Connaught Hotel

[fergal]

I had lunch today at Helene Dazorre.

It's a lovely dining room with courteous staff. I think they may have toned down the over-attentiveness that was widely reported when it opened.

We had the set lunch menu which was has a more rustic quality than the A La Carte menu.

you get quite a few amuse bouches which are always welcome:

- beautiful shavings of ham with a tomato crisp

- carrot veloute

- cheese gougere

- creamed foie gras, apple sorbet with peanut emulsion

the starters were good:

- Hare Ravioli with beet greens & parmesan crust - fibrous, rich & heavy. good portion size as well

- moreish squid seared with chorizo served with squid ink risotto - very creamy, but

the mains were alright, not stellar:

- pot roast chicken with foie gras sauce and seasonal vegetables - good chicken, but a little underwhelming. It lacked adventure, but i didn't order it

- Wood pigeon with pumpkin & pancetta - the pigeon was as close to rare as its possible to get, but went really well with the pumpkin and heavy reduction. not sure why included a leg with it, which had no meat...

desserts:

- cheese board. strangely they only had a selection of four possible cheeses, which felt a bit odd in a fine french restaurant. a nice comte & stilton with their own individual accompaniments - such as spiced grated carrot

- Pineapple with date sponge & pineapple ice cream - a good dish, but a little pedestrian.

we didn't have coffeee, but they gave us individual sponge cakes to go home with. a nice touch.

so all in all, a nice civilised lunch. by taking the set lunch menu it wasn't exactly thrilling food, but competent and well put together. It wasn't cheap - £39 for 3 courses. If you pay double you get the big guns from the A La Carte rolled out.

I see Jay Rayner is about to unload on it in Sunday's Observer. The dishes he orders, do sound pretty gross.... It sounds like he was itching for a fight (in the metaphorical sense).

I found it a quite comforting restaurant with a mischievous side. I liked it.