The ‘BB’ Burger at Bar Boulud Knightsbridge

Words & Photography by Marina Benjamin and Luiz Hara

Name: Bar Boulud

Where: Mandarin Oriental, Hyde Park, 56 Knightsbridge, London DW1X 7LA, http://www.barboulud.com/london

Cost: Starters range from fish soups to salads and are priced from £9-19 while sharing boards of charcuterie start at £30. Mains are a selection of bistro dishes (£9-£34) and desserts (£6-12) are modern inflections of French classics. The Menu Buchon (working lunch) is good value, with 2 and 3 courses for £18 and £21 respectively.

About: Bar Boulud occupies a swish street facing location on the ground floor of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel. At lunchtimes, a crowd of tourists and shoppers, business folk and families, pours through the giant front doors, making for a bustling brasserie atmosphere within. 

The wait staff is completely professional yet an informal mood prevails, which is all the better to eat with. You won’t find the haughty pretentious of haute cuisine here - instead the restaurant gets on with feeding people delicious and hearty food that hails from provincial France; the steaks might come with chimichurri; the burgers with green chilli mayo; and the fries arrive, thin, crisp and moreish, in paper cones that sit in metal tins.

There is a sense of fun about Bar Boulud, where playful snacky additions top and tail the menu, from cheesy puffs made of gruyère-infused choux pastry at one end, to truffles textured with puffed rice at the other. And the drinking can verge on frivolity: there is a Gin menu that stands on its own and boasts not only gins flavoured with saffron, but tonics tinged with elderflower, cardamom, watermelon or lemongrass. Every now and then, depending on who’s visiting, or indeed, on a whim, the sommelier might decide to open a 6 litre Imperiale of wine and treat lucky diners to extraordinary vintages from Bordeaux or the Rhone Valley at a fraction of what they’d normally cost.

What We Had: We came with one goal in mind: The London Foodie’s ongoing appreciation of the top-notch burger. Yet having travelled through London on an unseasonably warm day, cross-town from meetings elsewhere, we were hungry enough to be tempted by the aforementioned gougères (£5), and a zingy starter of gravlax (£12) – delectable slices of salmon cured in gin but curiously missing the usual dill borders.

I love a restaurant that takes pride in its bread, and Bar Boulud gets extra points on this count, because it serves pointy sheaves of well-textured baguette with exquisite pats of creamy butter, salted just right.  If you’re not careful you could fill up on bread alone. Or even better, bread washed down with a glass of the Francois Monay house Champagne, sold at a very reasonable £12.95 a glass.

The burgers, when they came, brought a whiff of Americana with them. Sitting in regal solitude on their rectangular white plates the char-grilled patties looked fit to bust out of their buns, in explosions of generous demi-rare redness, juicy and properly textured in a visibly granular way. 

Bar Boulud offers just three kinds of burger: The Yankee (£17), which consists of 8oz of prime British ground beef, minimally accompanied by staples from the vegetable crisper drawer – lettuce, tomato, onion and pickle. Cheese is optional. I opted to have it, but was a little disappointed that it had congealed on the way to our table and wasn’t the hot and molten sludge I’d been anticipating. The meat, however, was faultless; soft enough to adhere, but grainy enough to fall apart at the merest contact with tooth. And packed with flavour too.

Other options include The Piggie (£19), topped with barbecued pork, jalapeno mayo and cabbage, and served in a cheddar bun; and the ‘BB’, priced at a royal £24. This stunning confection of patty, foie gras and short ribs stuffed into a black onion seed bun with a slick of horseradish mayo, could challenge the healthiest of appetites. My dining buddy claimed his ‘BB’ was sublime and symphonious, and neither of us left a crumb on our plates.

It just so happened that the day before we visited, the sommelier had opened an Imperiale of Chateaux Clos Marsalette Bordeaux (2013). It was smooth as you like, and dreamy with warm red fruit tastes and aromas. This was available at £16 a glass, but you can also enjoy a 125ml glass of Barons de Rothschild Legende de Lafite at Bar Boulud for just £5.90.

