I usually only blog about meals we have as a group but I’ve included this one based on requests.
VW and I had booked lunch at this restaurant in Grosvenor Square a week in advance of us arriving in London. It’s a short five minutes walk from Bond Street. Gordon Ramsay has a few restaurants in London, the most famous being Restaurant Gordon Ramsay in Royal Hospital Road, one of only three restaurants in the UK to earn a 3-Michelin Star award. Restaurant Gordon Ramsay requires men to wear a jacket and tie so we opted for Maze which is one of Ramsay’s newer restaurants with a smart casual dress policy and therefore a more relaxed atmosphere.
Maze has a set menu of 4 or 6 courses, a la carte or a tasting menu of some twenty items. VW and I opted for the tasting menu – selecting four starters, four main courses and two desserts, accompanied by a crisp Cote de Rhone.
The wine menu is an inch thick and needless to say includes an impressive selection by the glass, by the flight (three glass selections) or the bottle.
Our starters were carpaccio of tuna and swordfish, foie gras, Cornish crab mayonnaise with avocado, sweet corn sorbet and Oscietra caviar and roasted Orkney sea scallops with potatoes, fried egg and pea mousee. The tuna and swordfish were decorated with eddible pansies, the crab was very delicate and the scallops were fantastic!
VW and I had booked lunch at this restaurant in Grosvenor Square a week in advance of us arriving in London. It’s a short five minutes walk from Bond Street. Gordon Ramsay has a few restaurants in London, the most famous being Restaurant Gordon Ramsay in Royal Hospital Road, one of only three restaurants in the UK to earn a 3-Michelin Star award. Restaurant Gordon Ramsay requires men to wear a jacket and tie so we opted for Maze which is one of Ramsay’s newer restaurants with a smart casual dress policy and therefore a more relaxed atmosphere.
Maze has a set menu of 4 or 6 courses, a la carte or a tasting menu of some twenty items. VW and I opted for the tasting menu – selecting four starters, four main courses and two desserts, accompanied by a crisp Cote de Rhone.
The wine menu is an inch thick and needless to say includes an impressive selection by the glass, by the flight (three glass selections) or the bottle.
Our starters were carpaccio of tuna and swordfish, foie gras, Cornish crab mayonnaise with avocado, sweet corn sorbet and Oscietra caviar and roasted Orkney sea scallops with potatoes, fried egg and pea mousee. The tuna and swordfish were decorated with eddible pansies, the crab was very delicate and the scallops were fantastic!
The main courses were honey and soy roasted quail with Landes foie gras and spiced pear chutney, braised shin of veal with spring pea and broad bean risotto, roasted rack of lamb with braised shoulder and ‘four onions’ and braised Suffolk pork belly with spiced lentils, confit baby leek and smoked paprika salt.
We chose the Elderflower granite with frozen “Fraise de Bois”, melon sorbet and melon mint soup and the Madagascan vanilla rice pudding, raspberry and lemon thyme jam, mascarpone and pecan ice cream for our desserts. The granite was very refreshing and clean after such rich main courses. The dessert menu include such interesting selections as pineapple carpaccio, coconut sorbet, seaweed croquette and Malibu lime jelly and simple items like peanut butter and cherry jam sandwich with salted nuts and cherry sorbet.
With exception to the unpleasant waitress who gave us our bill (or more accurately dropped it on our table) the service was proficient if somewhat cool. Staff in posh restaurants (indeed any restaurant) should remember that they only work there and the customers are paying their salaries. I find it quite amusing when they sometimes think it is the other way around.
The lunch, including wine, came to about GBP110.
Would I come back – Yes, when I'm in London. Great menus, very cool ambience, not exorbitantly priced for the quality.
Service – Professional, efficient but cold.
Food – Excellent, especialy the scallops.
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