Hibiscus, London, UK

My friend L. wanted to go to Hibiscus. As she could not make it for lunch, we had to pass on the 3-course lunch menu at £33.50, and booked a table for two for dinner. I found the pricing quite surprising. The 4-course (plus appetizer and pre-dessert) costs £85, while it costs £80 to have three A la carte courses. A no brainer, but then, why not go all-in and have the surprise 7-course tasting menu?

We were offered some fried balls of cheese and mushrooms as an appetizer. They were rich and creamy, and looked very cute wrapped in the white napkins like little babies.

First, we had a hibiscus and apple soda. It was too sweet and not exactly what I would have expected as an amuse-bouche.

Hibiscus and apple soda

Our first course was a raw mackerel with strawberries and wasabi. The combination of the oily fish with the freshness of the strawberries worked very well.

Cornish mackerel with red and green strawberries and wasabi

The second starter was a perfectly slow-cooked egg, in a delicious asparagus velouté with a little hint of coconut.

Slow cooked Benton egg with asparagus and coconut velouté

We had many broad beans in our menu, as they are in season. Our vegetarian raviolo had a filling of mint and spring onions and was topped with broad beans. Mint gave the dish an oriental flavour, and a pleasant freshness.

Spring onion and mint raviolo with broad beans

Our fish dish was a black bream stuffed with morilles, on a bed of morilles and broad beans. The fish was nicely cooked but the dish was too salty, which prevented us from fully appreciating it.

Black bream stuffed with morilles and lime

The next dish was surprising. Winkles with black pudding. I guessed winkles are what we call "bigorneaux" in French, and the description of winkles as "sea snails" confirmed my guess. I liked this interesting combination of "crunchy" winkles with soft black pudding, a very earthy surf and turf. But my friend L. was put off by the thought of these little sea snails swimming in her velouté.

Winkles and black pudding

Our meat dish was original as well. We had a very tender rabbit, which is a rare treat in the UK as I have understood that many British people do not eat rabbit. It came with chorizo and a clam, and broad beans, again.

Rabbit from Norfolk stuffed with chorizo and clam

A cheese platter to share.

Cheese platter

Shame on me. I jumped on the pre-dessert so quickly that I forgot to take a picture. It was a lovely verrine of English strawberries, celeriac jelly and Szechuan pepper cream.

Our waitress asked us to guess what ingredients were used in the dessert. We thought of asparagus and cauliflower and it was indeed a tart with white asparagus cream and candied black olives. It was a nice surprise to the palate but the white asparagus cream was quite rich and maybe not the best way to finish a 7-course meal. I would have preferred a lighter and more refreshing pudding.

White asparagus tart with candied black olives (served with a goat cheese ice cream)

We had some petit-fours with our mint tea. The smoked fudge had an amazing smoky flavour, and it felt like eating a sweet smoked ham.

Petits fours

I expected Claude Bosi's food to be a very classic French cuisine and I was nicely surprised by his inventive cooking. Except the fish that was too salty, all our dishes were well cooked and seasoned, which is not very surprising for a 2 Michelin stars restaurant anyway. Food was original and service considerate. I thought first that Hibiscus was quite pricey because of the A la carte prices, but compared to other Michelin restaurants in London or Paris, the tasting menu is not that expensive.

Sometimes, Hibiscus organises wine tasting parties, with a 6-course menu chosen by Claude Bosi at £150.

Cost: £100 for the 7-course surprise tasting menu

Pied à Terre, London, UK

One of my issues is that I eat quicker than I write. As a consequence I have a huge backlog that can be reduced only if I do not go out for the next month and feed myself with the lovely vegetables Abel and Cole delivers to my door every Monday morning. But before that, I had to try the self-proclaimed best value Michelin-starred lunch in town at Pied à Terre. I had already been to its sister restaurant, L'Autre Pied twice, and lunch there was indeed good value. 

