New Michelin starred restaurant to the 2024 Michelin guide for Great Britain and Ireland
Pavyllon is the renewed brand of celebrated chef Yannick Alléno formerly of 3 Michelin starred Ledoyen and Le Maurice). The London instalment opened in the Form Seasons Hotel as their flagship restaurant that gained its Michelin star for 2024 not long after opening. It is unique in that the same kitchen for their brasserie-like menu for lunch and dinner is also the same kitchen and same area for breakfast for hotel guests and anyone who wishes to book. For a look at their breakfast you can see my previous visit on 4 Mar 24 (other tab at the top). This was the first sample of the set lunch menu which showed very good value for money (4 courses for £55), with evident skill and some pleasant flavours. The summary is that I enjoyed it immensely and it is a lovely concept, but I will need to sample some of the signature dishes to get more excited.
A good sign of the effort involved in the kitchen was the appearance of canapés even for the set lunch which, effectively means a 5 course meal for the same and this was great to see. A tartlet of dill custard, smoked pike roe, fennel flower gel, puffed quinoa and shaved Parmesan was genuinely delightful and another parcel of lemon, ricotta, artichoke and spinach was fine, albeit with both in thicker pastry sets than expected. Homemade sourdough was served with wonderfully salty Normandy butter.
First course was a play on prawn cocktail using two, large, Pacific prawns (that are blue when caught) with fennel and cucumber emulsion made with cognac, with shaved parmesan, trout roe and home made ketchup for one to mix to taste. I thought this was a lovely play on prawn cocktail and the all important sauces were wonderful with the popping nature of the roe and if only there could have been more.
Next was the steamed cheese soufflé which is a long-standing dish on the menu and changes with ‘guest’ flavour from time to time. Ours were made with watercress coulis and smoked eel butter. The soufflé was indeed light but very set at the same time being steamed and whilst it was pleasant, it smelt a lot more of cheese than in taste and was basically a watercress soufflé. A good thing, but perhaps not at the level where I have experienced it at the fabled and ex-Le Gavroche or indeed at Martin Wishart.
Seabream was the main course which was confit in chorizo oil and served with celeriac extraction, parsley condiment, a Greek olive tapenade and shavings of celeriac. This had good flavour, mainly from the abundance of sauce and dressing and I was a little puzzled why it was called a tartare as the fish was served whole – perhaps this meant to say ‘tartare’ and referred to the celeriac bits. On the side was a Robuchon-esque serving of velvety and buttery mash, but sadly this was not served hot and barely warm when had; a shame as this was quite good mash.
Dessert was a mix of textures with a predominance of coffee and spices – a ripple ice cream was served with a star anise, cinnamon and nutmeg foam (the ‘cloud’ part on the menu) topped with a coffee, caramel and cardamom sauce and hazelnut & almond praliné for crunch. This was perfectly pleasant as something different and light at the same time.
Two little petit fours were provided with a bill for £127 for two which represented good value for money. It was the perfect ‘fix’ that was needed for a decent light lunch, but at the same I am not pining to return for that menu – I think the only thing to do is sample the absolute signature a la carte dishes or tasting menu to get a better perspective and will be braced for that another time.
Food Grade: 68%
Pavyllon is the much anticipated addition to the London dining scene from three Michelin starred Yannick Alléno (of Ledoyen and formerly Le Maurice). His latest restaurant Pavyllon is set in the former main restaurant of the Four Seasons, Park Lane which holds an impressive bar area, private dining room and reception area upstairs and lunch and dinner options downstairs in front of an open kitchen for lunch and dinner. This main area also doubles up as the breakfast area for the hotel guests and open to members of the public if there is space. This initial visit was a breakfast visit and based on this alone I would thoroughly recommend, as a breakfast done genuinely well is something close to my heart. The ‘coast’ I had was a flattened croissant of ones that had not sold the previous day for wastage reduction (and thankfully was not stale in anyway) with crushed avocado, poached egg and salad with parmesan and a very well balanced and slight amount of dressing.
The croissants themselves are made freshly by the Michelin starred team each day and is frankly worth going there for that reason as the fresh one I tried in addition was brittle on the outside, wonderfully aerated on the inside and with a very good, overall texture and flavour. I was relieved that the strawberry jam in min jars was not the congealed glue that you can often get and had a good, runniness to the preserve and the omelette saw was classically presented with runny centre, perfectly done. I was also very pleased with the bacon on the side being done exactly to order and tasty (not burned to a crisp as one can often get in many places.
Thoroughly recommended as a breakfast and I do genuinely want to return for breakfast whenever I can based on this initial visit.
Food Grade: 75%
My hobby-turned-passion began to evolve during my assignments to London where I was fortunate enough to be able to explore all the Michelin starred restaurants in my spare time and as a result, I gradually built up a catalogue of all these venues.
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