Likes: Scrumptious burgers that set a bar for others to follow, and the best bread and butter in town. The Chateaux Clos Marsalette Bordeaux wine was exceptional.

Dislikes: I’d like to see a range of condiments offered with the burgers, mustards and relishes that you can add on and play with. This, it seems to me, would be in the spirit of friendly build-your-own dining that Bar Boulud cultivates so well.

Verdict: Bar Boulud is a great lunch spot in the heart of Knightsbridge – writing this, I can’t think of much else I’d rather have right now than their BB Burger & frites with a glass of Chateaux Clos Marsalette, perfection! Recommended.

Bellanger - A French-Alsatian Restaurant in Islington by Corbyn & King

Words and Photography by Caroline Ghera and Luiz Hara

Name: Bellanger

Where: 9 Islington Green, London N1 2XH, http://www.bellanger.co.uk

Cost: Average spend per person is £35 (not including drinks). Bellanger has a comprehensive all-day a la carte menu including Tarte Flamblées (£4.95 - £8.85), Oysters (£12.75 - £16.50 for a half-dozen), Salads and Sandwiches (£5.50 - £11.50), “Les Pots” or Hot Stews (£14 - £18 for one person) Fish and Meats (£12.50 - £24.75), and Desserts (£4.75 - £7.75). The restaurant also has a breakfast menu while brunch is served on Saturdays and Sundays.

About: Bellanger is the latest addition to restaurateurs Corbin & King portfolio of popular London eateries, many of these inspired by the grand Parisian brasseries of the early 20th century. The Wolseley and The Delaunay, at the higher end within the group, are established institutions in London, while Colbert in Chelsea, The Colony Grill at the Beaumond Hotel, and Fischer's in Marylebone attract a faithful following that includes among its regulars various London chefs and food critics. At the other end of the scale, Brasserie Zédel offers classic French cuisine as an affordable experience.

The newcomer Bellanger, whose name is inspired (as in the other Corbin and King restaurants) by a piece of automotive history - the Société des Automobiles Bellanger Frères which manufactured French cars from 1912 to 1925 - brings to Islington a menu with all the old French classics but with a focus on hearty Alsatian cuisine.

The interior was designed by Shayne Brady, who previously created several of Bellanger’s sister restaurants under David Collins. The spacious restaurant is divided into a buzzy and more luminous front area with a gorgeous bar, perfect for solo diners; while quieter, cosier booths, small tables and larger group areas can be found towards the back. The Parisian cafe ambience is brought to life with use of glossy dark woods, antiqued mirrors, brass fittings and a fine attention to detail, such as the typical Alsatian green stemmed wine goblets on every table.

What We Ate: We decided to focus on the typically Alsatian dishes for which Bellanger is quickly gaining a reputation. For starters, we chose two of their Tarte Flambées - a crispy and paper-thin oval-shaped baked pastry, smeared with a faint layer of crème fraîche and finished with a choice of toppings. Larger than we had expected, our first Tarte Flambée was goat’s cheese, honey and thyme (£5.50), a deliciously light and satisfying combination that due to its thin nature was promptly consumed.

As our second Tarte Flambée we chose champignons and fine herbs (£7.00): a fine example of buttery and fragrant chanterelles and girolles mixed with fresh herbs, at the same time light and fresh but containing a mouth-watering depth of flavour. Even those who do not particularly like mushrooms should give this a try, no other nation can cook mushrooms like the French!

Moving on to the main course, I could not resist the Choucroute a l’Alsacienne (£16.00).

Brought to the table in a richly decorated ceramic pot, the lid was lifted to reveal an authentic porky feast: a mix of flavourful frankfurter, two choices of garlic sausages with meltingly tender pork belly and ham hock that fell apart into soft chunks at the touch of the fork, all sitting on top of sauerkraut which had a good balance of sharpness and saltiness. Altogether, the dish was very well accomplished and perfect on a very cold winter evening.

