L'Autre Pied

A colleague and I went for lunch at L'Autre Pied a few days before Christmas and it was a lovely experience. Something I immediately liked was the relaxed atmosphere - no pretension, with a nice hum of conversation from the diners.

The three course lunch menu is priced at £23. The meal started with a nice amuse bouche of cod croquette, I then had a pumpkin risotto which was incredibly flavourful and rich, followed by the roasted pheasant with mushrooms, potato, and a beautiful sauce, and finally a unique pain d'epice emulsion with banana ice cream and shards of toffee. With a nice glass of wine and service charge, the total was £37 per person.

On the walk back to the office we wondered what makes a restaurant deserving of a Michelin star. I think food that delights you in flavour and creativity, with every course being delicious, and something you couldn't achieve at home differentiates between Michelin star worthy restaurants and the all the others. In my opinion, L'Autre Pied earned its star on this occasion.
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Bluenoser - View all reviews by this user
8 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 8
Sunday, December 26, 2010

A bit boring, small portions...can restaurants really get away with that on an a la carte menu these days?
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Pottedmeat - View all reviews by this user
4 Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 2 | Value for money 2
Thursday, December 16, 2010

Not a great night.

Frankly, the food was average to ok and with wine the best part of £100.00 per head. The staff were not interested in a couple of food issues and were generally rather laid back but always seemed over busy to concentrate on individual tables. Service was mediocre. Certain items on the menu were not available.

The restaurant was extremely noisy and it was almost imposible to hear what was going on discussion wise around the table.

Wines fair but expensive.

Out of 10 I would give this evening a 5+ and no more!!
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quentin Williams
4 Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 4 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 3
Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Faultless food in Marylebone

My wife and i had the tasting menu (8 courses of pure heaven !!) earlier this evening and have to say the food and service was top class.

The atmosphere wasn't that great when we first arrived as the restaurant was rather empty however things picked up and the restaurant was full by the time we left.

We had great wine pairings to match each course and will definitely return, although next time we may try the pre theatre menu, at around 20 quid it's over half the price.
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B.S
9 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 8
Thursday, November 04, 2010

We had heard good things so ate there last week.

On first impressions I wasnt so taken with the decor which would be fine for a high street resaurant, but I think that the prices they were charging were not appropriate to its setting

Food was great, but to echo other reviews, portion sizing was a little small. Service wise though it was very disapointing and all in all I dont think I will go back as if I want a good, and expensive meal out I want the whole expereince...sorry
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3 Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 2 | Value for money 2
Monday, November 01, 2010

Our first visit today which found the modern-ish restaurant empty when we entered at 12.30 and maybe half full when we left. We both ate the set lunch and shared a view that the food was OK rather than spectacular.

The first thing to comment on was the service. Within 45 minutes we had chosen our food and wine, eaten bread, amuse-bouches, starters and main courses and had ordered coffee. Not the stuff from which memorable meals are made I'd suggest. The staff, smart and unfailingly polite, never seemed to be away from our table. Too much folks, far too much. You need to get a much better handle on pace and learn when to leave your diners alone.

As mentioned the food was OK. A quirky little touch was the puffed rice in the amuse-bouche giving a bit of a crunch though not unlike having a small handful of Rice Krispies in a vegetable puree. Just to demonstrate the sheer creativity of this idea we got the same again with the dessert. Maybe the chef could be forgiven for trying one oddball concept in a meal- but the same one twice? Seems risky to me. My starter of nicely cooked pigeon breast was overpowered by fig and a very strong fig confit. My wife enjoyed her risotto more, The main courses of Beouf en daube with potatoes Anna were without a doubt the highlight and nicely cooked. Only one dessert was offered , and that was OK.

I need to comment also on portion size. We eat a lot at this level so we're very used to smallish portions of rich food that turns out to be quite enough. This restaurant's portion sizes seemed to me smaller than I'd expected and smaller than I'd want. Its a silly thing to do in a way- no restaurant actually needs to have customers thinking they've been given a meal on the mean side.

I should say that the lunch menu is very reasonable at something like £24 for 3 courses. But nobody forces them to sell at those prices and if it means that they have little enthusiasm for it then personally I'd rather they put a tenner on the price and showed us what they can do- since I hope our meal wasn't it.

