La Dame de Pic London

Make or break?

Edible lime leafs

Another high profile oversea chef setting up a shop in London, this time in the name of Anne-Sophie Pic at the Four season Hotel at 10 Trinity Square. Anne is a true celebrity chef back in France, with her flagship restaurant "Anne-Sophie Pic" reaching 3 Michelin stars status. The problem is, London hasn't really been a happy place for high profile oversea chefs in the last few years, Celeste (by French heavy weight Eric Frechon, holder of 3 Michelin stars at Epicure in Paris) failed to get a handful of bookings in the evenings despite the high quality of the cooking and Ametsa (by the same team behind the 3 Michelin starred Arzak in Spain) had to run constant promotion to attract customers. Here, will La Dame de Pic suffer similar fate? The menu at La Dame de Pic is your typical fine dining restaurant format, tasting menu, a la carte and a reasonable priced lunch menu, taking some of the dishes from the a la carte menu.

Cheese and coconut amuse bouche

Berlingots Pasta: parcels with lightly smoked Pélardon cheese

Halibut, carrots and saffron

I opted for the weekend lunch menu, it kicked off with a lovely cheese and coconut amuse bouche. Never could I have imagined, a cheese based dish could be describe as light and refreshing. Anne's signature dish, pasta parcels with lightly smoked Pélardon cheese was a fun and eye pleasing dish. The pasta was infused with matcha which offered an earthy tone to balance off the rich taste of the cheese filling. The 2nd course of halibut was a colourful summery dish, the fish was moist but it could had done with a touch more seasoning. But it worked fine with the mimolette saffron sauce and the smoked carrot element added depth. The Challans chicken was a perfectly executed dish, the combo of sake, Gilou lemon and razor clam garnish worked extremely well to bring out the fresh taste of the tender chicken, it was fair to say it was as good as you can ask for from a chicken dish.

Challans Chicken: Marinated in sake, hispi cabbage with razor clams

Kalingo Chocolate, herb ice cream

Almond and violette Ice cream and light Tonka bean foam

The White Millefeuille

The lunch was a very enjoyable experience. The service was also pretty solid. Just what you would expect from a fine dining restaurant inside such a luxury hotel. The quality of the cooking at La Dame de Pic London was outstanding, the dishes involved some serious technical skill and some fine French ingredients. it wouldn't be a surprise to see if gets a Michelin star in the next edition. However, what could be the real challenge is to attract diners. For some reason, hotel fine dining by oversea chefs just doesn't seem to be working out for so many places. There were only 5 tables in the entire lunch service on my visit, it seemed just good cooking alone can't guarantee you success. 



Food 4/5

What I paid: 
£78 per head with a cocktail

Average cost without drinks and services:
£39 weekday lunch menu
£105 tasting menu

Four Seasons Hotel at Ten Trinity Square, 10 Trinity Square, London EC3N 4AJ, UK

http://ladamedepiclondon.co.uk/