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London,
David Sexton's rating
Reader rating
Description:
Phone: 020 7316 1600
It’s got to be butter: executive chef William Drabble
The wedding-cake St James’s Hotel and Club is part of the “Althoff Hotel Collection”, a German luxury group.Althoff boasts on its website that “no other German hotel group has been awarded such a high amount of Michelin stars” and it is clearly a rating that matters to them supremely. That’s why they originally opened the St James’s last year with such an absurdly ostentatious restaurant as Andaman by Dieter Muller — Muller being the three-star chef from Althoff’s flagship Schlosshotel Lerbach near Cologne.
Last September I reviewed the Andaman tasting menu — four small, complicated platefuls for £55 — and thought it truly a distasteful way to eat: absurdly fussy, ostentatious and overpriced. I don’t usually take pictures when reviewing but, provoked, we photographed all the dozen or so courses and they have remained on my iPod ever since, occasionally shown around as a benchmark of restaurant horror.
Andaman, which launched at the height of the credit crunch, is no more. Instead, last Friday we found ourselves sitting in the same room, now renamed Seven Park Place by William Drabble.
Drabble cooked at Aubergine for 10 years, after taking it over from Gordon Ramsay in 1998, and managed to hold on to its Michelin star. So he was an obvious acquisition for the hotel group after its bruising experience with Andaman.
As it happened, we were guided to the same booth we had sat in a year ago, though this time, thanks to ongoing renovations, there was the thrum of a generator in the street outside and the lights kept flickering rather disturbingly.
An unannounced amuse-gueule came first, a chilled little square of seared tuna and a superfluous dollop of cream: inoffensive but unexciting. Once you’ve tasted great tuna sashimi, its appearance in more ornate guises seems a bit pointless.
Both starters were winners, though. Baked fillet of red mullet with seared squid, mullet liver sauce and sage beignet was a biggish piece of fish, cooked just right, without the muddiness or over-meatiness of some red mullet. The few drops of buttery sauce were pleasant if not strongly flavoured by the fish’s liver.
Tortellini of lobster with roasted cauliflower and truffle butter sauce was a really luscious plateful, one big, bright yellow open parcel of pasta, containing lots of lobster claw meat. Pasta doesn’t get more sinful.
We were feeling fully buttered up already but there was more to come. Fillet of turbot, fricassee of langoustines and girolles with baby leeks was another good piece of expensive fish, swamped in a buttery sauce. Again, all very flavoursome and unctuous, but hitting the luxury note just too insistently for comfort.
Assiette of veal with Madeira jus was a mistaken order on my part. I was dimly anticipating a nice plate of roast veal, when I should have been forewarned by the ominous word “assiette”. But it was a mistake, too, on the part of the menu-writer and the waiter, at this level of service and luxury, not to have been a little bit more forthcoming.
An oblong plate arrived bearing three little mounds, united by a dark, Madeira sauce. On the right were two roundels of veal loin stacked on top of a little bed of spinach. In the middle was a circle of dark, well-braised but still densely fibrous tongue on a rich mash. On the left was a chunk of breadcrumbed and fried sweetbread, again on spinach. This is not at all my idea of enjoyable, well-balanced food, although I wouldn’t fault the execution.
An excellent plate of British cheeses was served with a small glass of fine, deep Jacques Mestre Chateauneuf du Pape (£12.50). The wine list is so greedily extortionate it must count on customers simply not minding at all about price. We drank an agreeable screw-top bottle of Bourgogne Chardonnay from the excellent Vincent Girardin, charged at £35.
The service is formal, obsequious, a bit patronising and over-attentive, especially when it extended to officiously pouring the last of the Hildon water (£5.20 a bottle) into the remnants of a glass of Muscat de Frontignan (£6.50), still being enjoyed. It would be hard for anybody with any idea of casual enjoyment to feel at all comfortable here. The truly well-off usually don’t want to feast so heavily, preferring the kind of excellent simplicity cheerfully dished up at The Ivy or The Wolseley.
Seven Park Place by William Drabble is certainly a great improvement on Andaman by Dieter Muller but we again left feeling uncomfortable in more ways than one. We paid £167.85: glutted and gutted.
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
i recenty visted seven park place with some freinds for a early birthday for a meal. To say i was more then happy with everything that we had to eat and drink. we where well looked after during the meal and after the meal we all highly recommend it
- Matthew Rice, ipswich
For a restaurant housing so few covers, isn't it amazing how many Standard readers have already visited Seven Park Place?
With such a loyal fanbase, surely it won't go the same way as Muller's car crash of a venture. Unless these people are part of some orchestrated campaign to undermin... Nah, it's hardly worth even considering.
- Paul Worthing, London
I have been a huge fan of Mr Drabble's cooking for many years now and was too surprised by the reviewer's comments. I ate at seven park place last week and found the food absolutely delicious. Service was excellent and the interiors beautiful.
I could not recommend the restaurant more highly and will most definatlely be returning in the near future. A real treat, and glad to see Mr Drabble has returned to producinghis best cooking again since leaving The Aubergine. An excellent move in my opinion!!
- David, london
I am a frequent diner at the St James's Hotel and Club and am suprised by Mr Saxton's review. The food has always been very enjoyable and since the arrival for William Drabble the food has been excellent. I have had my best meals at Seven Park Place.
I am also unclear as to why Mr Saxton would dwells on the past, is this not supposed to be a current review.
I am very impressed with the food at Seven Park Place and this has been confirmed by other reviews of the restaurant. A definate must when in London in terms of fine dining.
- Klaas Van Beek, London
I am currently staying at the hotel and I recieved the ES. I was amzed when I read the review of Seven Park Place and didn't recognise it as the same restaurant I ate in last Saturday and last night. Like in New York the so called Food critics get it wrong so many times and do not understand what us normal guys enjoy. The restaurant is awesome!!! You have to try the Lamb and the Lobster as a starter. You guys living in London don't know how lucky you are. I will be back with my friends!!!
- Peter, New York - London, New York - London
My wife and I have enjoyed Drabbles's cooking at Aubergine for years, this move to Seven Park Place returns his cooking to the best years at Aubergine. So if you fondly remember Aubergine of four or five years ago prior to "changes in ownership" then you are going to love the cooking now at Seven'. The finest produce cooked with unpretentious honestly.
Not everything on the menu is as "rich" as our reviewer here describes it. Its easy to find balance if you desire something lighter.
The service... is err.. Capitol!
Oh and my wife's view, she said .. "Tell them to try the Lamb!"
- Steve, London
I booked a special anniversary dinner for my wife and I at Seven Park Place only last week as we're fans of Billy Drabble and he certainly didn't disappoint! The food was excellent as was the service and I thought the restaurant was intimate, warm and cosy - ideal for a romantic dinner!
- Peter Sharpe, London
I went to Seven Park Place with my husband last night and loved it. The interiors are fabulous and the food utterly delicious. I would highly recommend it.
- Jenny Hayes, London
