La Trompette

We ate at La Trompette last night - our Wedding Anniversary - and I consider it very poor 'value for money'. While I cannot fault the food which was delicious, I found the portions very small. When you are paying £39.50 per head for 3 courses I consider it daylight robbery to impose a supplement of £5.50 for substituting cheese for one of the set puddings. An extra charge of £3.95 for coffee, after paying such a hefty sum for dinner, also seems extortionate. The wine is extremely expensive, although the sommelier is obviously knowledgeable and charming. I noticed one wine on the list at over twice what I would pay for it at my local Greek restaurant in Ealing, (where they are presumably already charging 100% more than it costs to buy in).

We arrived for dinner at 8.00 p.m. and were finished and out of the door by 9.30. After paying a bill of over £140 for two, I find this poor value as an 'experience'.

We used to go to Le Vacherin, which at its best was far better value than this with equally good food in 'proper' portions.

In summation, not an experience I shall be repeating.
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Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 1
Tuesday, January 05, 2010

My girlfriend and I attended La Trompette today for Sunday lunch as part of her birthday surprise. I chose this restaurant due to the fact that it was located outside of central London (convenient for a West Londoner on a Sunday afternoon!) and due to the excellent reviews which had been posted on this site. My word, they were not wrong!

The setting felt elegant yet minimalist and the pleasant welcome by the staff was most hospitable. The selection of food on the set three course menu for £29.50 I felt was brilliant and the meals themselves did not disappoint.

I opted for the seared tuna with prawns of an oriental style and this was dazzling to my tastebuds. My girlfriend selected the onion tart which was also terrifically light and flavoursome. My main was the poulet noir with chorizo rissotto and frittered courgette and it was simply out of this world. The better half went for the bream with trimmings. Whilst she enjoyed the meal, the flavours were not quite what she had been expecting upon ordering, but I'm not quite sure this is the fault of the establishment. Finally came the heavenly desserts, my peanut butter ice cream which was a true highlight.

A lovely beaujolais which was of a similar price that you would expect to pay in any quality restaurant just topped off the afternoon.

All in all, I felt it a grand dining experience and would encourage any readers to give La Trompette a try.
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Frenzal - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 8
Sunday, November 01, 2009

Fabulous place for food. Probably the best you can find west of central London.

I recommend the three course set Sunday lunch for £25. Michelin star food in London at this price is unbeatable! The wine will set you back alot more!

Afterwards visit Chiswick Park and walk off your lunch. Wonderful!
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Sara - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 7
Thursday, September 10, 2009

I went here last night for dinner with my boyfriend after having been recommended it by my sister. I thought the food was absolutely delicious. Quite often in nicer restaurants you are given very small portion sizes but these were generous. When you get your bill you are given truffles which I thought was a very nice touch. I thought it was good value considering the quality of the food.

My only complaint was that they seemed to have a lot of staff - so we had a waitress come and take our drinks order, but she wouldn't take our wine order. For that we had to tell the sommelier. I would understand that if I wanted advice on what wine to get, but I clearly knew exactly which wine I wanted. We then had a different person take our food order, another separate person serve us bread and then a different person serve our food. While this wasn't necessarily a problem and I thought everyone was very nice, I did find it slightly odd to have so many different people serving.

All in all though, a very enjoyable evening and I would recommend it.
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Liv
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 9
Friday, July 31, 2009

I'd had a truly wonderful dinner here with my fiance and decided to return on bday with my 5 bestfriends for a girly lunch on a Friday afternoon. I figured 2 hours would be more than enough time for 3 courses - especially when the restaurant was not even half full. It took nearly 3 1/2 hours for our meal to finish - I have NO idea what was taking so long. Many of my friends had to leave early so they wouldn't be late for work! The service was friendly and the food was good (but not stellar). I think Glasshouse is better.
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Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 4
Thursday, July 30, 2009

Dined here last night. A great place to eat. Food is almost as good as Berkeley (old Petrus) but less expensive and with more on your plate. The staff are very helpful and attentive.

