Matt's Reviews

Wonderful.

Set lunch for three courses plus glass of wine plus coffee & petits fours at £42 is fantastic value for food of this quality. Immaculately prepared and presented food, with a range of superb intense flavours. Dessert was perhaps slightly less polished than the previous two courses but I was distracted by the amazing chocolate madeleines brought straight from the oven.

Menu options are very limited: you choose from menus of three, six or eight courses; there's no a la carte menu as such. However nobody in my party complained as the options all looked good. Vegetarians might have a problem.

At first I was concerned about the small portion sizes – the starter of blue cheese ‘royale’ with pumpkin veloute seemed to weigh about 35g – but by the end of the meal I realised they had judged it absolutely perfectly.

Service wasn't flawless: one of our diners never got a menu, at this kind of place you expect to have water glasses constantly refreshed and they weren't, we waited ages for coffee, but there were certainly plenty of staff and they were all v professional.

The room itself is not particularly interesting; a few little bits of art dotted about the place; and some of the tables are very near the entrance which is open to the front door. However it's understated rather than bland or styleless.

Hmm sounds like more negatives than positives but I really really enjoyed the meal! Overall a brilliant food experience; highly recommended.

Absolutely flawless meal last night. We had the seven course tasting menu, normally £75 but £100pp because we sat at the Kitchen Library table ie a small room directly opposite the pass in the kitchen.

First they brought numerous different canapes / mini starters which were, almost without exception, superb. The execution was immaculate. Then seven courses followed, all of which I loved – some very impressive cooking, exquisitely prepared. A great mix of innovative cooking (eg nettle gnocchi) with traditional British/Irish ingredients and flavours. Presentation was excellent: every dish looked beautiful with vibrant colours and garnishes.

They really served a lot of food, some of it very rich, so you have to be quite a gourmand to get through it all – I felt like I was going to pop.

The Kitchen Library table was a fantastic experience: a banquette seating six directly opposite the kitchen so you could see all the action (and hear it too…). I've been to one chef's table before (the Connaught) and this was better: you could see everything being plated up and listen in on the banter between chef, brigade and wait staff. You are served not by waiters but by the chefs themselves, who briefly explain each dish and give you a bit of blurb about the ingredients.

Attentive and charming service, with everyone seemingly going out of their way to make us feel welcome. Corrigan popped his head round the door to say hi (shortly before giving one of the brigade a massive telling-off – very funny). Only minor complaint on the service front was that the sommelier was a bit too keen to keep refilling our glasses but I guess you can't have it both ways – better that than they leave the wine in the ice bucket all night.

Not cheap: 15% service to sit at the chef's table, plus you have to look quite hard to find wines under £40. But for food this good, and an overall restaurant experience that makes you feel like you're living the high life, the bill wasn't too painful.

What a disappointment. Had eaten here a couple of times a few years back and absolutely loved it. This time the food was utterly lacklustre. The room is still wonderful and service was ok but all four of my party were desperately disappointed with the food.