Les 110 de Taillevent London

Les 110 de Taillevent, open since late 2015, is the sister of a restaurant of the same name in Paris, the casual offspring of Taillevent, the iconic Paris fine dining restaurant that dates back to 1946. The restaurant has high ceilings and is smartly decorated, serving around seventy diners at capacity though with tables that are quite compact and well packed. There is an emphasis on wine, and a tall glass wine rack is visible from the dining room. The head chef here since January 2022 has been Roxanne Lange, who previously ran the kitchen at Clos Maggiore after working for many years in Thailand, including at Restaurant Hotel Savelberg. The menu offered an a la carte selection, and also a tasting menu option at £110, as well as a full vegetarian tasting menu alternative.

The wine list is a major element of the experience here, with 110 wines being offered by the glass. There was also a vast selection of bottles on the full list. There were particularly deep vertical selections of many classy wines, some at more than fair prices, such as the Coche Dury Meursault and the Clos Rougeard reds. The wine list had 1,656 labels and ranged in price from £22 to £16,000, with a median price of £180 and an average markup to retail price of just 1.9 times retail based on a large sample of the list. Sample references were Bastide du Claux Luberon le Claux 2014 at £50 for a bottle that you can find in the high street for £35, Les Héritiers du Comte Lafon Viré-Clessé 2015 at £68 compared to its retail price of £47, and Argyros Monsignori Assyrtiko 2018 at £110 for a wine that will set you back £49 in the high street. For those with the means there was IGP Pays d’Hérault Domaine La Grange des Pères 2012 at £300 compared to its retail price of £678, and Domaine Leflaive Chevalier-Montrachet Grand Cru 2009 at £890 for a wine whose current market value is £1,670. I found well over a hundred wines below their current market price, and that was checking through just a quarter of the massive list. This is probably the best wine list in London, in terms of both coverage but above all in terms of relative value.

Canapes were a Parmesan gougere and smoked salmon tartlet with seaweed dust. The pastry was quite good though the seaweed did not add much flavour. The gougere was quite well made, piped neatly and the choux pastry having pleasing texture and a decent amount of Parmesan flavour (14/20 canapes). Chilled cashew nut soup had delicate marcona almonds from Spain, a little bit of kohlrabi and assorted seasonal fruit. This was harmless enough but did not have much intensity of flavour (12/20).

Better was beef tartare using Hereford beef that was chopped and served in bone with the marrow scooped out. The beef itself could have been more boldly seasoned, but it did have some pickled carrots, which usefully added some sharpness to balance the richness of the meat (14/20). A vegetarian main course of carrot was roasted and served with pickled mustard seeds and bechamel sauce. I thought this worked very well, the carrot cooked well but retaining a touch of firmness, the pickled mustard seeds balancing the natural sweetness of the carrot (14/20). Veal with its sweetbread came with white asparagus, morels and a creamy veal sauce. The veal fillet was tender and delicately flavoured, the sweetbreads light and the morels having a contrasting earthy flavour, complemented by the asparagus (15/20).

For dessert we had pear tart tatin, in this case made with pear William. The pastry was quite delicate and the pear was cooked nicely, with a touch of caramel. For me the pieces of pear could have been cut finer, but the texture of the fruit was good, and a nice touch was a little jug of extra caramel sauce on the side (14/20). Service was excellent, the bill coming to £231 per person with some classy glasses of wine. If you ordered more modestly then a typical cost per person for three courses might be around £130 all in. I enjoyed my evening here, the restaurant having an appealing menu, very good service and a superb wine list.

Further reviews: 22nd Mar 2016 | 30th Jan 2016 | 07th Nov 2015