Labombe has one of those origin stories that sounds too neat to be true. It was first dreamed up by Jonny Lake at the age of 13, when a French homework assignment asked him to invent a restaurant. Lake returned with a full pitch deck and menu for ‘Labombe’, little knowing that he’d go on to become executive chef of the three Michelin-starred Fat Duck in Bray, before opening his own two Michelin-starred Trivet in Bermondsey.
Fast forward a couple of decades and Labombe is now very real, tucked inside the COMO Metropolitan Hotel on Park Lane. It’s no cosy neighbourhood hangout - this is a big, shiny wine palace of veined marble, parquet floors and potted olive trees. A long open kitchen runs down one side where chefs work a live fire, flipping Iberico pork chops and slabs of bavette. It’s a dining room befitting the postcode.
The cooking centres on broadly European sharing plates, with a hefty emphasis on grilled meat and fish. The strongest dishes arrive early: little bites such as a turbocharged bottarga toastie, and grilled duck heart and cherry skewers, where blistered sour cherries cut neatly through the richness of the meat. The grill cooking is solid and assured, but it doesn't deliver the wow factor of Labombe’s smaller plates, like the wild mushroom pici or Trivet’s signature hot tongue bun. The latter is a glorious jumble of sliced braised ox tongue, anchovy mayo, pickles, dill and blackcurrant mostarda - a riot of flavours somehow suspended in perfect balance.
Labombe saves its most outrageous moment for the finale: a sweet, buttery puff-pastry tart topped with a slice of brie de meaux. It’s a small magic trick, leaving us wide-eyed - a pair of utterly joyful, impossibly delicious bites you won’t find anywhere else. The wine list is superb, too, delivered with supreme knowledge and grace.
In some ways, Labombe showcases Lake’s brilliance even more clearly than Trivet. By making his cooking looser, more approachable and more fun, it’s doing Londoners a real service. A full meal will still leave a sting in the wallet, but for a glass of wine and a few plates, Labombe is right up there with the city’s best.