A second identical ceramic pot also reached our table but this time containing Coq au Riesling (£14.00). Tender pieces of chicken mixed with more mushrooms, fresh herbs, Riesling wine and cream created a delightful and much more enjoyable white version to Coq au Vin. A recipe I would certainly like to recreate at home.

By now we were already feeling quite full but could not finish the meal without giving some of the desserts a try. We started with a feather-light textured Baba cake, served with passion fruit purée and whipped cream (£7.00). The Baba was then soaked with a generous dose of rum at the table. The mix of textures and flavours worked really well but I thought it was a little too heavy on the alcohol.

Our second dessert was the Caramelised Banana with Melted Chocolate Tarte Flambée (£4.75). It too proved to be a highly indulgent choice with bananas that were perfectly caramelised but maintained a pleasantly firm texture, on top of which milk chocolate was melted with abandonment with a further flourish of double cream.

What We Drank: Bellanger has an extensive wine list which includes a good range of choices by the glass (£6.75 - £14.75), a few half bottles (£24.00-£59.00) and full bottles from £22.50 to £295.00.

Sticking to the Alsace region, and after tasting a couple of different options, we settled on a bottle of Pinot Blanc, La Cabane, 2014, Domaine Leon Boesch (£41.00). A biodynamic wine created from 70% Pinox Auxerrois and 30% Pinot Blanc, it sported a zesty, clear cut, with notes of lemon and spice which stood up well to the meaty Choucroute and the flavourful buttery character of our meal.

Likes: The Tarte Flambées were some good I found them almost addictive. The thought of returning to Bellanger to try out the other flavours is indeed very tempting. Altogether the menu is competently executed with reasonably priced dishes. The stylish retro decor is warm and welcoming.

Dislikes: On a week night with the restaurant a third full, we were given the worst possible table at the back of the restaurant in a totally empty room, I just wonder why? They promptly moved us to another table as I requested. The wine list has been expertly put together but few bottles come below the £35 tag.

Verdict: Bellanger with its Tarte Flambées is a good addition to the Islington restaurant scene, with a restaurant that brings affordable high-quality French cooking that can appeal equally to solo diners, couples or family meals. Recommended.

L'Escargot and the Fentiman’s Cocktail Pop-up Bar - Les Amis du Chien!

Name: L'Escargot Restaurant & Fentimans' Cocktail Pop-up Bar

Where: 48 Greek Street, Soho, London W1D 4EF, http://www.lescargot.co.uk/

Cost: Average cost is around £40 per person (not including drinks). The menu changes daily, but on the evening we were there, appetizers were from £7 to £14, fish dishes were £14 to £19, and meat main courses ranged from £14 to £28. Desserts cost £7 to £14. There is a good range of wines by the glass. Entry level wines included La Bastille 2013, an Ugni Blanc-Colombard blend for £21, and for the same price, La Bastille 2013 Carignan-Merlot blend. Laurent-Perrier Brut NV costs £58.  

About: L'Escargot has been a Soho institution for decades, serving traditional French fare in gorgeous dining rooms crammed with artwork. It has been under new ownership since 2013. I haven't been for ages, but the special opening of the normally members-only roof top bar (the Salon Noir) in August 2015 as the 'Living Botanical' cocktail bar featuring Fentimans adult soft drinks tempted me to make a return visit.

Tofu and Truffle on their night out at L'Escargot

Fentimans has teamed up with L'Escargot to launch a pop-up cocktail bar for the whole of August 2015. Fentimans drinks are brewed with botanicals for 7 days to make their mixers, and to reflect this the theme in the cocktail bar is a botanic garden and a range of summery long drinks.

Until the 31st August 2015, so hurry for a visit this summer!

All cocktails are priced at a very reasonable £7, or you can get an amazing four cocktails for £16 by signing up for a Time Out voucher before you arrive – you can purchase the drinks and print out the voucher from this link: 
http://uk-offers.timeout.com/deals/food-and-drink-fentimans-pop-up-bar-l-escargot.

