La Trompette

La Trompette has been running for 22 years now. located just off the Chiswick High Road. It was the first Chiswick restaurant to gain a Michelin star. In charge of the kitchen is Greg Wellman, who was head chef of Glasshouse until it closed in late 2022. He took over in late 2022 from former head chef Rob Weston, who was head chef of The Square for 15 years after training at Guy Savoy. I wrote about the very good wine list at La Trompette in this earlier review. 

The dish of the night was roasted veal sweetbread with truffled almond pesto, celeriac and sherry vinegar. The sweetbread was very carefully cooked, almost crisp on the outside but fluffy and silky on the inside. The richness of the sweetbread was nicely balanced by the earthy celeriac and the sharpness of the vinegar, the other elements complemented by the almond pesto. This was a really lovely dish (comfortably 17/20).

Papardelle with morels, asparagus, wild garlic and Parmesan had hand rolled pasta with nice texture. It was right at the very start of the morel season in the UK roughly March – May) so the morels were not quite at their peak, and the same was true of the asparagus, though there was plenty of flavour in the wild garlic (14/20).

Rhubarb came with vanilla diplomat, crisp wafers and honey and stem ginger ice cream. This was a very enjoyable and seasonal dish, the ginger flavour working nicely with the rhubarb, and there being a pleasing textural contrast provided by the crisp wafers. The richness of the diplomat was nicely balanced by the natural acidity of the rhubarb (15/20).

The bill came to £219 per person, though that was with plenty of nice wine. The three course menu costs £77.50, so if you shared a modest bottle of wine between two then a typical cost per person might be around £110. Service was very good. La Trompette offers a desirable menu free of trendy cheffy flourishes and instead serves the kind of food that most people want to eat. The technical execution is very capable, and combine this with a fairly priced wine list and welcoming service and it is easy to see why the restaurant has prospered over 22 years, and seems as busy now as ever even in these challenging economic times.

Further reviews: 13th Oct 2024 | 17th Jul 2024 | 20th Sep 2022 | 03rd Jul 2021 | 24th Nov 2019 | 15th Oct 2018 | 08th Sep 2017 | 05th Jan 2017 | 11th Jul 2013 | 13th Dec 2012