Hélène Darroze at The Connaught - London
Windows looking out on Mayfair
Rating: 17/20
Where: London, UK
When: Lunch for 2 on 29 June 2022
Cost: Tasting menu £175-£195, Wine Pairing £145-£550
Accolades: 3 Michelin Stars
Why: "Safe" French fine dining with British ingredients, beautiful dining room, excellent service
“Hélène Darroze at The Connaught” is (unsurprisingly) located in the swanky Connaught hotel in the equally swanky Mayfair district of London. An immediate right from the somewhat cramped lobby led us to the high-ceilinged dining room. Large windows provided ample sunlight during our meal. The room was packed during a Wednesday lunch, with some tables even being sat twice; a wedding party provided much of the jovial atmosphere. There is also a chef's table providing a great view of the "hot" part of the kitchen, and a sommelier's table in the wine cellar three levels underground. According to our sommelier, all but the latter are usually fully booked,.
A palate refresher started our experience - a consommé of water celery, watercress and other ingredients that drank like a clear, cold-pressed vegetable juice (no picture). Served at room temperature, it was almost a liquid salad. Light, but tasty 17.
The following amuse bouches had British grains as their common ingredient, and also foreshadowed taste combinations seen in the subsequent dishes. I always appreciate it when there is a connection between the appetizers and the main courses, making the whole experience feel more thought-through.
First up, a cracker "sandwich" with artichoke paste and mint provided a good crunch, but the mint overpowered the artichoke flavor, so that just the texture of the artichoke remained. There was also too much cracker relative to the filling in my opinion. The cracker had a beautiful leaf shape, 16. Second, a cracker topped with a beet hemisphere. I didn't catch all the ingredients, but this was a creamy, almost meaty dish, and much heavier than its predecessor. Unfortunately, the cracker was not as crunchy, and no ingredient really stood out tastewise 15. The best was saved for last: a buckwheat tartlet filled with peas. A nice crumbly tartlet made an overall enjoyable dish, but the peas didn't stand out much flavorwise - you'd hope for better, sweeter peas at this level of restaurant 17.
The restaurant is tasting menu only, with either five or seven courses and an optional cheese course. During lunch, a three-course prix fixe is also offered. We opted for the seven course menu, which then required a few more choices between alternatives for some courses. Three wine pairings were offered at £145, £225 and £550, respectively. We tried the two "cheaper" options, and surprisingly, almost consistently preferred the £145 over the £225 pairing - more expensive doesn't necessarily mean better.
For the first course, we had two options and ended up trying both. The default choice was a dish of peas from Provence with mint, shavings of cedrat peel (an obscenely large lemon variety), ravioli and a ham consomme. The ravioli, whose contents I missed, were a bit on the mealy side, and the peas not particularly sweet, similar to what he had in the preceding amuse bouche. Overall, most of the dish felt undersalted. This was made up somewhat by the ham consomme, which was strongly pork-flavored and salty. Would this dish have had more of a punch if it hadn't been served at room temperature? As it was, this first course was fine, but nothing to write home about 16.
Option number two for the first course carried a £75 additional charge. This levy was explained by the copious amounts of caviar in evidence. The caviar was served on top of an oyster leaf and over a langoustine tartare, the latter next to kohlrabi slices and a green apple sauce. The caviar was tasty and salty, especially good simply with the oyster leaf, leading to a nice flavor explosion. I also liked the multiple textures and flavors in the other part of the dish: creamy langoustine, crunchy kohlrabi, acidic green apple. Very nice indeed 18.
Bread was served next, along a fantastic butter with chipotle spice, and a more "normal" creamy, unsalted British butter. The bread was served cold, it was decent with a crunchy crust 17.
Course number two brought us marinated mackerel with almonds, and (I think) slices of melon. This was surrounded by a "gazpacho" of garlic, almonds and dill as well as dill oil. A wonderful dish with a nicely prepared mackerel, an excellent sauce and the other ingredients providing textural contrast 18.
Our next course was a "gift" from the kitchen; other nearby tables received it as well. Cuttlefish was served with a mille-feuille of potatoes and a white wine reduction sauce with fermented peppers and an XO sauce (of all things). The potatoes were excellent, the cuttlefish a bit chewy, but that was mostly offset by the incisions across its length. The sauce was tasty enough, but overall this felt like a good, not great dish 16.
