Le Deli Robuchon (Piccadilly)

This delicatessen appeared to have some interesting sandwich options between £6.50 for a baguette with butter and ham to £10.80 for a toasted sourdough sandwich with salmon, cucumber, shiso and ponzu sauce.  As with most of the Joel Robuchon brand this is not cheap for sandwiches but there were some as was the case with my bearnaise eggs on toasted sourdough with salmon and spinach for £10.50 which, for a variant of eggs royale (using bearnaise instead of hollandaise) was not bad value as were the salads at an average of £8 all made to order.

Whilst the bearnaise twist on my eggs was a nice change from hollandaise, I thought it would have been improved with a warmer sauce for a warm dish (hot sourdough, wilted spinach, poached eggs with only the salmon being cold as it should be) and the cold bearnaise reserved for the sandwiches.  The salmon itself had reasonable flavour.  The croissant for the ham and gruyere was not with bechamel as described but this did not matter as the croissant was the star anyway.  Incidentally, all of the pastries, tarts and bread come from the Robuchon bakery in Acton and is delivered to the deli twice a day.

I also recommend having a seat away from the front doors which is left wide open to attract in customers as several people smoking outside (either waiting or passing by) meant an unappealing smell of smoke making its way in the deli from time to time, so do opt for a seat on the banquet away from the front door.

Service was a little mixed as descriptions on the menus seemed to contradict what was advertised, my special advertised did not even have the price and on asking for the bill it was quite a lengthy wait and came to me incorrect as it was missing an item.  Rather stupidly I pointed out the correction needed – not stupidly because of paying the correct amount for what was had, but because this took another 5 minutes to correct.  I can understand a venue recently opened finding its feet, but seemingly through the incorrect bill, most of the staff seemed to be engaged chatting amongst themselves and one particular visitor.  Special guests in the staff’s minds will always receive more attention, but when this degrades other guests’ experience, I would say this is more blasé than professional.

Based on two solitary dishes from a deli, this is hardly a restaurant grade of a review, however for what it is offering, it is more suited for upmarket takeaway pastries.  In terms of dining-in which it does offer, I’m sure the venue will get on two feet more in due course, but it was a little disappointing for what I was expecting from the brand.