review of French restaurant The Ritz in Piccadilly by Andy Hayler in mid December 2021

I have written many times about The Ritz, so please see my previous for comments on the history, its head chef and its long but ambitiously priced wine list. Today, as usual, I went for the surprise menu, priced at £139.

The trio of canapes were the tried and tested ones of Ragstone goat cheese mousse (which resembles St Maure) with wood-roast pepper and basil, duck liver parfait with sour cherry and yoghurt, and Coronation chicken in a sugar tuile cylinder. These were al beautifully made, prettily presented and providing a series of contrasting flavours to whet the appetite (18/20).

The first course was a signature Ritz dish, the langoustine a la nage with bronze fennel. The large (300g) Scottish langoustines were presented live at the table, and one was so lively that it actually jumped out of the basket on to the table. The shellfish were poached in butter and served with cauliflower puree, little Cornish vegetables and bronze fennel from a supplier on Merseyside. The langoustines had lovely natural sweetness and were lightly cooked, allowing their flavour to shine through. They were nicely complemented by the fennel and vegetables, which balanced the richness of the buttery “nage” sauce (19/20).

Egg custard with Parmesan and a shaving of black truffle was next. A truffle cuisson jelly was first made by cooking truffles to extract their flavour. Then an egg custard was made with milk, kombu (seaweed) and Parmesan, and whisked with 36-month aged Parmesan foam and truffle sauce. The savoury custard was silky in texture, suffused with the richness of the Parmesan and fragrance of the black Perigord truffles. On the side were delicate Gruyere and truffle gougeres. I don’t really see how this dish could be improved upon, with deep, rich flavours and lovely texture (20/20).

Cornish turbot from a massive 10 kg fish was cooked on the bone and carved at the table. The fillet was served with grapes dressed in verjus, herb emulsion and a smoked butter beurre blanc. The dish was finished with finger lime, chives, dulse seaweed and wakame (kelp). The flavour of the fish was terrific, helped by being from such a large specimen and also by being cooked on the bone. The timing was spot on too, while the acidity of the grapes cut through the richness of the butter. This was fine fish cookery (19/20).

Venison Wellington was the final savoury course. Fallow deer was stuffed with sauteed duck liver wrapped with mushroom duxelles and puff pastry and then cooked until pink. It was served with Cornish vegetables, celeriac puree, Hen of the Woods and a truffle sauce. The venison had lovely flavour and the pastry was excellent, while the rich sauce was balanced by the vegetables (18/20).

Pre-dessert was lemon textures, made using lemons from Menton, an area on the Mediterranean border between France and Italy. Lemon curd was combined with lemon cream, a wafer, lemon sorbet and lemon foam. The overall effect was very refreshing, and the textures combined nicely together (17/20).

The main dessert was a Mont Blanc (a Piedmont dish originally, named since the shape resembles a snow-capped mountain) with chestnut, pear and rum, using chestnut cream with caramelised pears, rum-soaked baba, rum ice cream and meringue. This was suitably seasonal, with the pear providing just enough acidity to cut through the richness of the cream (17/20). Petit fours were raspberry and custard tart, vanilla macaroon, and a dark chocolate, almond and hazelnut praline.

Service was very slick as usual, and the bill came to £221 per person in total. Your bill will vary substantially based on the menu that you choose and the wine that you select, but £139 for a menu using all these top ingredients is hardly unreasonable, and would barely buy you a main course at a Paris three-star restaurant. At the risk of repeating myself, there is nowhere in London serving better food than the Ritz at present.

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