There was a slight wait for the main course and was told that this was because they cook everything from fresh. Duh! I should hope so too! Also, I know this seems to be standard practice nowadays but there was a discretionary service charge of 12.5 % already added to the bill. I don't like this practice and think it is rude; the customer shouold always decide if and how much a tip should be given. I actually think they deserved this 12.5% tip and would have tipped a lot more had the choice been left to me!

However, this did not ruin the experience of the night. I will come again.
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nakedlunch - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 9
Saturday, July 25, 2009

I took my Dad here for his birthday on Saturday and we both enjoyed a lovely lunch. I have dined at this restaurant twice before, but this was a first for lunch and would say it is great value! I started with mackeral, we both had sea bream and finished with the cheese board. The food was divine. The service was lovely. Am looking forward to returning!
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Becca
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Thursday, July 23, 2009

I suppose fine dining french style (all that cream, rich sauces, yummy cheeses etc...) isn't everyone's cup of tea. I've had the good fortune to eat at La Trompette a few times over the last couple of years. James Bennington's dishes are well balanced and seriously hit the spot. I always leave feeling more than satisfied by the whole restaurant experience. I guess a side-salad can be nice but I wouldn't expect my local Wimpy to rustle up some froie gras for me next time I drop in.
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Max
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 10
Saturday, June 27, 2009

I had a completely different experience at La Trompette from the review below. I dined here on Easter Sunday and the food and the service were both lovely. The staff were friendly, chatty and knowledgeable about the food.

I thought that the menu had plenty of choice and the portions were generous. I can highly recommend this restaurant and its excellent cheeseboard for a relaxed and enjoyable meal!
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Susan - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 8
Thursday, June 25, 2009

I dined at La Trompette with my family on Saturday to celebrate my parents wedding anniversary and was left disatisfied with my visit. Things got off to an iffy start and went downhill from there. The menu had several temptng sounding starters but there was little variety amongst the mains - one veggie option and some seabass. Still this is not unusual even if it is irritating. When we came to order I asked if I could have a side salad with my main course. I do this at most restaurants, including at The Glasshouse in Kew which I believe is owned by the owners of La Trompette. The Glasshouse is always very obliging. However La Trompette's Maitre d' said I would not need a salad as my main course would come a s a complete meal. I knew this was highly unlikely having eaten at La Trompette before. The Maitre d' also suggested that the kitchen would be unable to make up a salad which I find laughable as the menu listed baby gem, watercress, peas, spinach, asparagus, etc etc as ingredients. Then the bread waiter came over to serve us and corrected our pronunciation of foccacia in a fairly charless manner. The starters were pleasant enough - asparagus and broad bean soup was overly creamy but tasted good and ham with cornichons was fine. The main courses arrived and were definitely not up to par. My fathers duck came with a burnt pastry case filled with scraps of stringy duck as accompaniment to overcooked duck breast (it was ordered pink). Normally I never have chicken in a resraurant, but nothing else took my fancy apart from the beef which came with a hefty supplement. The chicken came with about eight peas and half a tiny lettuce - not my idea of a complete meal but I did not get a chance to ask for a salad again as nobody came over to ask how our meals were, and nobody really seemed to care.

We decided to chance a pudding. My parents and I really fancied the peach soup but on asking we discovered this was actually a vanilla parfait with a bit of peach sauce. Instead my father had the excellent cheese (again with a supplement but definitely the best final course). My sister had mango sorbet from the prix fixe menu (two tiny scoops) and my mother and I had lemon tart with blackberry ice cream. On paper this sounds lovely. In actuality the tart was a large slice of thick, warm, cloying lemon-y custard on pastry, topped with burnt sugar. The ice cream didn't really taste of much.

After having eaten all my courses I was still hungry, whereas my father was left feeling stuffed as his food had been so heavy and overly rich - the chef is overly dependent on cream!

On the plus side the wine waiter is pleasant.
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Victoria
Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 4 | Atmosphere 4 | Value for money 3
Wednesday, June 24, 2009