Hélène Darroze at The Connaught ** | London (UK)

A rather disjointed lunch. Some excellent dishes with stunning presentation, others didn’t impress. Our lunch didn’t meet the expectation of perfection.

Hélène Darroze is situated in the Connaught Hotel in Mayfair, London (UK) which has a long history. The original hotel, the Coburg, opened in 1815 and has welcomed royalty with visits from HRH the Queen and Prince Charles. Ralph Lauren was said to be so enamoured with the staircase that he had a replica made for his flagship store.

French-born Hélène Darroze has won plaudits from pretty much everyone for her restaurant Hélène Darroze at The Connaught, inspiring everyone from Michelin, who awarded her two Michelin stars in, to then French president Nicholas Sarkozy, who knighted her in 2012, and even Pixar Animation Studios, who based Ratatouille’ character Colette on her.

Two months after closing for a major refurbishment to coincide with the restaurant’s 10th birthday, Hélène Darroze at The Connaught just reopened with refreshed look. Dark oak panelling has been brightened and new contemporary tables and chairs brought in. But the dining room hasn’t lost its formal and opulent feel.

Hélène Darroze is a fourth generation chef, After getting a business degree she started with an office job in Alain Ducasse’ Le Louis XV restaurant in Monaco. Alain convinced her to enter the kitchen and Hélène worked three years for Ducasse, before returning to her family’s restaurant in Villeneuve-de-Marsan, keeping its existing Michelin star. After the restaurant closed in 1999, Hélène opened Restaurant Hélène Darroze in Rue d’Assas in Paris and got her first Michelin star in 2001. A second star followed in 2003.
In 2008, Darroze became the new chef at the Connaught in London, replacing Angela Hartnett. And Hélène started traveling back and forth weekly between Paris and London. Despite negative reviews from food critics, the restaurant was awarded a Michelin star in 2009, and a second star in 2011.
A year before she lost her second star in Paris. That restaurant was recently renamed Marsan and she also opened a bistro restaurant in Paris. Jòia.

Hélène Darroze at The Connaught is open 7 days a week for both lunch and dinner. They offer a Weekday Lunch Formula of 3 courses, 2 wines, water and coffee or infusion (at £65). A la carte is basically a menu of 14 dishes, were from you can either choose 5 courses (at £120) or 7 courses (at £160). 4 dishes on the à la carte have a supplement: Caviar (£70), Lobster (£39), A5 Wagyu beef (£115) and the Signature Baba (£18).

We went for Sunday lunch about 4 weeks ago and chose 5 courses from the à la carte menu. Not an easy task as there are no starter, main and dessert sections. But we managed.

First amuse bouche was pine oil & wild mushroom velouté. Simple, but tasty. The cup looks a bit empty, but I took a picture when I already drank half.

A trio of canapés followed. From left to right. A cheese cracker with balsamic jelly, rather lacking in taste and somewhat flabby in texture. An okay tartlet with artichoke and a delicious macaron with foie gras and buckwheat.

Pain au levain (sourdough) and two kinds of butter. An unsalted one and the other lightly peppered.

Joanne started with sauteed foie gras from Andignac in Landes (F), with sancho pepper and koji rice.
“Piel de sapo” melon on the side with sake. Lovely rich and buttery flavour of the foie gras, nicely cut through by yuzu citrusy freshness and the melon. It felt like it missed something though. Crunch maybe? A nice dish, but didn’t wow me.

My first course was Cornish crab prepared in a Basque way (txangurro). Brown and spider crabs covered by a smooth and delicious foam with pomelo and lampong pepper. Love the presentation and the taste as well of this perfect melody of flavours. Excellent!
Unfortunately I found some pieces of shell in my first and second bite. The maître d’ apologised and offered to make the same dish again. It felt awkward to eat the second version alone. It would have been appropriate to offer a little bite to Joanne as well. But disaster struck twice as I found bits of shell again. I suggested to the maître d’ to just move on to the next course.

