Helene Darroze @ The Connaught

Went here for the set lunch midweek in mid-December. Just superb in every way. A great place to go for a treat.
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uajamesh - View all reviews by this user
9 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 9
Friday, January 13, 2012

Overall, I am afraid this was a disappointing experience. I don't want to lead you through the meal course by course but there were high points with the amuse bouche and the pre-dessert memorable for the right reasons. Unfortunately there were low points as well. Specifically, the hare starter served to one of our table was apparently very nice. Sadly, I could neither cut through nor bite through the thing called "hare" that appeared on my plate. I suspect it was due to a mushroom that had not been soaked enough to soften it but whatever it was was undoubtedly evil. I have had nicer dishes from kebab vans at three in the morning and hope never to see this in reality or in my nightmares again.

The main course (pork) was an interesting concept but was a little overcooked. Given that this was a thick pork chop for two people, one imagines the reason for having it on the menu was to have it juicy still. This wasn't. Not bad but certainly not memorable and definitely not at these prices. Desserts were rich but went down well. The cheese-lovers were a little disappointed to have no choice of the three cheeses served.

On the service front, things were equally mixed. There were a couple of moments of really impressive performance, up there with anything you'll see anywhere. However, the concept of wanting wine in a glass confused at least one waiter when we suggested that all of the people on our table might want some wine rather than most of them. The sommelier was quite friendly but also, sadly entertaining. He suggested a wine, I asked for something cheaper and he asked me to repeat myself louder before suggesting one wine that was marginally cheaper and one that was in fact about fifty pounds more expensive.

So, all in all, some good moments, a little comedy and a tiny moment of horror. Like Carry on Screaming but not in a good way. Sadly, I can't bring myself to think that this was anything like value for money at these top end prices.
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5 Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 4
Sunday, October 23, 2011

Ambiance - rather stuffy but sumptuous.

Food - very good if expensive but that is to be expected.

Sommelier - inexperienced, unsure of himself, not very helpful. There is no suggested wine arrangement to go with the menus.

Service - slow, unintelligible, kept filling up my water glass even when I hadn't touched it, not very knowledgeable besides the standard answers. Definitely memorable for the wrong reasons.

Highlights - foie gras dish, petit fours.
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Ceecee
6 Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 6
Sunday, September 11, 2011

Went here last night with my boyfriend and had a great time! The food was extremely good!

We didn't go for the taster menu as we didn't want to roll out of the restaurant. Considering they gave us three amuse bouches it wasn't neccessary either.

For starters I has the scallops which were divine and he had the "line caught" calamari. I have no clue how calamari could be line caught but it was equally as delicious!

For mains he had the lobster, which was very good. I had the pigeon, which I was very dissapointed with. The waiter warned me that it is served "pink" however this still had a pulse! I had to send it back. The waiters were very nice about it and in 5minutes the pigeon was retuned cooked properly. For desserts I had a lovely panna cotta while my boyfriend had a mille feuille. All in all the meal was amazing and the service was excellent. Everything you would expect from such a high quality restaurant.
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Alice
8 Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 7
Wednesday, July 27, 2011

We enjoyed the Sunday Brunch here. It's so difficult to find a place that does a really good brunch in London...suggestions PLEASE!

We started with a bottle of Perrier Jouet (rose) and made our way to the buffet(Connaught style). I'm not normally a fan of a buffet but there was just enough choice so it didn't seem crass.

We loved the selection pate (sooo many to choose from)The meat area could have been better in terms of explaining what was on offer and perhaps abit more help from the man behind the buffet was in order. I think he was from the hotel and not from Helene Darroze as the standard wasn't quite up to the level of the restaurant.

The cheese selection (of one...) wasn't quite a selection....so some improvement is needed here.

The scrambled eggs were somewhat runny but still tasted good.

The mains are chosen at the table.There was a selection of four...we selected the same dish....darn...no sharing this time...it was a lovely eggs benedict. The portion was just right...anymore and it would have been pure greed.

One can then select from the sweet buffet. We enjoyed the waffles...the only slight snag would have been to have left the sauces on the side...as they became rather soggy.

It was rather busy and I guess one doesn't want too much in the way of formality for brunch...so it worked.I would suggest a clearing of the dirty tables could have been in order. The one next to us remained the same as when we arrived....