A tad better was the official third course, blue lobster with a carrot puree, Indian spices and a bearnaise sauce. The Indian spices were disappointing in that I couldn't detect them at all in the dish. The lobster was a bit chewy, but otherwise ok. Overall, this dish was surprisingly sweet, and the carrot puree reminded me unfavorably of the infant carrot puree sold in glass jars. Not bad, but uneven 17.
Next up was a turbot that had been hanging over coals in the kitchen for hours beforehand. It was served with half of a grilled sweet onion, razor clams, a Romesco paste and chorizo. The fish was served well done, making this a meaty and rich dish that was deservedly paired with a red wine. The sweet onion created an interesting contrast to the heavier rest of the dish, but overall the flavors all ran a bit together on this one. Also, serving it warmer than lukewarm would have been appreciated 17.
For the following main course we had a choice between duck and an A5 wagyu steak from Japan, the latter with a £115 upcharge. Never a big fan of duck, I gave the wagyu a try. The hefty upcharge made more sense when we received a huge cut of beef, next to an artichoke heart topped with "chimichurri" over beef jus with ginger. There were even two additional dishes: a wagyu beef tartare tartlet, and a chawanmushi with braised beef, puffed quinoa and chives. In order: the beef was surprisingly mediocre for a Japanese A5 product. First of all, it was quite lean when there should have been lots of marbling and associated melt-in-your-mouth fat. Plus, the meat's texture was a bit on the mushy side. I have no idea whether this was due to the ingredient or the preparation, but the beef by itself was underwhelming. The "chimichurri" was actually a cream sauce with herbs, so a far cry from the pungent original. Together with the beef jus, the sauces overwhelmed the taste of the beef, making me feel that an "normal" beef would have worked just as well (or better) in this dish.
The beef tartare tartlet was disappointing, with hardly any flavor. Some salt or (even better) acidity would have helped. Finally, the chawanmushi was slightly better than the other two parts of this course. The beef flavor was strong, and it overpowered the rest of the dish, so that the custard and popped quinoa only provided texture and little taste. This dish alone might have been a 16, but overall 15. Definitely not worth the upcharge.
The pescatarian alternative for the main course was a risotto with artichoke, cheese and black lime. This dish had a nice spice to it and the rice was cooked wonderfully al dente. Much better than the beef 17.
Cheeses were from the Pyrenees region of France, having "no names" according to our server since they were sourced from tiny producers (without a marketing department, one presumes). A brie-like cheese was sadly almost taste-free, but some of the stronger cheeses were nice enough. Good warm bread, tasty breadsticks, British honey, fruit puree and a (sadly) taste-free salad completed the course 16.
Our first dessert (no picture) consisted of variations of rhubarb: cooked, as a sauce, and as an ice cream. It was served on top of panna cotta and under a milk foam. An earthy dish, I liked it, but the flavors were a bit muddled. My wife didn't care for the dish at all 16.
Since the rhubarb dish included gelatin, there was a pescatarian alternative (no picture): strawberries served with strawberry sorbet, panna cotta and a coconut milk foam. This was lovely: great strawberries, and bright, clean flavors all around 18.
There were multiple choices for the final dessert course, and we picked two different ones. A baba cake came with Chantilly cream, and a generous dose of Armagnac, chosen from any of three different vintages (I picked 1995). Raspberries and raspberry paper (I think) on the side were superb - wonderfully tasty and fresh. The baba itself was very good as well, although a heavy dish for this late in the menu 17. So heavy in fact that I wasn't able to finish it.
An alternate choice for dessert were poached pears with ginger, cake and ice cream. I detected honey flavors, and this was a much lighter dessert and very well done 18.
Final bites were a chocolate bar filled with salted caramel - fine, but unremarkable 16 -, and a donut filled with lemongrass cream and lemon gelee on top. A nicely acidic touch, but otherwise unwowing 15.
We got a cannele to take home at the end of our meal as well. A bit soft on the outside, but otherwise pretty good 17.
Overall: This was an enjoyable lunch with excellent service, nice wines, and some very good dishes. Unfortunately, none of them were truly outstanding, or at a three-star level for that matter - I wonder if that changes when Hélène Darroze is actually in the kitchen (she wasn't on our visit). Style-wise, this was modern French fine-dining, without too much of envelope-pushing; no dish will surprise a seasoned diner. Maybe that's due to its location in a five-star hotel, where the clientele is looking for comfort, not adventure. Compared to, say, Paris, there was a noted emphasis on British ingredients, and it was nice to see that the producers of each course's main ingredients were listed prominently on the menu 17.