Even better, the restaurant has a "les amis du chien" policy, possibly one of very few restaurants in London to welcome dogs, if you know others, please let me know! So I hurried along with Tofu and Truffle (duly washed and groomed for the occasion) to sample the cocktail bar and the restaurant's summer menu.

Tofu and Truffle waiting for their steak

The Fentimans Cocktail Pop-up bar is open until 1 am, Mondays to Saturdays, and offers a great opportunity to experience the members club without having to become a member of L'Escargot Club Privee. If you fancy joining anyway, the deal is that you arrange to meet the manager for a chat/coffee to discuss the membership - it is £365 to join for a year or £1 a day. The club includes a rooftop bar, and three additional dining rooms including a library, which can be also be booked as a private dining room.

What We Ate: From a quite short menu put together by chef de cuisine Oliver Lesnik, we opted for the steak tartare (£12). Served with a quail egg yolk, this had had hand chopped beef and was nicely seasoned, although I would have liked it slightly more tart (perhaps more gherkin).

The grilled native lobster with garlic butter (£18), had the delicious aroma of freshly grilled seafood, great texture and lovely garlic butter.

For our main course, we had the Chateaubriand (£58 for 2), with side dishes of courgette fries (£6) and dauphinoise potatoes (£6). The Chateaubriand was excellent, although for 2 people I thought it was slightly optimistic to serve this as a portion.

The Bernaise was delicious, with a powerful hit of tarragon. The red wine sauce was glossy, luxurious and richly flavoured. The courgette fries were very good, and I particularly enjoyed the saffron flavoured accompanying sauce. The potatoes were intensely unctuous and creamy.

We finished the evening with a delectable crème brûlée (£8) – well made and as good as you can find at any top French restaurants.

What We Drank: We kicked off with a couple of Fentimans cocktails in the rooftop bar. The “Little Treacle” features dark rum, lime, sugar, bitters, Fentimans dandelion and burdock. A very refreshing number, this had a good kick of alcohol while still having the traditional flavours of one of Dr G's favourite childhood drinks.

Tofu and Truffle enjoying the Fentimans Cocktail Pop-up Bar

The “Fearless Fun” had tequila, Cointreau and Fentimans ginger beer - a very good start to the evening, with the ginger really getting the digestive juices flowing.

The “Easy Breezy” was a blend of VJJ Hills gin, grapefruit and Fentimans 19.05 herbal tonic, with a refreshing hit of grapefruit acidity. 

“Curiosity” had Bourbon, orange zest and Fentimans curiosity cola reduction, and was rich and spicy.

To accompany the Chateaubriand, we shared a bottle of Julienas, Gerard Descombes 2013 (£40). A good example of a Beaujolais Villages wines, this was light in colour and aroma, on the palate this had a good weight of raspberry and redcurrant fruit and balancing tannins, sufficient to stand up to the Chateaubriand on a balmy summer's evening.

Likes: Its a huge treat to be able to take our dogs to dinner in a central London restaurant - this is totally normal in France, but in the UK I hope other restaurants will follow L’Escargot’s example. The August Fentimans cocktail bar is the place to head to this summer, and fantastic value for money. The Chateaubriand was perfect - flavoursome, excellent quality beef, beautifully cooked. The menu is not large, but everything we ate was delicious and very well made, in true brasserie style. 

Dislikes: where is the wonderful artwork?

Verdict: For a French restaurant in the heart of Soho, L'Escargot has some great things to offer - the Fentimans great cocktail bar with top quality cocktails for a remarkably reasonable price, a central and fashionable location, and your dog (if you are lucky to have one) will be welcome! Tofu and Truffle highly recommend!

The Sommelier’s Table at Hélène Darroze

Hélène Darroze at The Connaught is without a doubt one of my favourite restaurants in London. I have visited it on a number of occasions and written about it in The London Foodie, here and here.

Hélène Darroze’s cooking is exquisite – her use of outstanding ingredients (she works very closely with all her suppliers as seen here), the flavours and presentation she conjures up in her dishes are some of the reasons why I go out to eat or write this blog. 

