I visited Launceston Place today for lunch with a close friend, and sadly neither of us came away impressed.

The bread was bland and did not taste particularly fresh, the double cooked crisps served to start with needed a dip of some kind to compliment them, the amuse bouche was essentially frozen yogurt that was sadly uninspired in either taste or concept, the flavour of the truffles added to the duck egg on toast completely overpowered the rest of the dish, the main course of duck confit was swimming in grease and oil; as were the side vegetables, the dark chocolate and raspberry mousse was served warm and the mini raspberry cakes and cream with vanilla served at the end were noticeably lacking in the taste of either raspberry or vanilla.

Lastly many of the serving staff had a permanent smirk on their faces that rather gave the impression that they viewed the diners with total contempt, and our waiter seemed strangely ignorant about the items on the menu; which rather suggests that those who work in the restaurant have never been given the opportunity to try the food that they serve to their customers.

As someone with a keen interest in gastronomy who lives in London primarily to take advantage of its excellent dining opportunities, I do expect every so often to come across a single course that sadly lets down the rest of the meal. However never before have I encountered a supposedly fine dining restaurant that manages to get absolutely everything wrong at once! Indeed, when one of the staff asked afterwards what I thought of the meal, the most diplomatic comment that I could come up with was that it had been a “remarkable” experience.

In conclusion, I could not in honesty and good conscience recommend the dining experience at Launceston Place to even my worst enemy.