London Set Lunches

[Scottf]

Anyone with opinions on the best set lunch in town?  I enjoy Haute/French the most and to my mind The Capital has been the best.  The food was excellent, there was 5 choices per course and coffee was included in the price.  I think the fact there was more choice has just given it the edge over Ramsay though both were 2hr experiences in great dining rooms with excellent service.

I also enjoyed Foliage (Albert Roux on table next door) though again choice was limited.

I'm asking as I'm out again next Monday but unsure whether to go back to Capital or try somewhere new.

[CheGuevara]

scott, have you ever tried "le souquet"? this is not haut cuisine, but a simple, regional style french restaurant which focuses on fish. by far one of the best restaurants i've been to in years, anywhere. the food is excellent, extremely classic french fish (skate w/ beurre noir, cabaillaud w/ provencale sauce, sole meuniere...), as well as some classic game (rabbit in mustard sauce). the service and environment is fabulous, they are very unpretentious, which i love.

they have a lunch for 15 pounds, includes appetizer, main course, dessert & coffee.

[Andy Lynes]

Le Gaveroche is very good at around £40.00 including a half bottle of wine coffee and service. Petrus is a splendid restaurant. I have a review on my site as well as a link to their homepage. This is particularly good value at £24.00 given that dinner is now £50.00 or more, but just an either or choice.

The Oak Room has come down in price dramaticaly, but the wine list is still cripplingly expensive. cheznico at 90 park Lane is a good bet, if a little souless.

I believe Chez Bruce in Wandsworth will be open on Monday after their refurb. Bruce is a friend of mine so i would say this,  but I think it's a great place for lunch, great views of the common, but there are parking spaces directly outside the restaurant which may obscure your view.  

[Scottf]

I've eaten dinner at Chez Bruce on quite a few occasions and love it.  The best value 3 course dinner in London bar none.

Lunched at The Oak Room last Feb.  I found it ok but 2 of my guests (owner and chef of restaurant in Kent) were not impressed by the food or service.  And even though the prices have come down I guess ok isn't good enough for the cost there.

I had dinner at Petrus just after it had been awarded a michelin star.  Unfortunatley the booking time to eating time crossed the award and the cost had gone up from £32 to £40!   I thoroughly enjoyed it apart from a tendency to slightly overseason (salt) and mushrooms appeared on the menu with alarming regularity.  My best taste experience was on the night though - a fabulous pistachio souffle.  Can't get it out of mind!  

[Andy Lynes]

I'm glad you like CB. I'm going back for dinner on 18 September so will report back then.

The last time I went to Petrus was June 2000 and exactly the same happened to me. I got a few restaurants to fax through menus, one of which was Petrus with £32.00 on it. The time before that it was £28.00 so i thought the rise was reasonable. When we got there the price had shot up to £40.00. Still very very good. I had the cheese as well so we paid a bit of a supplement. How much will it be when he gets his second star (next January I think). Appaerntly the name will change to "Marcus Wareing" when he gets the second star by the way.

[Scottf]

I've just been into your liks page and looked at the menus for Petrus and Ramsay.  Very similar and he still likes his mushrooms!  And now £50!  I think you're right - another star another hike.

[Bux]

Some time ago the NY Times ran an article about the bargain lunches in London. It advised Americans that they could do so much better at lunch than dinner in London. Unfortuantely I don't have a reference for the article or know if it's online. I suspect it may have been no more than amusing to a Londoner.

Anyway I was promted to respond because you wrote:

I got a few restaurants to fax through menus.

It's interesting that when someone posted an interest in seeing menus for restaurants in Paris, I was the only one to defend the practice as useful. One person said they found menus useless and another attacked the young enquirer as "presumtuous." In this case, however it was the nature of the food and not the price that was sought and that might be a different story.

[Andy Lynes]

Bux, i didn't contribute to that threaed as it had got a little out of hand by the time I got to it. I love reading menus, even if I'm not planning on going to a particular restaurant right away. Before there were a lot on the net I used to ring restaurants an awful lot. I have also been known to tour round cities, like Paris for example, just peering in restaurant windows and reading menu's. Sad or what.    

[Bux]

Let's talk menus and not that thread.  Out of hand indeed.  ;)

I can't walk by a restaurant without reading the menu. Nothing gives such a sense of place as reading local menus when traveling.

[Scottf]

Couldn't agree more with both of you.  If I can't find a menu on the web I get a faxed copy.  Gets the taste buds ready!  Only problem is when you're desperate to try something and its not on the menu by the time you get to the restaurant!

[Andy Lynes]

Four more possibles for you : La Trouvaille £16.75 for two courses or 19.50 for 3 courses and cheese. Its a small bistro type affair, on a street parallel with Carnaby Street. There was about 5 choices per course and I will definately be going there soon, either for lunch or dinner. Incognico 12.50 for 3 courses. 3 choices per course, the place was really humming at 1.30 today. Not a thrilling menu choice, things like gravadlax and goats cheese tart, but definately a "scene" going on. Conrad Gallagher in Shaftesbury Avenue. I have just enjoyed some fabulous food there today. I'll post a full review a bit later in the weekend but it 18.75 for two courses and 23.75 for three. It's a very proper restaurant with excellent service, great bread, linen and glasses, but the room is a low ceilinged basement done out in a rather odd modernist way with a sort of huge continuous photographic mural all around the walls, which is mostly a dull brown intersperced with blurred images of what look like neon signs and car headlights. Its very much at odds with the Limoges crockery and modern haute cuisine on offer. Finally Alistair Little at 27.00 for 3 courses. Some wonderful sounding Italian food. Must give that a go soon.        

