review of French restaurant The Ritz in Piccadilly by Andy Hayler in March 2025

I have written previously about the background to The Ritz restaurant, its principal chefs (led by executive chef John Williams and head chef Deepak Mallya) and also its extensive wine list. The glorious dining room dates back to 1906, all gilt, marble, mirrors and thick carpeting.

The meal began with some tried and tested canapes. The version of coronation chicken at the Ritz comes wrapped in a sugar tuile cylinder. Chicken is mixed with curry powder and salt, steamed and then chilled. This is then mixed with spices, coconut cream, mayonnaise, coriander, raisins and mango chutney. This is then wrapped in a sugar tuile seasoned with coconut, curry and espelette pepper, the ends being dipped in toasted breadcrumbs. The result is a lovely blend of flavours, the delicate tuile disintegrating on the tongue. A regular canape here is duck liver parfait with sour cherry and gingerbread, the richness of the liver nicely balanced by the sharpness of the sour cherry. Another old favourite was Ragstone cheese mousse with wood-roasted pepper and basil roasted on a sable base, the mousse smooth in texture and the base of the canape delicate.

Further canapes were a croustade of beef tartare with a Savora mustard emulsion and nasturtium, topped with a shallot crumb that had been cooked in foaming butter. A vegetarian alternative was croustade of wild mushroom and artichoke puree, topped with the same shallot crumb. There was also a tartlet of smoked sea trout that had been cured in a citrus salt and then gently smoked, diced and bound with lemon zest and lemon juice, fresh grated horseradish, fresh dill and dill pickle gel. This was topped with trout roe and served in a pate de brick tartlet case. These were high-class canapes (average 18/20).

Potato Vichysoisse was a classical soup made with shallots, garlic, onion, celery, leeks, bay leaf and a vegetable nage, reduced and then thickened with diced potato. The soup was then finished with an intense wild garlic puree, and served with a Comte cheese gougere on the side. The soup was velvety smooth and had great intensity of flavour, and the gougere was a successful pairing with it (17/20).

Langoustines a la nage is a signature dish here. The langoustines today, displayed live before cooking, were particularly large, the biggest being 380g in weight. Langoustines that usually turn up in London restaurants are rarely more than about half this weight. The langoustines rest on a bed of Cornish vegetables, cauliflower puree and bronze fennel, with a herb nage poured over the dish. The langoustine tails were lightly poached in butter and had lovely natural sweetness, complemented by the vegetables and the herbs of the nage. The balance of this dish is lovely, and the large langoustines were beautifully cooked (19/20).

A couple of different meat pies were the main course. A game pie was made with wild game from the Yattendon Estate and included hare, partridge and rabbit that had been marinated with Madeira and port and then bound with a reduced game stock, finished with duck liver wrapped in puff pastry. The pastry was superbly delicate and the game had bags of flavour, enriched by the stock. There was also a venison pithivier, which used braised venison shoulder bound with the reduced braising liquor, finished with finely diced root vegetables. On the side was salt-baked kohlrabi, poached William’s pear, morel fricassee and French white asparagus. The meat again had excellent depth of flavour, the richness balanced by the superb white asparagus and the acidity from the pear. On the side, dried morels were plump and had plenty of flavour, while the white asparagus was absolutely superb, tender and gorgeous. It is hard to imagine what could be a lot better than the execution of this pithivier, along with its classy side dishes (19/20). A vegetarian variant was a pithivier of confit potato and Comte cheese served with the same white asparagus as well as a lovage emulsion, celeriac and vin jaune sauce, and this was also excellent.

Apple and marigold pre-dessert had apples compressed in mint, apple and lime juice, bound in apple gel and fresh mint with an apple and marigold sorbet. Although this was certainly refreshing, I am not sure that the flavours of the mint and marigold are not unnecessarily adding a level of complexity to the dish, which for me might be better just with the apple left to tell its own story (16/20).

The final dessert was a chocolate tart. This had a chocolate tart shell, and on the bottom of the tart was a mix of hazelnut praline and feuilletine, covered with a chocolate mousse made with Ritz’s own signature chocolate, sea salt, grated chocolate and milk ice cream. The latter was certainly welcome as the dish would be too rich without the ice cream, but for me the texture of the tart was just a touch drier than ideal. It was still a lovely rich dish, but perhaps could be tweaked a touch (17/20).

The meal concluded with a trio of petit fours. There was a dark chocolate and hazelnut praline, salted caramel, a vanilla macaroon and a raspberry pate de fruit. These were very well made, the pate de fruit avoiding the dryness that can often afflict this concoction, while the macaroon had very good texture and the chocolate was very good (17/20). There was also a custom-made chocolate bar to take away, which was a nice touch. I had an excellent pineapple infusion flavoured with vanilla, the infusions made tableside with some theatrical dry ice to enliven proceedings.

Service was superb throughout the meal, and the bill came to £323 each, with the menu being £193 and the rest being drinks. The Ritz offers many menus, and you could eat for considerably less than this if you went for a short menu and ordered carefully from the wine list- maybe £160 is a typical cost if you are careful what you order. As of 2025, The Ritz finally has the two Michelin stars that it has long deserved, and is for me the best all-round restaurant in London.

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