Pied à Terre is on Charlotte street, a mecca for food lovers. As we arrived in front of Pied à Terre, we saw two garbage bags next to the door. Not a good mise en bouche, and definitely not a good start to get delivered L's Quality Stamp. A five-course menu advertised at £29.50 in a 2-Michelin star restaurant sounded indeed good value, and we went for it despite a limited choice (two starters and two mains). 

We had three nice appetizers, lovely to see and to taste.

Amuses bouche: sun dried tomato and mascarpone, salmon verrine, foie gras and poppy seed crackers

As a starter we both had the tuna tartar, which went well with the soft boiled quail eggs. L did not like the anchovy beignets but I found them quite enjoyable.

Tuna tartar with French beans and parsley salad, soft boiled quail eggs, walnut mayonnaise, anchovy beignets

I chose meat for my main. The waiter told me that the blade of beef had been cooked for more than thirty hours (or was it eighteen?) Yummy, that beef was tender and the port jus tasty, but I found the bone marrow a little bit too raw.

Slow cooked blade of beef with horseradish purée, salt baked carrot, bone marrow, watercress and port jus

 L. went for the fish. Surprise, more beignets for her!

Poached Gilthead seabream with greem asparagus, baby courgette, dandelion, samphire chips, crayfish tail and shellfish bisque

We had then a refreshing pre-dessert. I remember the waiter mentioning hibiscus but L says it was mango and lime. I guess we will never find out.

Pre-dessert: hibiscus jelly and lime mousse

L. and her sweet tooth ordered a dessert while I had a fresh mint tea with petits fours. I tried one of her financiers and it was soft and fragant with honey. My petits fours were so lovely that it was a shame to eat them, but I almost managed to finish them all.

Honey financiers with fig purée, mascarpone, black olive ice cream and olive oil powder

Petits fours

I liked my lunch at Pied à Terre, but failed to see a big difference with the cuisine at L'Autre Pied, which has "only" one Michelin star. L, for her part did not agree with the "best value Michelin-starred lunch" part and would rather give this title to Gauthier Soho.

Cost: £29.50 for the 5-course menu.

Please note that the amuses bouche and pre-dessert are each counted as one course.

The bill came at £45 each, including service and a glass of wine

La Table de Bastien, Calvi, Corse, France

La Table de Bastien is the gastronomic restaurant of the luxury hotel La Villa and offers a breathtaking view of Calvi bay. As it is quite dangerous to drive in the sinuous roads of Corsica at night and even more after one or two glasses of wine,  we booked a table for lunch. We asked a table on the terrasse and were delighted to eat at one of the best tables of Corsica until the waiter brought us the menu... When booking our table, the receptionist had forgotten to tell us one tiny unimportant insignificant detail, that La Table de Bastien is ONLY open for DINNER. At lunch time, the restaurant of La Villa serves a limited menu at not that limited prices.

Margherita pizza

Tuna salad with artichokes and roasted tomatoes

Cafe gourmand with nougat, mango and passion fruit sorbet, strawberry feuillete and lemon tart with meringue

The pizza and salad were actual well done and we had also a wonderful half bottle of local Clos Columbu wine.

The Maitre d' was very apologetic about the booking mistake, and since we still wanted to try the gastronomic restaurant, we booked a table for dinner the day after. We went for the seven-course surprise tasting menu and a glass of wine.

Nice view isn't it?

Well, well, well. What is this appetizer?
I did not manage to catch the name as our waiter mumbled it. They were small pancakes with a cheesy flavour. Not bad, but not very elaborate. Better than peanuts, fine as a remplacement for bread and olive oil,  but not very Michelin style.

Our first starter was made of two perfectly cooked langoustines in a broth of soy sauce and yuzu, which was slightly too acidic, with a crunchy asparagus. Are asparagus supposed to be eaten crunchy? A matter of taste I suppose, but I prefer them more tender.

Langoustine with soy sauce and yuzu

Cooking a foie gras poele is quite technical, and I must admit the one we had at La Table de Bastien as a second starter was mastered to perfection. It came with a purée of something. I do not remember what this something was, but as we were in Corsica, let's assume it was a chestnut purée.

