Regional French Perfection....well almost!

Helene Darozze at the Connaught is one of those restaurants that seems to be a bit of a paradox. One thing by night at dinner, whilst a totally different proposition during the day at lunch. I have been lucky enough to experience both there in the last couple of weeks. My dinner experience was first. I went with very high expectations, perhaps a little too high as it turned out.

The a la carte dinner is £75 a head for three courses, which in itself is expensive but not overly so at this level. Dishes on the carte are presented in French and English, with the predominantly French staff all too eager to explain to you the details.

The wine list is the biggest I have come across, and of course is loaded with every great wine and vintage from around the world. The prices are also the highest I have come across in London (maybe even anywhere). You certainly need deep pockets if you want anything with a reputation. We had a bottle of Lynch Bages 1998 which at around £300 was pushing the realms of reality. However, I took the view that to fully enjoy the food I had to have a bottle that also could live at the same high standards.

The dinning room is a modern art deco masterpiece. Comfy armchairs, sexy lighting and some fabulous Hermes china that a female dinning companion will want to take away with you. Overall the restaurant is a serious player on the London dinning scene.

We both enjoyed the meal immensely but for some reason left feeling something was missing. This may have been compounded by the fact that we had just paid almost £600 for dinner. The food was annoyingly good, the wine excellent, décor second to none in London. Yes, the price was expensive but tolerable given the wine we had ordered. So why did I not feel on top of the world?

Well, it’s all down to the ambiance that is created in the dinning room itself, which quite simply, is guilty of trying too hard. The staff, which are clearly knowledgeable, provide faultless service, but it’s all too cold and stuffy. This, combined with the touch of distain from the sommelier whenever he spoke left an unfulfilled empty feeling as we left. All this despite having enjoyed some of the best food I have been fortunate enough to eat anywhere in the world.

So a couple of weeks later I found myself again at Helene Darrozze, only this time for lunch with a colleague. This time I was very surprised, and I have to say pleased, that I experienced a much more relaxed affair. The stuffiness and overbearing formalities are not there at lunchtime. All that remains is the exquisite food, the quality of the wine and a complete dinning experience that I have yet to better. At lunchtime, Helene Darozze is without doubt the full package.

I had the line caught calamari, followed by crusted hake rounded off with a mouth watering rhubarb compote. This was washed down with a glass of white and a glass of red selected by a much more amiable sommelier. The famous jars of petty fours where wheeled over with the tea and coffee and it was as much as we could do to control ourselves from asking for the lot!

So what do we make of a restaurant such as this. The ambiance lets dinner down badly. Yes, dinner is expensive, especially when you add in the wine, water and coffee but the food is that good. However the evening service team could learn a lot from the lunch team in terms of creating a warm friendly dinning atmosphere. My recommendation would be to go for lunch and then decide if you want to go the extra mile for dinner. The three courses and two glasses of wine for £42 is great value, especially when you consider the quality of the food and the location. The atmosphere is nice and relaxed and there is none of the stuffiness associated with dinner. Lunch is the real deal, if they can emulate the ambiance created at lunch in the evening this restaurant is a serious contender for best in the city.