Romantic / trendy weekend lunch in LOndon

[jimmyt]

First post on e-gullt, but have been regular reader for a while now.

I am looking to treat my fiancée to a long leisurely lunch following her six weeks of stress while she sits some exams. We are looking for somewhere romantic / trendy in central London.

My thoughts so far have centred on Club Gascon or Hakasan, but all suggestions would be welcome

Many thanks

[MobyP]

Club Gascon has been receiving a lot of mixed reviews. It just won that award, though obviously whether you're going to listen to a bunch of professional food critics is entirely up to you.

I wonder if Monsieur 'sight-challenged' Higgins has been - I have the feeling he has - and he might have an opinion or two.

I hear Hakkasan is unbeatable, but the service is apparently extremely poor, so I don't know how romantic you impaling the waiter with a chop-stick would be (unless you and your girlfriend are both members of the Klingon appreciation society).

I have to say - I just took my wife to GR-RHR for her birthday lunch, and it was pretty unbeatable - except for the price (GR-GBH), which with some very nice wine, said 'bye-bye' to 100 quid a head. That said, you could do it for much less.

Anyway - you're in the right place. Welcome! And let us know what you chose, how good it was, and how many years you expect to serve in Brixton for attacking that waiter!

[Scott]

Best Weekend lunch is probably Capital.

Fat Duck does lunch on Saturday, but that's a little way out.

If trendy is what you're looking for: Hakkasan is peerless. The food is spectacular, the setting a little cold, service woeful. but the food...

It is not a place to drink in, water cost over £4 a bottle, and a terrifying markup on the winelist suggests a quick yum cha and be gone.

but the food...

[Andy Lynes]

Hakkasan is peerless.

I'd heard that the chef has moved on. Does anyone know if that is true, if so when and has it affected the quality of the food?

[jimmyt]

Thanks for the comments. Have heard that the service lets the Hakkasan down some what and you are right Moby having to kill the waiter for poor service may not go down too well on a romantic day out

Scott had not considered the Fat Duck due to distance however is high on my list for places to visit (am an avid fan of Heston's tv shows on Discovery Channel). Does anyone know a nice place to stay in and around the Fat Duck so that we could possibly make a weekend of it??

[Winot]

Club Gascon has been receiving a lot of mixed reviews. It just won that award, though obviously whether you're going to listen to a bunch of professional food critics is entirely up to you.

Another thing to bear in mind with CG is that it's a City lunch venue so you'll be surrounded by suits. Not sure how romantic this would be.

If you do go I recommend the tasting menu -- the first time we went we tried to pick a balanced meal for ourselves and ended up with foie gras overload.

[Jon Tseng]

Fat duck is half an hour out of Marylebone then a five minute cab ride, so not as bad as you might think

J

[Suzi Edwards]

i think locanda locatelli is quite romantic. and you could recreate the "the lady and the tramp" spagetti scene with the tagliatelli with kid goat ragu.

[tony h]

Best Weekend lunch is probably Capital.

plus, you could rent a room if matters arise

[Scott]

Hakkasan is peerless.

I'd heard that the chef has moved on. Does anyone know if that is true, if so when and has it affected the quality of the food?

was there last sunday, food still fabulous.

[Clerkenwellian]

Hakkasan is peerless.

I'd heard that the chef has moved on. Does anyone know if that is true, if so when and has it affected the quality of the food?

did I read somewhere that they have a separate chef (and kitchen) for dim sum?

[jimmyt]

To report back..

Ended up booking the lunch in Hakkasan which just won out over the Fat Duck after much indecision on my part.

everything about it was fantastic. As this was our first visit we attempted to fit in as much as possible, combing a number of dim sum, the highlight of which was an impeccable fried turnip dish (the one I had tried previously at Royal China just did not compare). We then moved on to mains which included an enormous king scallop dish and chicken in Malay sauce which was cooked to perfection with the slightly sweet / spicy sauce an excellent accompaniment. Although the mains defeated us we still found the space to share a very light white chocolate mouse.

At almost £100 and bearing in mind that we only had water and tea with our meal this was definitely at the top end of acceptable but nevertheless a great “special occasion” place.

One word on the service – as people reported earlier some have had some bad experiences in the past, however as far as I was concerned the people serving were extremely professional. The food all came at the right time (allowing for sufficient recovery between courses!) and given that we stayed for almost 3 hours and were about the last to leave we never felt rushed.