Pan-fried foie gras

The next course, our fish dish, was an absolute catastrophy, while it sounded most promising. The fish was properly cooked, but there was absolutely no seasoning and the artichoke was almost raw. The whole was bland despite the use of strong flavoured ingredients such as saffron and chorizo. Besides, I did not get the point of having a paella-style risotto. It should be EITHER a paella OR a risotto. But why try to mix the two rice dishes when they use different types of rice and techniques? The result was not satisfying, the rice was too liquid and without enough starch to give the risotto creamy texture, and despite the use of a large quantity of saffron, neither did it taste like a paella.

Seabass, Paella style risotto, chorizo, artichoke

Our meat course was introduced as a "Quasi" by our autistic waiter. Never heard of "Quasi" before. After asking for clarification, we learnt that a "Quasi" is a veal cut. Apart from this "quasi"-incident we enjoyed the tender meat.

"Quasi" of veal

We skipped the cheese course and asked to have tea/coffee instead. The pre-dessert was a success, and a offered a perfect balance of sweet and tart.

Lime sorbet and red fruits coulis

The waiter never bothered to tell us the name of the dessert. From our guess, there were some watermelon, mango, passion fruit, pineapple and pomegranate chunks in the mango/passion fruit sorbet, a soft biscuit and three meringues. This dessert was good, but there were two unedible decorative branches which is an absolute no go. Everything in the plate should be edible, especially in a Michelin-starred restaurant.

Frozen exotic fruits dessert

We had mixed feelings about La Table de Bastien. The surroundings are amazing but food was of unequal quality. There were wonderful courses but they were overshadowed by huge mistakes. Serving a dish without tasting it (if the chef had tasted the fish dish he would have realized that there was no seasoning) is not acceptable for a restaurant that charges 150 EUR per person. Service was unequal as well : the Maitre d' was charming and considerate but our waiter delivered a very poor service. He was careless, did not introduce the courses properly and never refilled our glasses with water without us asking (no, we were not too lazy to do it ourselves, the bottle of water was on another table).

We were demanding because we had high expectations, and with its overpriced menu, La Table de Bastien did not keep up with our expectations. And if "value for money" is one of the five criteria required to have a Michelin star, I wonder how La Table de Bastien got its.

Cost: EUR 150 for the 7-course tasting menu

L' Atelier, London, UK

L'Atelier de Robuchon is another Michelin starred restaurant which offers an amazing lunch deal. In addition to the quality of the food, and the decent price (at lunch), service is quick and efficient, and I would certainly be a regular lunch customer if I was working in Soho. The lunch menu allows customers to pick between three different starters, three mains and two desserts or cheese. To me, the best seats are at the bar, where you can watch the diligent staff of l' Atelier in action.

I chose an egg cocotte to start and pollock for main. The egg cocotte was superbly cooked and had a wonderful mushroom flavour. It was a shame that it was served in a martini glass, as the beauty of the presentation did not make up for the inconvenience of eating in it.

Oeuf cocotte with light wild mushroom cream

Usually I do not like to order fish in gastronomic restaurants because I find that meat dishes offer more potential for the chef to show his skills. However I must admit this pollock was moist and cooked to perfection. It came with a beautiful red pepper pasta cake which did not taste as good as it looked.

Pollock stuffed with basil, macaroni and piquillos fricassée

As we had ordered a bottle of delicious Meursault, we went for cheese instead of dessert. We had two "cheeses of the day" which were rather disappointing. Actually I have never been fond of "pre-made" cheese plates, and prefer being able to pick my own cheese out of a cheese board, like the memorably huge platter I had at les Bories.

Cost:

Menu du jour, served from 12pm-3pm and 5.30pm-6.30pm: £22 for 2 courses, £27 for 3 courses

Gauthier Soho, London, UK

Something I love about London, is the huge offer of "cheap" lunches at Michelin starred restaurants. This whole world was untouchable when I had to stay at my desk and indulged myself with burritos loaded with trans fat. And now that I have quit cheap junk food, I can treat myself with cheap gastronomic food! 

