the waterside inn under diego and the food was on a par, perhaps the waterside has 3 michelin stars because it's a prettier building, who knows? but theledburyblows the only other 2 star restaurant i've visited, the hand and flowers, out of the water. well done guys and thank you very much for an excellent anniversary meal.