Tom Aikens

Address:	43 Elystan Street SW3 3NT
Tel	020 7584 2003
Email:	info@tomaikens.co.uk
Website:	Visit Tom Aikens website
Price: £72.00	Wine: £18.00	Champagne: £50.00
Opening Hours:	Mon-Fri 12N-2.30pm 6.45-11pm

Square Meal review of Tom Aikens:

From our flawless experiences at this restaurant during 2006, we reckon Tom Aikens has raised his game. The technically accomplished chef seems to have stopped showing off, easing away from the ‘heavy froth factor’ to concentrate on producing what can only be described as ‘outstanding food’. A foie gras starter displays the most perfect balance of rustic & refined flavours, the rich liver stunningly presented alongside confit duck in a clear glass bowl with a delicate broth afloat with pea ravioli, goats’ cheese emulsion, pea shoots & summer truffle. Equally deft presentation runs through the entire meal, every dish arriving on a different type of plate, often with a clever accompaniment on the side. The roast pork cutlet served with Aikens’ signature pork lasagne, for instance, sits atop a thick slab of slate & is accompanied by a cast-iron pot of braised pork belly. Service is as dependable as ever, as are the classy, monochrome surrounds. Note the lovely new private room.
Wine Notes: This serious list complements the quality food. Great wines from the Rhone, Bordeaux & Burgundy are interspersed with some lovely bottles from the New World. The whole offer is lifted by charming service from affable sommelier Gearoid Devaney.

Chef: Tom Aikens

The past two years have been hectic for chef Tom Aikens. Not only has he written his first cookery book, Tom Aikens: Cooking, but he also launched two informal eateries a stone’s throw from his eponymous Michelin-starred Chelsea restaurant. As both Tom’s Kitchen & the eco-friendly fish & chip shop Tom’s Place are also in the same street, the ‘Aikens County’ is now firmly established in SW3. Stints under chefs such as Pierre Koffmann, Richard Neat, Joël Robuchon & Gerard Boyer at Les Crayères in Reims marked Aikens’s early career before he joined Pied a Terre as head chef in 1996, retaining the restaurant’s two Michelin stars. After leaving in 1999 he took a break from the restaurant scene before launching Tom Aikens in 2003, picking up a remarkable 18 awards the following year for his impressionistic take on classical French food.

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