The service from the main staff was excellent.
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8 Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 8
Tuesday, November 23, 2010

This restaurant has gone down hill very badly since Angela Hartnett left. Not only is it very expensive but the quality of food and service is awful. The wines (two of them) were corked and no one seemed to want to take responsibility. The food was less than average to poor and frankly, with only circa 14 folk in the restauarnt it was dismall. We called for the chef but she was absent.......................where? Yes, in Paris, looking after her other assets, This appears to be the norm.

What happened to this grand old place that was always full and so special? Getting a table udsed to be almost impossible but now it's so easy. I wonder why? Also the bar is a gin palace and the old grill room no longer exists!!

Do not bother to revisit tis old great food stronghold.
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2 Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 1
Thursday, September 23, 2010

Sublime.

Started off with 2 Tom Colins at the Coburg Bar.

Glass of Perrier Jouet and a bit of Evian to sober me up (Coburg fix a strong drink; so yes even Champagne sobers you up).

Amuse Bouche of the day was Bayonne ham, a stodgy piece of bread and a veloute flavored with something or other.

The Bayonne ham was the best example I have ever tasted. I am not a type to have the best ever more than once so trust me this is the finest Bayonne ham. Not to say that Bayonne ham is a touch on Iberico or even San Danielle but this was certainly the best Bayonne.

The stodgy scone like bread item was awful but it was required to break up the thin slithers of pork.

The Veloute lovely, only wish I remembered what it was flavored with. If staff are reading please let me know.

I requested to skip the starter and have cheese between the main course and dessert instead. Nothing on the starters looked interesting to me except for Foie Gras, and I don't order Foie Gras in restaurants because I can buy it from the deli and spread it on toast myself, yes, thank you, please.

So the special of the day was veal wrapped in the very same Bayonne Ham, and it was a magnificent dish.

A little too salty due to the Bayonne ham, but I'm not complaining. Some carrots some mushrooms and some reduction. The veal was a small joint, pink in the centre, perfectly cooked. It was a great dish.

I specifically told the sommelier that I like Burgundy. Wine of the day was a Margaux at £30 a glass. He told me they were offering it cheap (Yes Margaux not Pomerol....) Stupidly I fell for the sales talk, did not enjoy and so I moaned at the sommelier. Bordeaux is just not for me.

On to the cheese plate. Younger brother of Gruyere, Goat's Milk Brie and cousin of Stilton said the Irish American waiter. Interesting. Absolutely wonderful Cheeses, but with the prospect of pudding I could not finish them. I refuse to give credit to a restaurant for something I can buy at the deli myself (Cheese, Foie Gras etc.) So although good, no points awarded for the Cheese.

With this the Sommelier, who either could not understand my tastes or was selling me what he wanted suggested me a Tawny Port. I don't normally drink Port. I like Tokaji, Juracon, Sauternes, not port. Yet, the Gordon Ramsay stable have good salesmen, and I had the port which was overall too alcoholic for my tastes to go with food and again I did not enjoy the wine.

Pre-desert was every type of cream imaginable with a seed wafer (bird food) and some berry preserve. I was less than impressed with cream and jam.

Real pudding however, was back to form after two sour experiences. Tonka bean shaved over chocolate mousse (straight off the whisk), ice cream and chocolate. Good stuff.

I refused to have the petit fours, which caught my eye when I'd first entered the restaurant because this was too much food.

I left the restaurant feeling very satisfied and the bill seemed right for the quality of food I'd had. the disappointment with the wines is all making sense to me now as I write this now. The sommelier is typical Gordon Ramsay stable... Hard sell, and that's exactly why, with the exception of this place and Maze grill, I do not like Ramsay restaurants, even Royal Hospital Road 'sells' what they 'got cheap at market' with the pretense that its 'in-season'. Sorry to inform you Gordon, most of the people dining at your restaurants have a better economic knowledge than you, or even as good when it comes to food and wine. I wouldn't say its rocket science that if the first words I say to a wine expert (the sommelier) are that I like Burgundy, that I'm not going to enjoy a Bordeaux.

Go for the food; its good and please don't rely on the sommelier for wine suggestions.
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A
9 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 9
Sunday, September 12, 2010

This is a difficult review to write.

My partner and I have been to this restaurant for 4 times since its opening. We went back repeatedly because we were hugely impressed the first time (when Helene Darroze herself was overseeing things there). But we are getting more and more worried after our latest visits.