With another idle friend, we headed to Gauthier Soho for lunch. We were seated in the immaculate dining room on the first floor of the lovely house, and felt a little bit out of place in the room full of seniors. But given the fact it was Tuesday lunch time, this was not very surprising.

We ordered the 3-course lunch with half a bottle of red wine, and had some appetizers to start. It is always nice to be offered appetizers but they had nothing special. However, I was quite impressed by the large selection of home-made breads (bacon, olive, chorizo, nut, etc...) that we could sample with two different olive oils.

Quail eggs with serrano ham and foie gras

Grissini

Tomato, garlic and cockles

As a starter, my friend L. went for the halibut salad while I had the girolle risotto with veal jus. I don't know about the salad but the risotto was great and I wished I had more.

Warm halibut salad

Girolle risotto with veal jus and Parmesan crisp

We both ordered duck for main. Usually, I love duck, but this dish was such a disappointment, especially compared to the wonderful duck with girolles I had at Saint John. Despite being correctly cooked, the duck was quite bland and I did not taste much of the spicy jus. Besides, the chanterelles were so spongy that we wondered if they were frozen mushrooms.

Honey roated duck breast, chanterelles, pommes fondantes and spicy jus

We had a frozen pre-dessert which I am ashamed not to remember.

L. had the mother of chocolate cakes for dessert: a Golden Louis XV. I had never heard of this cake before but for anyone who has a sweet tooth this is the perfect decadent chocolate pudding.

Golden Louis XV

As I usually prefer fruity desserts, I had the pear compote. I am not convinced of the quality of pear as a dessert fruit. I think pear is wonderful with cheese, but it lacks the tartness I love in fruity desserts. I think I definitely would have preferred rhubarb or raspberry (but then it was quite stupid to order the pear compote wasn't it?).

Pear compote, white chocolate jelly and cinnamon ice cream

Cost:

2-course lunch: £18

3-course lunch: £25

Free still and sparkling water

£5 extra for half a bottle of wine.

L'Autre Pied (2), London, UK

I tried Taste of Spring at L'Autre Pied a couple of months ago and it was a great experience. When I received the newsletter introducing the Taste of Summer menu I could not resist and booked of table for three as my friend N. was in London for the week end. The good thing when you book in advance is that you avoid the typical Saturday morning disappointment when you find out that all the restaurants on your to-eat list are fully booked for lunch. One drawback is that sometimes you enjoy yourself a little bit too much on Friday evening and can not really appreciate your meal, what is kind of unfortunate when it is at a Michelin starred restaurant. That is what happened to "hangovered" N., which at least allowed us to share three tasting menus for two.

Pressed foie gras and Dutch eel, celeriac cream, apple purée

Puy lentil and smoked bacon velouté,

ragout of lentils, smoked olive oil

Line caught monkfish, ragout of girolle mushrooms,

Morteaux sausage and lightly smoked sabayon

Roasted middle white pork, glazed baby carrots,

carrot and star anis purée, tarragon jus

Vanilla ice cream and Raspberry sorbet

Macerated strawberries, cinnamon sablé, Thai basil ice-cream

I liked my first experience at L'Autre Pied, and I loved my second one, as all dishes were absolutely delicious. The foie gras was well balanced and came with little dashes of purée with intense flavour. The second dish was my favourite one as the taste of lentil, bacon and chanterelle all together was stunning. Both fish and pork were cooked to perfection and served with fresh and tender vegetables. Desserts were light and fresh, and the Thai basil ice-cream I already knew was as fantastic as the first time I had it.

In addition to top-notch food we were also very impressed with the considerate service. N. who was noticeably feeling unwell, was offered some mint tea and asked if she would prefer to stop the tasting menu. The waitress also noticed that we did not touch our glass of Prosecco (remember, we had enjoyed ourselves a little bit too much...) and offered us the raspberry sorbet as a pre-dessert. This makes the difference between a good restaurant and a great restaurant.

Cost: 5-course menu with a glass of prosecco: £45