So overall just OK and decent value. But some way from persuading us to go back I'd suggest.
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David Henderson
6 Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 7
Saturday, October 23, 2010

Very good experience! I invited my boyfriend for his birthday and he chose this restaurant because he read excellent reviews on bloomberg. I wasn't so keen because the menu didn't really appeal to me, but it was his birthday so...! But I am very happy with his choice as it was excellent.

I booked at 10 and when we sat they told us it was too late for the 7 course testing menu so we were a bit upset. But the maitre d'hotel (I think) was very accomodating and offered us to have the 4 course menu and add another desert. So we had the Autumn menu, with the matching wines and everything was excellent, very delicate, original mix of flavours, and quantity was definitely enough! The atmosphere is classy yet relaxed, and the staff is very nice.
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10 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Sunday, October 10, 2010

Whilst I can understand the gripes of some of the more negative reviewers on here, I do feel that they are being a little harsh on L'Autre Pied.

I ate here with my wife on their Summer menu, which was great value at five courses for £21. Regarding the comments of small portions, if you want a mound of food that will fill you for hours, go to Dominos and order a large pizza - that should do the trick, and if it doesn't go seek some help.

Good food is not about eating so much you need to undo the top button. The flavours in some of the dishes at L'autre Pied are intense, because thats the way they are supposed to be!

Our starter was delicately cured salmon, served with a poached quails egg. No overpowering flavours there, just right.

The next course was chilled carrot and ginger soup - an intense deep flavour, served in a small portion simply because doling it out by the ladleful would simply be overpowering.

Entreé was poussin, cooked well, with a delicious taragon jus. Delicious!

After that, there was a Meadow Sweet and Mint Granita which was fresh, and did cleanse the palatte.

Finally, the chocolate mousse was deliciously deep and chocolatey. Velvet smooth and a portion size just right to finish off the meal.

This was accompanied by a reasonably priced white Beaujolais, which was attentively poured by the wine waiter through out our meal.

The staff were well worth their 12.5% service charge, (which I was pleased to see was not compounded with VAT - a small bugbear of mine) and the maitre d' was delightful.

All in all, excellent value for good quality food. I have paid a lot more for meals I would rather forget, but this was one to remember.
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Pdotie - View all reviews by this user
9 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 9
Thursday, August 26, 2010

If you go a la carte for lunch with 3 courses, a bottle of wine, a bottle of mineral water and coffees, you are looking at around £150.
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Pottedmeat - View all reviews by this user
4 Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 0
Friday, July 16, 2010

This was one of the worst meals I've ever had! I don't know how it got a Michelin star! There are much better restaurants to go to in Marylebone.

When we sat down, we were given the food menu straight away but no drinks menu - in the end we asked for it. We ordered a bottle of sparkling wine. The wine didn't come for ages and when we asked about it we were told it wasn't cold enough so they were chilling it. If they had told us this we would have ordered a different bottle. When it did come (after we had received our starter) it was pear champagne - I'm pretty sure a good sommelier would warn you about this, however the wine waitress just said she had never tried it!

An amouse bouche turned up pretty quickly. It was ok but it didn't really cleanse the palate as it should do. I then had the poached egg and truffle. The poached egg was under cooked (the white was runny) and over salted and was drowned in a rich butter sauce. My husband had the pigs head terrine which was just a greasy slab of meat. The dishes were quickly taken and our mains were brought out straight away. (After such heavy food it would be nice to have a break). I had the guinea fowl. The meat was cooked well but it was drowned in another creamy sauce which wasn't mentioned on the menu otherwise I would have avoided it. My husband had the rabbit with white asparagus (four small pieces). Again, the meat was cooked well, but the dish as a whole was average and the combination of flavours was underwhelming.

We decided to risk a desert - determined to discover why it had got a Michelin star. My husband thought the least risky thing to go for was the cheese. He was given a choice of cheeses but they were all very average. The fromagerie cheese shop is about 50m away and sells delicious cheese so I don't know how they had managed to serve such poor samples. The accompanying biscuits were almost inedible. There were two kinds - one was soggy and just crumbled so you couldn't put cheese on it and the other had such strong seeds on you couldn't sample the flavours of the cheese. I had the passionfruit bavarois - this was probably the best dish of the evening but was still distinctly average.

The bill came to £180 including service. I certainly won't be returning and would recommend that people avoid it - try Galvins on Baker Street instead!
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Becky R
1 Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 2 | Value for money 0
Monday, April 12, 2010