Le Caprice

Pop up disaster

Le Caprice is part of Caprice Holdings, a restaurant group with some high profile restaurants such as The Ivy and J Sheekey. It is known to be a hang out spot for the rich and famous, a place to see and be seen. So it is no surprise that the Masterpiece Fair 2013, an art, design and antiques show in Chelsea (In short, an art fair for the super rich), selected Caprice Holdings as their main food partner. Having a Le Caprice pop up as the main restaurant  along with Scott's seafood bar and the Ivy cocktail bar at the fair.

Masterpiece Fair 2013

The restaurant is situated at the back of the event, very contemporary in design with live piano on the side. I must say it is very elegant for a pop up but too bad the food failed to deliver. I was given what has to be the worst bread basket in 2013, the bread was overly dry, lack texture and taste, I can find better bread in Tesco.... For the starter I had steak tartare, it was decent and the spices were at the right level, but the seasoning was a touch weak and the crispy bread on the side was rock solid, it wasn't even funny how bad it was...

fail bread...

steak tartare

A little better was the main: Herb roasted organic salmon with asparagus salad and herb mayonnaise. The salmon was cooked well, not too dry with a nice depth of richness and fat. The salad was fresh but it was overpowered by the sea of mayonnaise. Good salad doesn't need a big pile of mayonnaise and it should hold up on its own with the right level of dressing and seasoning with mayonnaise acting as a support act rather than killing the dish. The vanilla cheesecake with peaches was also weak, the peaches were sour and the cheesecake was no way near a fine dinning level.

Herb roasted organic salmon

vanilla cheesecake with peaches

I just can't believe how bad the food was, especially at the price it commands. Is it because it is just a pop up? But considering the types of people that are being served and the type of event it was, it just doesn't make sense to me. Service was also awful, getting the orders wrong and forgetting to provide spoons for desserts. I am afraid this was one of the weakest meals in 2013. If the real Le Caprice is of the same standard, I wonder how it is still trading.

Food 3
Service 2
Ambience 6
Value 2


http://www.le-caprice.co.uk/