My second course was smoked eel from Sue Elsworth in Devon, with lentil ravioli, sage, black garlic in a smoked consommé. This dish didn’t do too much for me. Flavour wise everything was perfectly fine, but the combination of textures was just off. Soft ravioli and bits of smoked eel in a watery consommé. This negatively influenced the taste and enjoyment of the dish.

Joanne had Cornish turbot, with clams, cocobean, girolle mushrooms, seaweed and a “vin jaune d’Arbois” sauce. The turbot was a touch under seasoned and the cocobeans enhanced that blandness. Best part was the crunch potato strings and the lovely velouté-like sauce.

Next we received a complementary dish to make up for the crab dish. Scottish lobster tail with white truffle, hazelnut and hazelnut puree and Parmesan foam. A splendid dish with all the flavours spot on. A perfect symphony of flavours, textures and taste. This dish certainly has the wow factor.
We even received a complementary glass of wine to go with the dish. Excellent!

Next was sweetbread from Limousin in France, which was lightly fried. Grilled cauliflower, hazelnut, chasselas grape and a vadouvan emulsion. Vadouvan is a blend of spices that is a French derivative of an Indian masala. Lovely dish and right up my alley. The sweetbread definitely the centrepiece of the dish, the other elements complementing and enhancing tastes and textures beautifully.

Grouse from Denbighshire in Wales, nice and pink, covered with beetroot, almost resembling bacon bits. The beetroot enhancing the gamey taste of the grouse. A lovely jus and sweet fruitiness from wild blueberry and Mexican molé. In the little dish a grouse leg prepare like the breast. Nice, but would have just put it on the plate.

Figs from Sollies in Var (Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region) with a vig sauce scented with fennel, vanilla panna cotta, merengue and vacherin (a French cow’s milk cheese). An abundance of fig, dictating almost too much. ultimately amalgamating the dish into one flavour.

Boozy grapefruit from Ruby in Florida (US) with a lovely greek yoghurt sorbet and crumble. Wafer thin crunchy pastry, cream cake and plenty of pistachios. Good dish with refreshing flavours and nice textures.

They surprised us with another complementary dish! The signature baba, A trolley is brought to the table featuring Armagnacs made by the Darroze family of 3 different vintages. The baba is sliced open at the table and the chosen Armagnac poured onto it. We chose the 1988 vintage with beautiful tones of honey. A boozy walnut cream is added, making it rich and indulgent. A bright green Granny Smith apple sorbet balances the dishes nicely. Excellent!

A fruit jelly and nougat to go with our coffees. And a dark chocolate bar filled with salted caramel.

And as if we hadn’t had enough, one of the kitchen staff plated a profiterole at the table. With a lovely cream, injected with yuzu and a seedy cracker on top. Well presented and just delicious.

A hospitable present to take home was given with the bill. A canalé flavoured with rum and vanilla. Looked familiar. We’ve had a similar gesture at The Greenhouse **, just a couple of days earlier. Maybe Head Chef Alex Dilling took the idea with him when he left The Connaught last year?

Service was friendly, knowledgable and quite formal. In line with the dining room’ feel I would say but it creates a somewhat impersonal experience.

This was a rather disjointed lunch. Some courses were excellent with often a stunning presentation. The Crab “Txangurro” (if I forget the bits of shell), Lobster and Grouse dishes are prime examples of what this kitchen is able to produce with top notch ingredients. Others like the Smoked Eel, Turbot and Fig didn’t impress and were below par.

When I take away the complementary dishes, I also struggle with value for money. Prices are very steep, even taking into account that we are in the middle of Mayfair. Comparing this lunch to the one we had at Claude Bosi at Bibendum ** a couple of weeks ago for instance, with a course more at the same price, That was a different league all together.
Our lunch just didn’t meet the expectation of perfection all round, what you may expect at this level.