From Landes in Southwest France, Hélène Darroze has held her 2 Michelin stars for years; she is the 4th generation descendent of a long line of chefs and was the right-hand woman for Alan Ducasse in Monte Carlo where she worked. Since adopting two Vietnamese children, her French cooking has taken inspiration from the flavours of the East – Vietnam, Japan and other Asian cuisines. I still dream of her steak tartare flavoured with yuzu ponzu, and caviar!

As much as I love getting stuck in some great burgers and street-food, Hélène’s cooking is something only a handful of chefs in the world can put together – it is unique, very highly skilled and something truly special. 

I recently returned to Hélène Darroze’s Sommelier Table. The Sommelier Table is a beautiful private room in the underground cellars of The Connaught Hotel where you will find some of the hotel’s 6,000 vintage wines. For groups of up to 8 people, you can enjoy a private 4-course lunch with wines included for £150 per person or perhaps a 6-7 course dinner for £1,200 (for up to a group of 8 diners, not including wines).

As the name suggests, there is a great focus on wine-pairing at the Sommelier’s Table, and the night we were there, sommelier Mirko Benzo did not disappoint. Guests are not told the identity of the wine in advance, and this blind tasting focuses the concentration on its taste, nose and harmony with the food – unconstrained by preconceptions relating to region, vintage or value. At the end of each course, the wine is revealed.

And now onto the wonderful, 7-course dinner that Hélène Darroze prepared for us. We started with a Champagne reception and a few delightful morsels of French ham and croquette canapés which got us off on a very good note.

Hélène’s focus on ingredients really showed on her menu – the dishes’ names were given by the use of the main ingredient in each dish. So next up was “Caviar “– crab, radish, Hass avocado. This was the most exquisite dish served that evening and the flavours were fresh, clean but still super intense, it was like having a private garden on your plate!

This was followed by “Foie Gras” - wild strawberry, rhubarb, and lemon verbena. The creamiest foie gras, with a crystal clear rhubarb jelly and wild strawberries, another fantastic dish.

The “Coco Bean” – eel, shimeji – this was yet another great dish with a coco bean emulsion, well eel and shimeji mushrooms.

Next up was the fish course - “Lobster” - asparagus, bottarga, and seaweed.

The meat course – “Sweetbread” - asparagus, morel, and vin jaune was also one of my favourites. I love sweetbreads, it is such a delicacy and deliciously creamy when well cooked, like the one pictured.

I love the concept of pre-desserts and Hélène’s Baba “Armagnac” - with strawberry and banana, doused in her own family’s Darroze Armagnac was the lightest and most wonderful baba I have ever tried.

Dessert was a torte of “Chocolate” – ginger and Bourbon vanilla, which was followed by a tier of mini choux buns filled with cream and macarons.

This was a splendid dinner and one I will remember for years to come. For a special occasion or if you would like to enjoy some of the best French cooking and wines that London can offer, there are very places I can think of rather than The Sommelier’s Table at Hélène Darroze. I highly recommend it.

For reservations, email: helenedarroze@the-connaught.co.uk or call:  +44 (0) 20 3147 7200. 

For more information about The Sommelier Table at The Connaught Hotel, visit their website:
http://www.the-connaught.co.uk/mayfair-restaurants/sommeliers-table/

A Return Visit to L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon

Words & Photography by Matthew Brown and Luiz Hara

Name: L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon

Where: 13-15 West Street, London WC2H 9NE, United Kingdom,
http://www.joelrobuchon.co.uk/

Cost: We sampled dishes from several of the restaurant’s menus. A La Carte starters range from £17 to £49. Main courses are more consistent, and vary from £34-49, while desserts are all £11. The restaurant also offers 5- and 8-course tasting menus, priced at £95 and £129, and each can be extended to include either a “Sommelier’s Choice” or a “French” wine pairing. As well as set lunch and pre-theatre menus (2 courses for £31, 4 for £41) there’s an additional menu of small tasting dishes (from £16-29) that features some of the restaurant’s most innovative items.