[Andy Lynes]

i should add that only 5 tables were occupied at Gallagher and its a 130 seat restaurant. The large upstairs bar and lounge were also virtually empty. The website looks very good at http://www.conradgallagher.co.uk/

(Edited by Andy Lynes at 7:21 pm on Aug. 31, 2001)

[Lord Michael Lewis]

The best set lunch in London is, and has been for a very long time, Pierre Koffman's Tante Claire.

Don't mess around with anything else, Pierre Koffman is a culinary saint.

[Lord Michael Lewis]

I might add Andy that like a magpie you seem to be distracted by any shiny bauble that elbows its way into the style pages of the 'quality' press.

You know enough. Plough your own furrow man!

[Andy Lynes]

Sorry Micheal, can you elucidate. I think I know what you mean but put the flesh to the bones if you will. Ta.

[Andy Lynes]

Quote: from Lord Michael Lewis on 11:03 pm on Aug. 31, 2001

The best set lunch in London is, and has been for a very long time, Pierre Koffman's Tante Claire.

I have had Koffmans lunch in both Chelsea and Knightsbridge and couldn't agree more. However, it has been over 18 months since my last visit and he is now down to 3 AA rosettes and industry gossip says he is losing it. Have you had a recent experience which refutes this apparent downturn. I honestly hope so.

[Simon Majumdar]

Gavroche is without doubt the number one lunch in town.

I would agree with Michael about Tante Claire, superlative.  Not quite Gavroche but not far behind

Don't get me started on Conrad Gallagher's.  I had a truly appalling lunch there a couple of weeks ago and it was indeed like the marie Celeste ( even the staff were invisible )

Trouvaille is a notch down but my fave of the moment and dependable.

[Andy Lynes]

Simon, I really like the food at Gallaghers, what was the problem with yours?

[Simon Majumdar]

Not just because he gave me a plug, but I do agree with Jay Rayner's view in The Observer.

The point of this place is " New Irish " rather like a cow pat with a ribbon on it if you ask me, but there you go.  The ingredients were not Irish, most of them were barely recognisable.

The service was the opposite of that Experienced by Rayner.  The staff were hardly to be seen.  we waited 20 mins for our bill.

Next time I will keep on walking down Shaftesbury Ave and go to Mela.  

S

[stephen wall]

Pound for pound,La Trompette in Chiswick has to be one of the best value lunches in London.3 courses,choice of 4 at each, for £19.50?When you add in the relaxed ambiance and slick,French service, its hard to believe why it didnt get a star this year.I must have been there 10,11 times in the last couple of months,for lunch and dinner, and its food is considerably better than many other 1starred establishments in london(1 lombard streetand glasshouse come to mind).Considering the good food,value,and wine list possibly a good place for the next Egullet dinner.

[Andy Lynes]

That's a bloody good idea. I know they will do a table of 8 but I am not sure if they have a private room.  Perhaps I should start looking into this, but I think we sould do the pub crawl first. I'll come back to you on this.

[Roger le goéland]

Rather than start a thread, I thought I'd do a search, and bingo here comes a 7yo thread!

I'm having lunch with a friend on Friday. We're hoping for a Michelin set lunch, not too expensive (£30-35 probably upper limit), and not too filling (since I have one big boozy dinner in Cambridge in the evening). Like Foliage (delicious and you don't feel stuffed), but we went there last time. I was tempted by Aubergine but last time I could barely walk afterwards and didn't feel too hungry in the evening.

Any ideas?

[leecotton]

Rather than start a thread, I thought I'd do a search, and bingo here comes a 7yo thread!

I'm having lunch with a friend on Friday. We're hoping for a Michelin set lunch, not too expensive (£30-35 probably upper limit), and not too filling (since I have one big boozy dinner in Cambridge in the evening). Like Foliage (delicious and you don't feel stuffed), but we went there last time. I was tempted by Aubergine but last time I could barely walk afterwards and didn't feel too hungry in the evening.

Any ideas?

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Sounds like L'autre Pied will fit the bill. Just got it's first star, and does a 3 course lunch for £21.

http://www.lautrepied.co.uk

[Paul Reynard]

As you've crossed foliage off I've actually got to think now!! Min Jiang is a lovely place for lunch if refined chinese is ok. Otherwise Sketch does a fantastic lunch although can be a bit dead at lunch and is quite a lot of food. Could always do the square who do 2 courses for £30 if you don't want the 3 for £35. Pied a Terre is also a good bet as normally able to get a table at late notice and they also offer two and three course options. Le cafe anglais and angelus North of hyde park are also good lunch options. Stuff it - ignore the above and head to foliage!!

[david goodfellow]

The latest hot ticket in Knightsbridge is Ambassade de I,Ile the set lunch is now a steal at £25.

You can add two glasses of wine,bottle of water(badoit,perrier.etc),and coffee,including top ups for a further £12.

We dined here three weeks ago and it was brilliant!

The room is terrific and you can watch the action in the kitchen from the various TV screens dotted about the place.

The staff will happily show you around and take you to the private dining areas overlooking the kitchen and wine vault.

You are in for a real treat I assure you.

If you are really lucky(and if he has time),two star chef Jean-Christophe Ansanay-Alex

will charm you with his wit and intelligence.

Nearly forgot to mention the toilets, with their mini fountains!

This place has had shed loads of money thrown at it,and it is mean't to be enjoyed.

If you go please mention my name to Armand ,who is JC,s chef.We were chatting about

Purnells in Birmingham,just across the road from where he used to work.He is a smashing guy.Please let him know I'm asking after him.