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Launceston PlaceRestaurant West | Back Home |
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Please also seehttp://hungryinlondon.com/2010/06/launceston-place-kensin... “Pretentious as shit but worth it” - this is Launceston Place very accurately described with the words of RS. I have to say – my evening at Launceston Place was highly enjoyable on many levels and it made me very happy. This is how dining out should be. Most importantly, the food was extraordinary. What really stood out was their incredible attention to detail and the thought that seem to have gone into every little thing. It was not only that everything tasted like heaven, but also each plate was presented like a work of art. You have to choose 3 courses from a set menu for 48 pounds. I was not so convinced about this in the beginning as I usually don’t eat desserts, but hadn’t I be “forced” to the last course I would have missed out big time! For the starters we had the beef tartar with barley, which was mild and full of subtle flavour. The only criticism could be that the beef was quite coarse, which I actually really enjoyed while RS was not entirely convinced. Lovely was the asparagus with snails and sunflower seeds. The sunflower seeds went surprisingly well with the perfectly cooked, crunchy green asparagus. The two lonely snails were unncessary but did not spoil the dish. The mains were served lukewarm, probably it took so long to make them pretty, but they were delicious anyway. The lamb with potatoes and wild garlic was a dream. The perfectly cooked medium rare meat literally melted in my mouth. I was in food paradise! The hot smoked halibut with wild fennel served with a light dill sauce did not quite reach the level of the lamb, but nevertheless was very tasty. There is only one thing I am still confused about: the fish was served on little brown branches, I still have no idea if they were supposed to be eaten or only decoration.. I did eat some of them, they really did not taste of much and I clearly got my share of cellulose… Now the dessert… Warm smoked dark chocolate with Laphroiag whisky ice cream was another food heaven moment – for me, the Laphroiag ice cream was the superstar among many starts of the evening. I should mention that I love whiskey, the peatier the better… and they manged to pack all these flavours into an ice cream! It was so absolutely delicious! It was also a brave dish as Laphroiag is a very strongly flavoured whiskey and probably not to everyone’s taste. I’m sure the chocolate fondant and also the second dessert (Rhubarb and custard) were good too but I couldn’t say as I had just fallen in love with my whiskey ice cream, sorry :) Now back from the seventh cloud to something we did not like very much – the wine list. It was off-putting, pretentious and ridiculously over-priced. I know, it’s an expensive restaurant, but is this a reason to offer only one wine of each colour under 30 pounds? We boycotted this and went for the 20 pound bottle which was actually really nice. The atmosphere I find is perfect for a (good) date – not only comfortable and intimate but also – due the little surprise dishes you get served in between courses – you really don’t feel rushed to finish your food quickly. Overall, this was the most outstanding food I have had this year and I recommend everyone to go there and enjoy Tristan Welch’s cooking – I hope it will put a big smile into your face too! | HungryinLondon | 2010-08-13 | |
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Visiting the chic and elegant Launceston Place is a culinary treat from ex-Petrus chef, Tristan Welch, whose menu presents haute cuisine with a British twist. Both the chef and the restaurant are increasingly rising to prominence in London, therefore expect highly accomplished refined British food. Launceston Place is well located for dinner after the concert at Royal Albert Hall. | Emyr_Thomas | 2010-05-06 | |
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I do love a good fish pie, but Launceston Place's 'stargazey pie' is infinitely more imaginative and devilishly witty. I was lucky enough to sample this starter the other night at this impressive Kensington eatery, headed up by Tristan Welch. I was initially a bit put off by the sight of the sardine tail crudely curling out over the side of the bowl from under a pastry crust, when the dish arrived. It looked like the poor fish had plopped straight into it from the sea. The waiter had also warned me - when I was considering what to order - that the sardine would be served whole in the pie, with the head left on. It was "to allow it to look up to the stars," he explained theatrically. Anyway, by the time I got under the pastry crust and tasted the delicate fish and subtle creamy sauce, my tastebuds were too tickled to care. My friend and I both also chose fishy main courses: wild seabass, beetroot, purple sprouting broccoli and wild garlic, and hot smoked halibut with wild fennel. These were also exquisite. My only complaint was the 15-minute delay in being seated (surprising for a 9pm booking on a Thursday) and a 40-minute wait between courses. However, the staff more than made up for it with their friendly professionalism. All in all, quite a catch....despite the hefty price tag. | omnivore | 2010-03-27 | |