The wine list is extensive, and though the top bottles are stratospheric, there is a good choice of bottles under £40. There is an extensive spirits selection, and a strong cocktail list (£11-15) that is also available in the restaurant’s biggest secret, its cosy penthouse bar.

About: L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon is the London outpost of a superstar chef with restaurants all over the world, from Bangkok to Bordeaux and Las Vegas to Tokyo. Robuchon was named ‘Chef of the Century’ in 1989 and his ingredient-led cuisine shows great attention to detail. The London restaurant is led by Head Chef Xavier Boyer who has worked with Robuchon for 13 years, and shares his determination to reinvent classic French cooking.

Open plan kitchen by Chef's Table at L'Atelier Joel Robuchon

This restaurant opened in 2006, in a striking black townhouse on Covent Garden’s West Street. Inside, the emphasis is on glamour. The downstairs dining room offers bar seating around a sleek open kitchen.  As if this didn’t provide enough drama, there’s also a vertical garden on the back wall and irresistibly good lighting throughout. The second floor dining room is larger and has a more conventional arrangement of tables, but the drama returns in the third floor bar which features a roof terrace, a modernist fireplace and deep red leather armchairs.

L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon is one of my favourite ‘splurge’ restaurants in London, I wrote about it in The London Foodie previously, see earlier review here.

What We Ate: We began with an amuse bouche of foie gras, port wine and parmesan foam that was rich and well-executed and set the tone for the dishes that followed, all of which used indulgent ingredients with impressive finesse.

For our first course, we had a well-presented dish of fresh crabmeat, served in crisp ravioli of pressed turnip with a sweet and sour sauce.

It was followed by poached egg with Comte cheese cream, from the tasting ‘Découverte’ menu. Served on a rich black truffle coulis, the egg was poached to creamy perfection.

Next, we had poached turbot in a Champagne sauce, from the Gout de France menu, served with cockles, clams and shiitake mushrooms and a superb spiced Champagne foam.

For the main course, we had wagyu beef. The quality of the marbled wagyu was excellent - crispy on the outside and rare but firm inside.

We enjoyed it with soy spinach and Robuchon's famously buttery pomme purée (see earlier review here).

Dessert was a cylinder of crystalised sugar that contained layers of milk chocolate mousse, lemon cream and ginger ice cream. The sugar cylinder offered much more than presentation - along with the caramelized hazelnuts it gave a contrasting crunch to the soft layers inside.

What We Drank: Veuve Clicquot is the restaurant’s house champagne, always a good sign, and our meal began with those familiar, fizzy brioche notes.

Our first pairing was a 2013 Godeval Godello Valdeorras from Spain. High in acidity, its crisp lemon notes were a great accompaniment to the crabmeat and pressed radish.

The next glass, like the truffle dish it accompanied, was more powerful. A 2012 Riesling from the famous Schloss Johannisberg,  was light in body but with high enough minerality to stand up to the unctuous truffle.

Our third white was a 2011 Terlan Pinot Bianco ‘Vorberg’. Aged in oak casks, it had a delicious weight of apricot fruit flavours and great length.

The red wine was a 2009 Bodegas Resalte from Ribera del Duero. With  blackberry and spice notes, it was an excellent partner for the wagyu beef. 

With dessert we had a 2011 Luigi Bosca ‘Granos Nobles’ Gewürztraminer, a rich, sweet wine from Argentina, with a plenty of acidity to keep it from being cloying.

We ended the evening with two cocktails in the third floor bar and lounge. The first, a Smoked Brooklyn, a variation on a Manhattan, was a more aromatic version of that classic drink. The second, featuring my favourite Japanese citrus fruit, was the Yuzu Pisco - fresh, pretty and delicious.

Likes: the crabmeat ravioli were excellent but Robuchon's buttery pomme purée is what got me to return!

Dislikes: None.

Verdict: L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon offers a truly unique experience – their Japanese inspired French cooking is light yet elegant and full of flavour. Their wine selection is second to none, and the ambience is glamorous, dark and soothing. Highly recommended.