Petrus by Marcus Wareing is now open

[magnolia]

found it vastly entertaining as not familiar with housework of any description.

m

Well, when you see someone spraying the cutlery with glass and mirror cleaner - as I witnessed at Pappardelle, one of the myriad faux-Italian places that opened in the 80's on Columbus Avenue in NYC - it's time to say 'check please!!' or better yet, just get up and go.

[Gareth]

Of course, the best Michelin 3*** housework is done at Auberge de L'ill where Grandmother Haeberlin has been using the same flat iron and starch made to a family recipe since 1894. Elsewhere abroad Gagnaire and Adria have been experimenting with conditioning foams, whilst in this country Gordan Ramsay rushes back and forth across London switching the same immaculate tablecloth between 7 different restaurants.

But for all the tradition of the Old World, when it comes to restaurant nettoyage no-one beats the French Laundry...

[MobyP]

I heard Bocuse still starches his own socks... and if I recall, the FL might have failed the napkin test.

[magnolia]

I heard Bocuse still starches his own socks... and if I recall, the FL might have failed the napkin test.

Hmm...I never considered the possibility that the spray starch might actually be a part of the edible experience, call it domestic molecular gastronomy, the newest thing. Maybe instead of lemon they use lemon fairy liquid.

Oh, and on the napkin test - not only did they pass, but they brought a new one for each course.

[MobyP]

Oh, and on the napkin test - not only did they pass, but they brought a new one for each course.

At Petrus?

[Pweaver1984]

This restaurant hasn't been mentioned in a while, though I'm going here on Friday evening for my 21st. First time, really looking forward to it.

Was wondering if any one could recommend a good place to stay following my meal? The hotel is a bit steep at about £350 for their most basic room.

Prior thanks.

Paul

[Andy Lynes]

What is your accomodation budget?

[Pweaver1984]

Bout £200 for a room.

[Andy Lynes]

London is your lobster then - and to think I was going to suggest a Travelodge! Options close by include The Basil , The Capital and The Millenium. I'd check out lastminute.com as you'll have a wide range of choices with that budget.

[Andy Lynes]

So how was it then?

[Pweaver1984]

Well we had an absolutely fantastic evening, everything pitched perfectly. Our booking was at half nine, it was a 5 minute taxi journey from The Rembrandt Hotel where we'd decided to stay. Think was about £115 for the one night, a very comfortable place to stay in a good location.

Got to The Berkley Hotel and after a little confusion we managed to find Petrus.

My GF had rung the restaurant up during the week, un be known to me and mentioned to them it was 21st, she decided to choose for us to have the tasting menu. So when we we're seated instead of showing us the menu, we we're presented with a glass of bubbly, then some fine canapés which at this moment have slipped my mind.

The Menu that evening was the following:

Amuse Bouche

*

Pan fried foie gras on pickled rhubarb and roasted hazelnuts

*

Scallop on tomato chutney, parsley oil and caviar

*

Slow cooked pork belly with spiced aubergine

*

Turbot and quail egg with truffle dressing

*

Loin of Welsh lamb, onion and golden raisin compote, wild sorrel and baby artichokes

Or

Barbary duck, swede gnocchi, buttered white cabbage

*

Cheese from trolley (£8 supplement)

*

Pre Dessert

*

Caramel Mousse coated in white chocolate with mango sorbet

Just after our main courses which I had the lamb, we we're asked if we'd like a tour of the kitchen which we jumped at the chance. Marcus Wareing was not there as he was on a trip to NYC, but we met his Sous chef Tristan Welch, who was the Gordon Ramsay Scholar in 2003. We chatted for nearly an hour to him; he was a really genuine chef, with a passion and wit to boot. With the FoH having to step in and advise that we go back to the restaurant as the pastry chefs wanted to get a couple of hours sleep.

The whole menu hit the right notes, with the confidence of 1 star cooking but also the flair, imagination and consistency associated with 2. Hopefully this will be the case in the New Year honours list!

Special note about the FoH who were also superb, quite a lot of the floor, but all so smooth, running like a well oiled machine.

Mentioned about JP, who was said to be well on the way to being fit and healthy again, after his terrible accident.

We picked up the Bill at 0230, which came to £358 including wine to match each course, water, coffee and service. A truly memorable evening.

[Andy Lynes]

Quite a meal by the sounds of it and quite a bill but a perfect way to celebrate your 21st. I assume you were the last to leave at 2.30am. Were you still popular by then

[Pweaver1984]

We were the last to leave yeah, another birthday couple from Newcastle were just in front of us though....

The FoH staff towards the end really started have some banter with both tables, kind of let down their 'professional guard," and was like having a meal with friends!

The chef was saying lunches are particularly quite, I'd defiantly recommend it, though not sure of the prices?

[Matthew Tomkinson]

Had a lovely lunch at Petrus yesterday, more because of the superb and friendly service than particularly great food. We all ordered ala carte and whilst every dish looked perfect we found it a little bland and apart from the fantastic cheese course very average overall.

[Matthew Grant]

Sounds great

[edmundcarver]

I had a similar experience (food looked good but was bland) at the Savoy Grill on friday evening, unfortunately for us the service was very average aswell.

Myself and the missus had the tasting menu the only highlight was a dish of calves sweetbreads, everything else seemed a bit below par and certainly not as good as it had been on previous visits.

Maybe it is the time of year: grey skies, grey London, grey food.

