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Helene Darroze at The Connaught

Address:	16 Carlos Place W1K 2AL
Tel	020 3147 7200
Website:	Visit their website
Price: £107.00	Wine: £28.00	Champagne: £69.00
Opening Hours:	Mon-Fri 12N-2.15pm 6.30-10.15pm

Square Meal review of Helene Darroze at The Connaught:

A contender for 2008's most hotly anticipated opening, the dining room at the refurbed Connaught is now home to French chef Helene Darroze, who is dividing her time between London & her two Michelin-starred Paris restaurant. The sumptuously furnished, wood-panelled dining room looks much as it did during Angela Hartnett's reign & it remains one of the few settings in the capital where it seems entirely appropriate to charge £75 for a three-course dinner. Two exquisite amuse bouche set the standard: perhaps a mousse-like foie gras creme brulee topped with apple sorbet. Ingredients are sourced at the highest level & much of the food references Darroze's native Landes. Elsewhere, the magic bursts through in a huge, sweet lobster raviolo warmly enlivened with tandoori spices, & unimpeachable spit-roast pigeon (although its accompaniments of confit turnips with lime & ginger seemed unpleasantly mismatched). But the main downside to eating here is that, having tackled myriad courses, irresistible breads & extras (including architectural chocolates), you may feel as over-stuffed as one of The Connaught's armchairs.