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Full post and photos @www.thecattylife.com The brain child of chef Tristan Welch, I’d been reading all sorts of good things all over the food web about his recently refurbished restaurant, and if you’re really clever, you would have worked out there were three hyperlinks in that little bunch of bolded words. Sneaky. No one had said anything less than Launceston Place being pretty awesome, so I was going in with slightly nerve-wreckingly high expectations. Interestingly, our first impressions weren’t brilliant ~ the girl who asked if we’d like some champagne to start was probably barely out of highschool and ok my next comment might be a touch controversial but I’m not coming from a racist place, more from a can-you-speak-English place but… she really struggled when we asked “do you serve rosé by the glass?”. So much so that she mumbled something and hurried off to fetch a more experienced sommelier who offered us a very nice rosé by the glass. No biggie. I totally forgot about it anyway because immediately following the little mishap (methods of distraction work in places other than magic shows), we were served an amuse bouche of devilled parsnip crisps, followed by a hot and cold leek soup. The devilled parsnip crisps were fantastic ~ crispy and spicy, wrapped delicately in a branded ribbon, and the hot and cold leek soup, oh it tugged at my heart strings and brought back fond memories of The Fat Duck where I had my very first, very bizarre experience of the hot and cold tea. The leek soup probably tasted more like potato soup on the bottom and cold pea froth on top, but that’s ok. It wasn’t bad and hey, it was free. Ok let’s talk real food. We declined the 6 course tasting menu (£60) for a 3 course set menu (£45). I chose the west coast scallops roasted with aromatic herbs to start which in one descriptive word were: enormous. I really should have taken a photo of a scallop next to my head because they (and there were three) were probably some of the largest, meatiest scallops I’d seen in a while. Covered in garlicky, herby, buttery something or other, they tasted like a little piece of heaven. Panu’s starter was equally delish ~ Denham Estate venison tartare with walnuts, bitter cress and a quail egg. The word “tartare” always excites me, but probably for the wrong reasons because basically, I picture a Korean yook hwei (which actually isn’t even tartare so you see what I have to deal with on a daily basis? My brain. It doesn’t make sense). It’s all good, the tartare was so tender you could barely feel the meat but the taste was oomf.. delicious. It left us wondering what he’d seasoned the venison with but I doubt I’ll ever find out. Mains. Wow, usually I fall head over heels in love with starters and desserts and in fact if I have a 2 course meal, I often skip the main all together. They’re usually less creative and somewhat less delicious but there is a first for everything. My main ~ Tamworth suckling pig with radishes and honey emulsion ~ was my favourite course of the night. Hands down. Three little medallions of tenderly roasted pig, gorgeous little cooked radishes and slices of fresh radish and the salty-sweet taste of honey emulsion. Oh and lest I forget, the crowning glory (which I saved til last, of course) – a piece of crackle to rival all crackle. Yum. Panu ordered the wild seabass with chestnuts, chervil and ceps. Um, what are chervils and ceps? I didn’t know before and actually, I’m none the wiser now either. I was far too engrossed in my own main to pay Panu any attention but I’m pretty sure he enjoyed his meal considering a couple of days later, I received an email saying “seabass… yum!” And onto the sweet thangs! Well, before we actually get onto the really sweet stuff, we were served a pre-dessert, which in my world is like, well awesome can we also have a post-dessert? Interestingly the answer is yes. Brownie points for Mr Welch. The pre-dessert was pear sorbet and mulled wine mousse with spiced orange, which