[minisat]

Been a while since anybody has been to eat here so off I go. I recently had lunch at Petrus and thought it was quite good. Th meal started off with a dish of croutons and a small bowl of houmous. The houmous was ok but not anything to rave about, I was busy downing champagne anyway so I didn't really eat that much of it

Our bouche came and it was a shot glass of roasted tomato soup with a basil foam, it was nice but my complaint about it was that the soup was extremely hot and seeing you had no spoon to use you had to hold the glass and burn your hands! Starters followed, I had a Buffalo ricotta ravioli with creamed spinach and truffle butter while my companion had a Jerusalem artichoke veloute with walnuts, apple and dolcelatte.

I enjoyed the ravioli, the ricotta combining well with the aromatic truffles and creamy spinach, there were so many truffles on the plate I was worried it might be overpowering but it worked, just. The veloute unfortunately did not work as well, H said the dolcelatte was too much and there was not enough apple to balance the flavours.

Fort main course I had a poached breast of chicken, sauteed fois gras and ceps while H had Roasted sea trout with baby artichokes, tomato consomme and fennel salad. My chicken was cooked well and the flavour from the ceps was fantastic, fois was...well fois gras. It was a nice dish but heavy, and I'm sure truffle oil was put on this as well which detracted from the ceps in my opinion.

The sea trout was nice , cooked slightly pink ( imo best way with sea trout) and both the fennel salad and artichokes went well with it, I just wish more artichokes were given as it seemed a bit miserly.

For the pre dessert there was an amazing combination of Sauternes and honey jelly, natural yogurt, peach granita and candied almonds, I really enjoyed this and would happily have had this as the dessert but alas that was to come. Me and H decided to share an Apple tarte Tatin and it was worth the wait. The tarte arrived and was cut in half at the table ,it was served with a generous amount of clotted cream and two scoops of banana ice cream.

The tarte itself was fabulous, deep caramelized apples with a crisp, crunchy puff pastry, the banana ice cream complimented it well as it was not too sweet and the clotted cream was just there if you wanted to pig out and really pile on the pounds! After that I was stuffed and could not manage the bon bon trolley but it had a nice selection of macaroons and truffles, including the salted caramel balls(does anybody NOT do them??) .

That signalled the end for me of an enjoyable lunch, the starters and mains were good but for me it was the desserts that shone through and for thirty quid you can't really complain. The service we received was excellent especially since it was quite busy, the FOH managed on the day by Gianfranco who was taking charge in the absence of Jean Pierre.

I think this restaurant warrants a return visit but for people who think that this restaurant is worth a promotion to two star's I am not so sure but I guess when I come back to have the carte I will really know then.

[little ms foodie]

we had a very nice dinner at Petrus mid September... our maitre'd was Jean Phillippe- quite amusing... speaking of amuse

we had a very nice champage with these and then this 95 Magdelanine with dinner

TallDrinkOfWater started with the partridge roasted with onion fondue, alsace bacon and partridge jus

I had the the terrine of confit foie gras, sauternes jelly, smoked duck apple and shallot salad

then the rump of veal

and the 24 hour roasted suckling pig

we had some beautiful cheeses and a few dessert wines

and desserts

we were stuffed so they had to send the mignardese (sp?) home with us!

we had a very nice tour of the kitchen and chef wareing was very nice to sign a menu and send it with us

really a very enjoyable evening, I loved the restaurant - very relaxed and not at all stuffy.

the only issue we had was getting a cab from the hotel at about 12:30 on a sat night

[naebody]

Anybody been here recently? I just tried to book a deuce and was told that the next available table would be in ... September.

Has the award of two stars put this among London's unbookables? (and, more to the point, why does London have so many damn unbookables?)

[chefsimon]

Anybody been here recently? I just tried to book a deuce and was told that the next available table would be in ... September.

Has the award of two stars put this among London's unbookables? (and, more to the point, why does London have so many damn unbookables?)

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I went 3 months ago on a monday lunchtime, because claridges was fully booked,

Absolutly fantastic food and service, restaurant manager had a real presence in the room, and really made the meal for me, there was several tables spare too!!!

[ravelda]

I went about a month ago for lunch and I have to say the tasting menu was bang on the money too. Spent some time in the kitchen with Marcus afterwards as well, he is in the kitchen quite a lot since he got the second star I believe.

[chefsimon]

I went about a month ago for lunch and I have to say the tasting menu was bang on the money too.  Spent some time in the kitchen with Marcus afterwards as well, he is in the kitchen quite a lot since he got the second star I believe.

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He was doing the pass the monday i went also

[Pizza Napoletana]

If anyone is interested I believe they are recruiting a pastry chef and a chef de partie (it was on the Metro yesterday).

[ulterior epicure]

Educate me: So Petrus is actually Gordon Ramsay's restaurant, but Marcus Wareing is cooking there? And what am I to make of this? What's going on? I'm very confused.

Lastly, is Petrus any good, currently? I'm trying to decide between Petrus and Tom Aikens.

[nikkib]

Educate me: So Petrus is actually Gordon Ramsay's restaurant, but Marcus Wareing is cooking there?  And what am I to make of this?  What's going on?  I'm very confused. 

Lastly, is Petrus any good, currently?  I'm trying to decide between Petrus and Tom Aikens.

←

Petrus is until the 15th of this month operated by Gordon ramsay holdings withMarcus wareing as chef patron. A few months back, marcus did an exclusive deal to take over completely from GRH and work directly with the berkley hotel (so essentially carrying on doing exactly what he was doing before just without GRH's involvement) google waitrose food illustrated or some of the newspaper headlines from early august to see the story break and get acrimonious... In my opinion Petrus is a brilliant restaurant and would highy reccommend it, especially over tom aikens which is a great dining experience but really not comparable.

Edited September 1, 2008 by nikkib (log)