When I visited: January 2015
Location: London, Mayfair
Team: Joel Kissin (restauranteur), Elliot Spurdle (Head Chef)
Rating in the Michelin Guide: Not in Guide
What to wear: Men – jeans or nice trousers and a shirt; women – jeans and a smart top or a smart dress
Ambience: Smart/casual, quite big
Course of the meal: Pan fried scallops with artichokes and black truffle
If I could change one thing: Serve desserts at the same time as each other
Review:
Sometimes I go to certain restaurants on short notice, being the partner Owl of an Owl that loves to eat high-quality food whenever the opportunity arises. This was one of those restaurants which responded by first letting us in, then serving up great smart/casual French food at fairly good value.
We had the dinner a la carte menu, and were both given a glass of Amazon champagne for free to start us off (always a good start …). We selected a Chablis (Premier Cru) white wine to go with the meal and given a mini French baguette each with chocolate to keep us going while our main food was prepared.
I did the typical Dining Owl thing of going for scallops as a starter (pan fried, with artichokes and black truffle) while my partner Owl had a sumptuous chestnut and mushroom soup. For mains, we had baby chicken, baby carrots, spinach and green beans, and Boulestin’s duck-soaked special: roast canard with red cabbage, duck pate and duck pie. For desserts, we had a chocolate fondant with creme fraiche (worth the 15-minute wait) and Sauternes custard with prunes soaked in Armagnac (which was brought out first in a rare faux pas). Our green tea to help us digest all this heavy French fare was accompanied with gorgeously right vanilla madeleines as petits fours.
If you find yourself at a loose end and in need of good-value, high-quality French food, consider giving Boulestin a call.
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