I thought was a palate cleanser (the pear sorbet being ever so light and tangy) until I tried the mulled wine mousse. It was nice but really, I think a thousand cinnamon pods died some angry deaths in that mousse because that was all I could taste. Lucky that was a freebie. Panu’s dessert was a bit of a surprise. It was a set custard cream with caramel, praline and malt ice cream. We were both expecting something along the lines of a creme caramel and I mean pralines, doesn’t that just make you think of Haagen Dazs pralines & cream? God, am I really so embarrassingly commercial? Yes, yes I am. Anyway it wasn’t what we expected, but I think it was still good – the malt ice cream especially, which was luxuriously velvety and oops I just realised it’s not even in the photo above. It was in the other corner. Sorry! My dessert was a winner ~ rice pudding soufflé (which takes 20 minutes but it’s 20 minutes of your life well spent) served with a separate jar of raspberry ripple ice cream. The soufflé was light as feathers but amazingly still maintained the texture of rice and its warmth and simple flavour paired with the sweet melting raspberry ice cream was just perfect. Per. Fect. And the post-dessert? We were packed off home with a teeny tiny box of chocolates, supposedly from Mr Welch himself. So awesome. | thecattylife | 2010-03-08 | |
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[Non-photo Review] Full review can be found here: http://wp.me/pwXBH-wZ A GREAT MEAL AMBUSHED BY TOO MANY BUTS Hoping for a Great British Menu Launceston Place was on my hit-list for a good part of 2009 after I saw its Head Chef, Tristan Welch, appear on Great British Menu, the BBC television program that invites two great chefs from each region of Britain to prepare dishes that represent both their local area and ‘Britishness’ in general, with the winning dishes featuring at some gala event to be held at the end of the series, and cooked by the chefs who invented them. I liked what he was doing on the small screen (he won his heat too), and his gastronomic creations looked very enticing. So, one October evening, Mrs. LF and I set off to see if the Welchman would deliver. Launceston Place looks slightly odd from outside. It is housed within a semicircular façade and is kitted out in a black tie paint scheme. It almost gives off the feeling of a very posh pub that caters to the wealthy people living in the nearby environs. In any case, we located the correct doorway (there are a few doors that lead nowhere) and were pleasantly surprised upon entering. There is a very pretty little bar area as you enter the restaurant, where you can have an apéritif or wait for other members of your party to arrive. We decided to go straight to our table, however, which was off to the left side of the restaurant. They layout of the place is quite unique, with tables on either side of the central bar station, and also behind this area (which also seems to serve as a dishwashing and plating-up station), and adds a bit of interest. The decor is also fairly iconoclastic and I liked it – black walls throughout with brooding artwork, but with little splashes of color here and there. To me, it almost seemed like going into someone’s very nice home, where the dining room led into yet another little dining room. It’s worth mentioning that they also have a very nice private room on the lower level, where instead of actually being in the kitchen (i.e. a Chef’s Table), you are in a mock library that has a video display of the kitchen and two-way microphones (they call it the Chef’s Office), so you can chat with the chef(s) as they work (I am sure they must love that…!). The building has served as a restaurant of some kind for a long time, and I think Tristan and the folks at D&D London (a spin-off from Terrence Conran’s restaurant group in which he still owns 51%, and which took over Image Restaurants, of which Launceston Place was a part, in June 2007) have done a fantastic job in updating the premises. For instance, our table for two made clever use of the space by having one seat on the end of the benching attached to the wall, and the other chair placed 90 degrees away (instead of facing each other) – enabling them to squeeze another table for 2 across the pathway. But enough about design, architecture and acquisitions. Save for the last topic, that is not really my expertise. Starry, starry night? I thought the menu read brilliantly, and had a very hard time deciding what to order as there were so many things I wanted to try. While we were pondering the possibilities, some very nice devilled parsnip crisps were brought to the table, wrapped neatly with a little bit of Launceston