From Trafalgar Square to South Kensington

Saturday, December 07th , 2024

Bibendum has a particularly airy and pretty dining room, and these days also has two Michelin stars with executive chef Claude Bosi at the helm. The restaurant has a relatively new head chef, the previous one having moved to the excellent Brooklands, and my Bibendum meal was rather less consistent than my previous one here. It was a pity to see a combination of increased prices yet with a lowering of ingredient quality in some cases. For example, the duck jelly dish had a £45 supplement, the chicken dish a £75 supplement and even the souffle had a £15 supplement. Yet that lovely duck jelly dish now had a lower-quality caviar that it used to have, so how is such a high supplement justified? There is of course a lot of skill on display here, but high prices (£578 a head with modest wine) should be accompanied by highest quality ingredients and consistency.

Gouqi is a high-class Chinese restaurant just off Trafalgar Square. Its chef has a superb background and the Chinese food here is as good as anything that you can find in London. The technical skill on display here is high and the service is attentive. It is not cheap compared to somewhere in Chinatown, but the results in the plate seem to me to justify the price.