Pied a Terre

Went to this restaurant for my wife's birthday on the 6th Nov 2007. The service from the start was excellent, attentive but not overly so. Our amuse buche were tasty and the time to wait between courses was just right.

For starters I had the peppered Tuna, which was soft and melted in my mouth. The combination of flavours worked excellently. My wife had the scallops which I would also recommend. The main courses were a delight. We had the plaice with smoked eel and the turbot.

Unfortuately the dessert was not to my tasting - I had ordered the poached pears and sunflower seed nougat, though probably my own fault as I thought I would try something different and I would not normally have gone for this type of dessert. However my wife thoroughly enjoyed her ginger bread terrine.

Overall we had a fabulous evening with superb service and I would definitely go again.
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Tamim
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 9
Saturday, November 10, 2007

Dined here on Saturday 27th with family. Arrived 30 mins early with the intention of enjoying pre-dinner drinks in the upstairs bar. Was very suprised to find it empty and devoid of any ambience whatsoever. Some gentle background music wouold not have gone amiss. No matter, soon our fellow diners arrived and the company was enough to lift the atmosphere. Small mistake by the waiter bringing the wrong drinks and having difficulty understanding what a "beer" was, but i digress..

Onwards and downwards to the restaurant, we were seated at a fantastic table, possibly the best in the house. The main dining room is quite small, but the surrounding tables are not too close at to make one feel intruded upon. I'm not sure how couples seated on the wall to the left would feel, but certainly the tables for 6 were well spaced.

We were treated to a selection of amuse bouche which were very good, but then inexplicably forced to wait nearly 90 minutes for our starters. I've no idea what would take so long when there must have been aroun 40 covers maximum at any one service. Luckily we were sated with multiple offerings of bread, which, to be fair, was delicious. When the starters did arrive, it was (almost) worth the wait. Food-wise, this restaurant is undoubtedly michelin star quality - the poached oysters were superb. Mains (30 minuteslater) were delicious again, the concentrated flavours of the various veal cuts somethign I will always remember. The venison was equally good and particularly tender, though i found the turbot over seasoned. Top marks all round for the food so far.

Sadly we were let down again with more inexplicable wait times for desserts (which i did not sample but were appreciated by my companions) until we could not take it any more and some gentle chiding began, which did bring our coffeees to the table quick, but then... it's coffeee! Why we were waiting 15 minutes after finishing desserts is beyond me - perhaps they wnt the experience to last? We were getting close to 4 hours at this point.

It's hard to see past the terrible slowness of this restaurant, which is a real shame because the food is remarkable and the service, however slow, was unobtrusive, pleasant and polite. Unfortunately, it left a bad impression on an otherwise lovely restaurant. If they dont speed things up next time the guide dines there, I feel they'll deservedly lose at least one of those coveted stars.
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Tony Roberts
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 6
Monday, October 29, 2007

food is excellent, although not to my taste. but the place can look nicer and service needs improvement - compared to other 2 star restaurants in london just awfull.
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Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 7
Wednesday, October 24, 2007

My girlfriend and I went there for dinner on 2nd Oct and had an exceptional time. The service was friendly and efficient without being intrusive. More importantly the food was simply fantastic.

We had some champagne to go with the canapés to start and decided to have the tasting menu with accompanying wine for one to share which the sommelier split into 2 separate glasses (for moderate drinkers, sharing the wine is probably a good idea as there are 8 courses.).

The quality of the ingredients and the standard of cooking were absolutely top grade. We had 3 starters: rare seared tuna, scallops with pork belly, and roasted foie gras with chicken consommé, the flavours of the individual dishes worked in perfect harmony and also as a whole with the wine. Then we had monkfish followed by roasted loin of venison which was the highlight of the meal. The venison was tender and pink and very flavoursome and was a delight to taste, everything else on the plate also tasted amazing. The meal was finished off with a melon sorbet, chocolate tart and coffee with petit four.

The bill came to £20 short of £300 which was what I expected since we did indulge on the champagne and wine. But if it's for a special occasion or once in a while then I'm happy to do it again, and again and again.
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Matt
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 8
Saturday, October 06, 2007

I took my family for a celebratory meal having deliberated long and hard about where to go. We opted for the tasting menu with wines. This is not cheap and I was worried that I might spend the meal regretting the expense. Fortunately the sum of the parts, taking each course and wine in it's own right, did indeed represent value.

From the exquisite and unexpected amuse-bouche which appeared at the start to the equally unexpected petit fours with the coffee the meal was undoubtedly the finest I have ever experienced. Each course a masterpiece in subtlety and balance coupled with originality and technical expertise. Equally impressive were the eclectic yet perfectly selected wines chosen to accompany each. All of us left feeling we had truly had an experience unlikely to be improved upon.

Service too was attentive but unintrusive and the sommelier only revealing the identity of each wine after each course to avoid pre-judgement was a fascinating and unique way of enhancing our meal.
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Guy
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 9
Thursday, August 23, 2007

Agree with the reviewer below - my fish was dodgy (halibut) and not as fresh as it could be - which was a pity because the rest of the cooking was good - lovely risotto (pumpkin? creamy, savoury and sweet.... worked well); cheeses were tired and sweaty and should not have passed muster. So a bit of a mixed experience - which is a pity as it's one of the more established restaurants around.
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london - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 6
Friday, July 20, 2007

Very good lunch today. Good value with lots of extras. Nice.
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Indigo Ben
Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 8
Friday, July 06, 2007

If I had to sum up in one word it would be disappointment. A cramped interior leads to you being too close to your neighbour. Service was rushed and overly abrupt. Food was hit and miss - the sole in particular being bland and uninspiring. I cannot see why this place earned 2 michelin stars. There are many restaurants in London where you'll have a better dinner for a more reasonable price.
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FW - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 4
Friday, July 06, 2007

delighted with food service and wine. not too formal but smart. service excellent but not intrusive. overall had wonderful evening on 30/6
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stranks
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 9
Sunday, July 01, 2007

I seem to be the only dissenting voice here, but disent I must!

What worked really well was the standard of the service which was faultless. The atmosphere was pretty good although our tables were quite close together (we were in the front) so I wouldn't particularly recommend it for an intimate occassion.

What didn't work so well was the part I expected to be brilliant - the food. Of course it was significantly better than your average restaurant, but at nearly £300 for the two of us (including £90 for wine), it should be. We agreed that our starters were excellent, our main course was pretty good, and our desserts were disappointing. Frankly, there is no excuse for a dessert at £12.50 to be any less than impressive. The biggest disappointment for me was what I consider to be a lack of balance in the dishes - for example, why coat scallops in a really strongly flavoured herb crust?

So, for me, ignoring the price, overall quite good. Factoring in the price, not nearly good enough. And not nearly as good as John Burton Race, MPW et al.
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Tim
Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 3
Monday, June 04, 2007