Place branded black ribbon. In the end, we went for the 3-course menu, as previous experience with tasting menus on the first visit made us a bit wary. But before our starters manifested: “the bouches were coming, the bouches were coming”. And I am glad they did, because the leek soup was really fresh and awakened our palates. The contrasting temperatures worked well, and it had a nice light, creamy and froth-like quality about it (7/10). The sourdough bread was also very nice – and if memory serves me right (?), it is made in-house (7/10) Starter 1: West Coast Scallops Roasted with Aromatic Herbs from the Coast LineMy starter of scallops was beautifully presented on a wooden slab with the molluscs served in their shells. It was a very accomplished dish in the sense that the scallops were cooked perfectly and were also large, juicy and very flavorful. The subtle seasoning of ‘aromatic herbs’ harmonized well and let the scallops do the talking. It wasn’t a ‘wow’ dish but I don’t think that was the intention. 7/10. Starter 2: Poached Goose Egg, Somerset Truffle RisottoWe both agreed that Mrs. LF’s starter was one of the better things we had eaten in a while. It was also cleverly conceived in terms of the flavors and stylish presentation. Hidden beneath a topping of black Somerset truffles (English truffles…I am learning something new every day) was an unctuous, rich and delicious risotto that was perfect in pretty much every way. I was surprised at how pungent the truffles were and the strong depth of flavor they possessed (I thought English truffles would have been much lighter than their Continental counterparts), and the addition of little toast soldiers was a cute nod to a British breakfast tradition of soft-boiled eggs (the French call it oeuf à la coque). 10/10. Main Course 1: Wild Hare, Nutmeg Cream Potatoes & Spiced PearsNearly as good was my main course of wild hare. It was served two ways, but the presentation wasn’t quite as neat as the starters had been. I didn’t really care, though, as it tasted delicious. What I presume was the breast of the poor little wabbit was cooked well, being very tender and soft, and having a lovely mild taste. The little quartet of ribs was executed perfectly, left quite red and rare, and had a slightly stronger taste (more salty than sweet), thereby bringing some balance to the dish. The nutmeg mash and pears were slightly sweet, and I thought the flavors all played well off of each other. Much like the scallops, I found this to be a nice and mellow dish that, while it didn’t really have that ‘wow’ factor, was really satisfying: it did the ingredients justice and showed the inventive hand of the chef. 8/10. Main Course 2: Tamworth Suckling Pig, Radishes & Honey EmulsionThe one complete anomaly in our otherwise lovely meal was the suckling pig. Although this dish has drawn rave reviews from other bloggers since we dined at Launceston Place (see here for example), Mrs. LF could barely eat any of hers. She told me that it tasted extremely ‘piggy’ and just wasn’t nice – she posited that this particular bit of meat might have been off. I was shocked, and thought she must be crazy, but when I tasted it I agreed that it underneath the main taste of the meat lurked a very distinct and unpleasant flavor that I could also only describe as ‘way too piggy’. After googling it, I discovered that Tamworth pigs are meant to have a ‘distinct’ flavor, but somehow I don’t think this is what it was meant to taste like. In hindsight, we should have sent the dish back, but she wasn’t that hungry anyway so we just left a lot of it on the plate. Strangely enough, the servers didn’t ask why we had left so much of it when they came to clear the table for dessert (but more on the service later…). I am hesitant to rate the dish, because it will bring down the score of what was otherwise a very nice meal, but it was what it was – inedible. 1/10. Luckily, the lovely taste of the palate cleanser went some way to clearing our taste-buds’ memory of the terrifying Tamworth. The sharpness of the lemon sorbet and was magic with the coulis and the flavors were every bit as beautiful as the presentation. You could actually taste the black pepper in the thinner-than-a-fingernail translucent tuile, and this added nicely to the interest in the mouth. On some sound advice from Gastro1, I splashed out on the second-most expensive dessert wine I’ve ever had at £17 for the glass. It was the Italian Donnafugata Ben Rye Passito di Pantelleria, and it apparently retails for about £30 for a half-bottle. As I told Gastro1 after the meal, “It had huge peach on the nose and on the mid-palate, with dry nectarine on the finish, with very good