Le Gavroche Restaurant

The Roux brothers nurtured a mind-boggling roll call of talented chefs who have flown the nest to make a huge impact on the UK's gastronomic scene in their own right. Today's Le Gavroche, under the direction of Michel Roux Jnr, remains a bastion of exclusive luxury, refinement and quality, delivering its timeless classical French cuisine in a basement off Park Lane. Prices may be eye-watering, but that's probably not a huge surprise. The house style is opulent in a plush old-school French way - thick pile carpets, sepulchral lighting, tables aglitter with crystal and silver, and jackets for gentlemen, s'il vous plaît. And then there's the Bentley-smooth service: Maître d' Silvano Giraldin - a le Gavroche institution himself since 1971 - retired in 2008, handing over the baton to Emmanuel Landré, who continues the correctly formal tone, that's to say mind-reading waiters flourishing silver domes and wheeling trolleys of pungently-perfect cheese and aristocratic digestifs. The culinary director quite naturally inherited his father's (and uncle's) ways and is true to the values of the Larousse Gastronomique. While he has little truck with the ephemeral winds of whim and fashion that blow through London's restaurant scene, he is not stuck in the past either. The bilingual menu still deals in dishes that revel in richness - such as the perennial cheese and double cream soufflé Suissesse - but a lighter touch creeps in too. Tamworth pig's head on toast with herb, apple and hazelnut salad starts on a surprisingly rustic note, then returns to a more classical pan-roasted sea bass with Puy lentil and bacon jus and Jerusalem artichoke purée swiped artfully on the plate. Desserts might offer pear roasted in Brittany butter with puff pastry and coconut pannacotta.

From Park Lane into Upper Brook St, restaurant on right
Nearest station: Marble Arch

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