London, London restaurants, Michelin restaurants

Two-Starred Hélène Darroze at The Connaught

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I had been enjoying two two-starred and several one-starred dining experiences over the past year or so without Ms B, because I was working abroad during most weeks, only coming back to London over the weekend. For a long time I had been planning on making this up to her, at least to some extent, by taking her out to a two- or three-star restaurant in London. Besides, our ten-year wedding anniversary was approaching fast, so time was of the essence. When we found out that two-starred Hélène Darroze at The Connaught offered a “weekday dinner formule” for a mere £60 per person, including three courses, two glasses of wine, mineral water, and coffee, we immediately made a reservation. From several food-loving friends we had heard plenty of great things over the years about this fine culinary establishment on the ground floor of one of London’s most luxurious hotels. We […]

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London restaurants

M Grill Victoria

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One of my major client contracts in my day job as regulatory consultant had just been extended for another year a few days ago after 6 weeks of relative limbo and just a few days’ work here and there. So Ms B & I decided to treat ourselves to a nice meal at M Victoria’s Grill, or “M Grill.” We had visited (and blogged about) it before, so we knew that we’d enjoy it. Former thespian and current CEO of M Restaurant London, Martin Williams, founded the group in November 2014 with the opening of the first M restaurant in Threadneedle Street (followed by M Victoria in December 2015 and shortly after by M Twickenham), after having been Gaucho’s Managing Director for nine years. (He has just returned as part-time advisor to Gaucho besides his day job at M to help save the embattled steakhouse chain that has recently been […]

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London, London restaurants

Lovely Dinner at Launceston Place, Kensington, the Locals’ Favourite

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Ms B and I enjoyed our recent visit to Launceston Place, one of Kensington’s most loved fine dining venues. Young and heavily tattooed head chef Ben Murphy has trained and worked at Koffmann’s at The Berkeley, the triple Michelin-starred Les Prés d’Eugénie (which is part of the ultra-prestigious Relais & Chateaux group, just like restaurant Lafleur in Frankfurt, which we reviewed here) in the south of France, as well as the equally three-starred Épicure Restaurant at Le Bristol in Paris, and London’s two-star Greenhouse Restaurant. As soon as we arrived, the friendly staff led us to our table. The atmosphere is elegant with plenty of light.     After short deliberation we decided to opt for the 3-course set menu deal for £30 per person. For starters, we chose seared tuna and pig’s head pate, for mains the grilled octopus on burnt leek with chive and chicken tarragon, and as desserts […]

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London, London restaurants, Michelin restaurants

Galvin La Chapelle – London’s Most Romantic Restaurant

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Ms B and Mr B celebrated their wedding anniversary yesterday, so Mr B thought, why not do the obvious thing, and book us in for dinner at London’s most romantic restaurant: Michelin-starred Galvin la Chapelle. We had recently already enjoyed two of the Galvin brothers’ other ventures: Galvin at the Athenaeum (post here)  and the (also Michelin-starred) Galvin at Windows (post here). Galvin la Chapelle had been on our list for a long time, so we were truly excited when we arrived there by chauffeur-driven limousine (read our post about the awesome chauffeur service here).    We had seen many pictures of the marvellous space inside Spitalfields’ St. Botolph’s Hall (built 1890 and now home to la Chapelle), but it still exceeded our expectations. The friendly waiter led us to our table at the perfect spot: the far right-hand corner, with the best view of the hall, the décor, and […]

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London, London restaurants

Galvin at the Athenaeum – Fine Dining in Style

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We were recently very kindly invited by family-owned 5-star luxury hotel Athenaeum, whose list of current and former regulars includes Elizabeth Taylor, Marlon Brando, Harrison Ford, and Kim Kardashian, to try (for free) the fixed price £37.50 three-course deal (which includes unlimited dessert) at their restaurant Galvin at the Athenaeum , an offer we could not refuse, having previously heard many good things about this fine restaurant. The location on Piccadilly close to Hyde Park Corner, in a building previously owned by the famous Athenaeum private members club, which moved into nearby Pall Mall (and which has 52 Nobel Prize winners amongst its current and former members), could not be better, and the old building has been perfectly refurbished with state of the art technology and plenty of original artwork everywhere. Galvin at The Athenaeum is under the supervision of Michelin-starred chefs Chris and Jeff Galvin. The two brothers, who […]

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