acidity. It was a syrupy and quite oily (it coated the glass nicely when swirled), intense nectar. I thought it was almost like drinking an alcoholic peach nectar…amazing it comes from grapes!” Wonderful stuff, but not for the faint-hearted. Dessert 1: Set Custard Cream, Caramel & Praline, Malt Ice CreamMy dessert was marvellous. Again, it just all worked together. Presented on the now ubiquitous black slab, I liked the way it looked too. Come to think of it, in terms of presentation, I think that Chef Welsh and Brett Graham of The Ledbury share certain elements in their presentation styles. The set cream itself was mild and very moreish, the caramel and pralines worked a treat together, and my favorite element was actually the malt ice cream (I’m a sucker for anything ‘malted’). I liked the mixture of textures and temperatures and thought it was an interesting little concoction. 8/10. Dessert 2: Strawberry Shortbread, Lemon Curd & Basil SorbetMrs. LF’s dessert was also good (thank god), so she was somewhat placated. It was light and the biscuits were powdery, dissolving in the mouth as you ate them. I tasted it (I know, I’m greedy!) and also liked it – I do love lemon curd…. She correctly noted, however, that the basil sorbet wasn’t nearly as good or as the one served at Eastside Inn, which was a good deal better. 6/10. Leading from the back While the back of house seemed to have things in pretty good order, and the dining space looked the part, we weren’t very taken with the front of house. The service just wasn’t good. A few examples should give you the picture. We couldn’t find a place to park in the immediate area, so I popped out of the car and asked the woman at reception if she knew somewhere that we could park as non-residents. First, she looked at me as if I didn’t belong there, and secondly she didn’t have a clue and didn’t even try to help one iota – she just wasn’t interested. Fine, maybe just it was just me. No. After we were seated, it took ages for anyone to look at us let alone give us a menu or some nibbles. After literally about 20 minutes, we did get the menus, and thereafter the service simply consisted of taking our orders and delivering the food (without any explanation or niceties). In a restaurant that I am sure is gunning for Michelin stars, we both found this very strange and off-putting. It was only towards the very end of the meal, when we were halfway through our desserts, that the situation changed…thanks to a very affable young man who wasn’t our waiter but somehow took it upon himself to engage with us about the dessert wine, and then other things. Food-wise, from our experience, the menu at Launceston Place was playful, clever and enticing, while drawing upon well-sourced and fairly traditional British ingredients. With the unfortunate exception of the Tamworth Suckling Pig (which did get the lowest score of anything I’ve ever rated on this site), the food was deftly executed, innovative and subtle. Had it not been for the little piggy that should have gone home and a lack of finesse in the service, I would have classed this as a good 1-star Michelin meal. In fact, I would certainly go back for more. And I did, when I embarked upon a tour of some of London’s top restaurants with some other bloggers a few weeks later. You can read about that gastropade and some of Launceston Place’s other excellent desserts here. Of course, the place has become even more popular since we dined there, with their then Junior Sous Chef Steve Groves winning the last season of the BBC’s Masterchef: The Professionals. So book well in advance as it may not be so easy to get a table anymore. Rating Ambience: 8/10 Service: 5/10 Food: 7/10 Wine: a nice selection of wines, although the mark-ups are pretty high from what I could gather on my perusal. For more about my rating scale, click here. Note: I have dined twice at Launceston Place, once for dinner (for this review, where I paid) and once as part of an event organized by their PR agency (where I did not pay). | laissezfare | 2010-01-14 | |
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| Really posh. Format is prix fixe (3 course) or 6-course tasting only. |  |
Henry | 2010-08-14 | |
| Tristan Welch’s restaurant serves up clever, innovative & subtle food that draws upon well-sourced British ingredients. On our visit, all the dishes (except one) were very good or better. |  |
Laissez | 2010-01-14 | |
| Had a wicked array of desserts served by Tristan himself, who was a gracious host (as were his sommelier and Maitre'd) - great restaurant with inventive twists on traditional ingredients! | |
Laissez | 2009-11-05 | |
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