Although the earliest round of food critics' reviews was not all that encouraging, I decided to try it myself. I found myself disagreeing with the critics after the first two visits last year. They all disliked the over-elaborateness in the food and the service. But I am quite a big fan of French fine dining restaurants and am not surprised, annoyed or over-pleased with elaborateness. If food is good it is good; and good was too humble a word for many dishes I had here.

A veal sweetbreads with tandoori spices was derided by Jay Rayner as "arrogance-cum-colonial" and a clumsy play of other culture's ingredients. Contrarily I found the use of the spice gave a nice contrast against the soft, meaty, oily bites.

An oyster tartar with green beans mash and corn (ever paired corn with oyster?) was a surprising and joyful musical to the palate.

Squid ink risotto with squid seared in tomato confit and parmesan foam was the best I ever had. I mean any risotto I tried in any French restaurants, Italian restaurants or restaurants in Italy. Grains of rice was just sticking together with a delicately right amount of pillowy sauce and the grains themselves were bouncy when you first bite into it, but yield pleasantly when you chewed.

This dish was dismissed by Jay Rayner as a black mess with big-flavours merged together. I don't understand the problem with flavours merged together, as I regard amalgamation of flavours one of the hardest thing to achieve in the kitchen.

The sauces were their strength here, as how French restaurants should be. Every step of reduction, every slight addition of liquor was evident and appropriate.

I put it all down to the UK critics being defensive against everything French, cooking styles, service styles, sauces, even the accent. (Read Jay Rayner's Guardian review.)

However, after multiple visits, I am beginning to worried that the critics may be not completely wrong. There seem to be a consistency issue going on.

First, looking back at the dozens of dishes I tried here, there were always one or two less than impressive dishes. A somewhat dull vegetarian dish, an overcooked partridge for example. It is entirely possible that you hit on more than a fair share of under-performing dishes. Given that you are paying well over £100 per head, many people would not consider any amount of under-performance fair share.

Today, at my 4th visit, my favourite dish, the squid ink risotto, had completely evolved, or shall I say devolved? I kept coming back trying to enjoy this dish and sometimes I thought they were doing a slightly different version. Today the difference was too obvious. The rice was swimming in a pool of sauce, cooked much softer. The squid pieces were more like boiled, as they were slightly wet. The presentation was a bit thrown in rather than arranged. If what the critics had was this version, it was understandable to call it a mess.

At the end of the meal, I asked a senior staff if this dish had changed for any reason, trying strongly to hint that I was less than satisfied ("I liked it the first time much better, this seems to be different now"). I couldn't actually file a strong complaint because the sauce itself was nicely done although too much, and the squid was fresh. But it was not the super fine version that I came back for.

The response was unfortunately rather cold. She insisted outright that this was a signature dish and therefore they had never been changed and the excessive sauce was down to the parmesan foam being more liquid today (!) and the person did the pouring might have over-poured a bit (!!)... I was secretly mourning that my favourite dish might never be had again.

There are still many good dishes you can have here, I am sure. But I am now a bit hesitant about whether to like the restaurant or not. I am certainly less firmly a loyal customer now.
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spoonrest
7 Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 5
Friday, February 19, 2010

Having read some of the reviews before heading out for dinner yesterday, I was eager to find out for myself. Star dish of the tasting menu was the first, oyster tartare with caviar jelly, a stunning dish. The duck foie gras was excellent and subtly spiced with nice toast. The lobster ravioli was well flavoured but the pasta was not as silky smooth as we expected, in fact it was quite tough. As it was only a very small portion and gone in two bites, I could only comment with hindsight when asked. To de maitre's great credit this was dealt with in a pleasant way, confirming that the pasta should not have been tough and we were given a complimentary cheese course, which was very good indeed. The seabass was well cooked though under-seasoned for me, but then I like salt! The black truffle condiment was decidedly underwhelming as were the slightly overdone potatoes. Chicken with wild mushrooms was nice though no triumph, followed by the afore mentioned lovely cheese. Our sage infused panna cotta was novel and very nice, as were all little freebies. The wines were on the pricey side but that was to be expected. Nice evening but I'd go to the Fat Duck again!
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ron de jong
7 Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 5
Saturday, November 14, 2009

What a disappointment.

The food sounded nice but it did not live to any expectations...service very disappointing with only a few customers in the restaurant!

Atmosphere is stuffy and the prices are very high for what it is.

Another example of chef super star trading just on their name.
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maestro
2 Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Friday, September 25, 2009