La Petite Maison

My wife and I went to Le Petit Maison for our wedding anniversary after having heard great things from friends. Everything about the dinner lived up to our expectations – the staff were helpful and attentive, the food was fantastic and the wines were paired perfectly with our food.

We had the crab and lobster salad to start which was simple, fresh and delicious. Followed by the veal chops and sea bass, both of which were flavoured and cooked to perfection. Topped off by the chocolate mousse and french toast for dessert. My only complaint is that we were hoping to try the roast chicken with foie gras but were told this needs to be pre-ordered as does the leg of lamb. It would have been nice if they'd informed us of this when we booked.

It's not exactly cheap but considering what one pays at most restaurants in London I'd say the quality of the food at Le Petit Maison justifies the price. We will definitely be going back.

Context: A meal with a friend on a Tuesday evening, 7:30 table, we're both late thirties.

The atmosphere was lively and the restaurant was busy, the service was excellent. The main event and the reason for going however (the food) was a complete letdown. We shared 3 starters and two mains and whilst each dish more or less represented it's description, each were…well…boring. The best you could say about each was that they were “ok”. Starters: The beef carpaccio was overpowered by it's garnish, the Onion tart with Anchovies was warm, oniony pastry but the anchovies had obviously gone off on holiday as they barely made an appearance and didn't contribute taste-wise to the dish; the cod croquettes were nice enough but didn't make much of an improvement over typical supermarket fishcakes.

The starters left us both with complete apathy for the main courses. The mains were lamb cutlets and sea bream – both were cooked well but from an overall taste perspective were pedestrian and once the plates were taken away, immediately forgotten. We went there with the hope that we would be experiencing one of London's best French restaurants but it was just an expensive non-event.

Overall: Total lack of value for money and boring uninspiring food, neither of us will go back. It felt like head chef had set the menu and then buggered off, leaving the workers to churn out the dishes impassionately. We paid £100 a head with a bottle of wine. This is my first review – the complete lack of value and bogglingly inaccurate description of this restaurant made me want to ensure people had more anecdotal information so they had the chance to avoid this and ensure they didn't get more “Turkey” than they bargained for this christmas period :P

Anyone planning to visit this restaurant for the first time might like to know that you can pre-order your meal. This would have helped me last night when I turned up ten minutes late, to be told I only had the table for two hours and that some items on the menu take AN HOUR AND A HALF to prepare.
My boyfriend and I were coming specifically to try the roast chicken with foie gras, which happens to be one of these 90 minute meals. Not only was it effectively impossible to have it during our time on the table (we also would have wanted puddings), but other pre-orders meant the restaurant had sold out of chicken at 7:30 on a weekday!
The waitress also very sweetly informed us that they were out of several of the starters.
I had read reviews that warned you'd have to wait for your meal, but never that you could pre-order the food or that, in fact, this might be the only way to get it.
While the staff were all very apologetic and understanding, the general feeling seemed to be that we should have known we'd only have the table for two hours ‘because all our tables are only ever booked for two hours’, even though we weren't told when we made the booking, and that it was just ‘one of those things’ that unless you already knew about it, you couldn't have some of the things on the menu in your allotted time.
The whole place seems very much geared towards a large body of regulars who ‘already know’, to the exclusion of those who don't.
We ended up walking out and falling back on the fantastic food and service at Wild Honey. We do intend to go back to LPM, having ordered our meal at the time we booked. Essentially this review is just a tip for anyone else to do likewise.

This dépendance of a chic Nice eatery does bring a little bit of Provence to London. Pity th atthe noise can drown out conversation at the table and the confused service – but food and produce are impeccable and it can add a ray of sunshine to a dreary day in Central London.

This is one of the best restaurants in London, the experience is above most of teh French restaurants in town, the food is mix of Italian and French so get the best from both culinary is a a perfect mixture.
The service is very good and the style is shring, what makes you spend a bit more than you expect as you order more than one starter each. But the food worth, is not the best ingredients as they have a huge turnover in tables but is impressive the freshness and general quality.
Really worth a visit. Better if you get the manager Po around.

I went to La Petite Maison with two girlfriends and we had a very poor experience. The service was extremely slow and the seafood and fish definitelyt not fresh !!!
And…the prices are ridiculous !!!
Will never go back and will NOT recommend it to anyone!
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Boy!! this place is pricey £400 for 3 of us with 2 bottles of £40 wine, they charging michelin star prices for avearge food, we shared all the dishes but nothing was wow, had steak ,lamb chops and fish for mains, it was ok but nothing special, if it was half the price which would be the correct price then i would have said it was quite good, i dont think i will be going back, u better off saving your money and going to a proper michelin retuarant.

Rather unimpressive overall, food was good although certainly not in terms of value, most diners didn't seems to be enjoying themselves a great deal, presumably as they were sitting on each others laps. Upon completion of our £400 dinner for 4, a very rude Japanese person of indeterminate sex suggested bringing my guests who were smoking outside back to the table to settle the bill as we were 5 minutes past our two hour allocation. We settled and won't be back. This is a ideal place to be taken by someone else that you don't like terribly much.

Not the nicest service staff but great food. Could definately use some customer service skills

The staff tried their best but perhaps they just needed some more direction. We ordered champagne to start with and they thought normal to also bring the wine at the same time. The wine they actually brought was not the one I ordered , instead I was offered a much more expensive one. I guess I should have realised and I was completely at fault for not paying attention. Still there was no excuse when the wine was served too cold ( this was not a £5 bottle of Pinot Grigio) and they insisted on topping up our glasses to the full at any given opportunity , never mind the fact that we were served white wine in Bordeaux glasses.

On to the food, which was excellent. It was explained to us, that the food came as it was prepared. Still the 45 minute wait between the courgette flowers and the escallops carpaccio was nearly unacceptable. The main courses were equally delicious and the accompagnements just right. The dessert was very good and they had a good selection of sweet wines.
In summary I was very satisfied with the food, much less so with the overall experience, despite the best efforts of the staff. Perhaps we just stumbled across some trainees.

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One of the best things about this place is that it is almost a tapas style of service, as in the bring the dishes as they are cooked and placed in the middle of the table to share. Which means it doesn’t look too greedy to have four starters between the two of us! Although the starters were quite good, none of the four really amazed out of the ceviche, crab and lobster salad, deep fried courgette flowers, and the one I forget (never a good sign).

Things did take a radical turn for the better when the mains arrived, grilled lamb chops with smoked aubergine, were quite possibly the best lamb chops I have ever had, cooked and tasted amazing. The chicken in lemon was also cooked well, nice and succulent and a good lemon tang.

A delightful chocolate mouse and a crème Brulee big enough for two finished us off.

On the whole a very good experience, service was a little slow to start with but did pick up fairly quickly. The table are indeed far too close together, so going to the lavatory involves putting your bum in other’s dinners. But all in, I’d recommend it.

This restaurant is just lovely: great location, informal yet luxuriously cosy surroundings, attentive service and great food. The cooking isn't strictly regional french, it is more an amalgamation of northern italian, classic french and southern french mediterrenean dishes, served in tapas-style for everybody to share. Many people might be confused by this style of eating in this type of restaurant, but I think it works here. We were a large group so we had the chance to try many dishes, some of the tastiest were: baby squid, scallop carpaccio, crab & lobster salad and courgette flowers for starters and gnocchi, monkfish, shellfish stew and poulet de bresse for main. The creme brulee' was delicious too but I could only force myself to taste a tiny bit as I was too full. The wine list is good and we chose an easy Sancerre to wash down a fresh, simple yet superbly prepared dinner.