The Legendary -” The Ritz Restaurant London”

At first, I hesitated to book a table in this restaurant because I didn’t want only old school decoration but also good quality of food and ambience. Also , most people mainly talked about the afternoon tea experience here but less about dining, i was worried it would be a typical “traditional hotel” trap. Finally, I decided to give a try and it turned out to be the best decision I ever made during my recent few trips to London. It’s worth every penny and time to spend a wonderful evening here. And I would recommend a real dining experience here than an afternoon tea if you have time.

The Ritz Restaurant is a Michelin-starred restaurant located in The Ritz Hotel in Piccadilly in London. The Ritz London is a 5-star hotel in London but also one of the world’s most prestigious and best known hotels. The hotel was first opened in 1906 and went through different renovation and takeover through all these years till now. Just because it’s Micheline-starred doesn’t mean it’s a good restaurant as I did find some restaurants perform better overall with less or without stars as ultimately the whole experience is subjective towards different people. But I confirm this restaurant deserved better than the star it’s already received.

The hotel is conveniently located in a nice shopping district and very close to the Green Park. From outside, the hotel looks like a historical building which gives a perception that the hotel is of quite high privacy as you cannot even see the lobby through the ground floor hotel windows. But from the moment I stepped out of my car, I started to experience the very high quality services from the hotel. The gentlemen at the main entrance came to open the door of my car and escort me to get off. Then he showed us the way to get to our restaurant. I was not much impressed from outside the main entrance but once I stepped inside the main lobby, my eyes didn’t have time to blink. The main lobby was not big but it’s quite elegantly set up. I especially like the stairs stood on one side of the main hallway. Just a side note, the powder room is very beautifully set up with a pink tone. There’s a sofa area inside the powder that you don’t feel rush and you can take your time to powder up or settle your handbags. I couldn’t enter the cloakroom but Jean told me it’s quite cozy and big inside. Btw, just in case you forget to bring your tie, they offer a tie rental service just in case.

Finally, we were seated by our reserved table. The restaurant is very elegantly set up with floor to ceiling window overseeing a very peaceful garden outside. The chamber is quite spacious too. We realise here is quite fully booked always and you have to preselect your dining options during your reservation as they preset the table based on your dining option before you got seated. You could go for pre-show light meals, set menu or a la carte. I don’t like to pre-select as I prefer to pick what I like based on our appetite and ambience on the day so I chose a la carte when I made the reservation. Once we were seated, we were given the big menu and the “bible of wine”. The bible of wine is seriously thick (as thick as the one we read in La Tour D’Argent in Paris but slightly less vintage options as LTDA’s basement wine cellar and wine list is still unbeatable so far in my little cents and perception – i didn’t do the actual measurement though)

The Staff here are of top quality. When we were chatting with them about wine selection and also about the food, they were truly experts about what ingredients they were picking, cooking method here versus conventional way, and how different characteristics of wine to pair with what we ordered. A side note, they have expertise in different aspects, for wine, there was a dedicated staff while for food, it came with another expert staff. So , one person could be expert in one thing (seems like) which is definitely alright in my perspective as we enjoyed so much our chat with each individual for different topics.

Besides the decoration, I love also the utensils and table setting. For opening our wine, the staff is treating it very well. Carefully handling the opening, pouring the wine to the decanter above the lighted candle, properly set up the table for our candle light meal. Indeed come back in time to serve our wine every time we need.

Now, I started to talk about the food.

Appetizer :

Langoustine : Very Fresh and perfect texture. I don’t like those overcooked normally but this one was made just right. It’s crunchy outside while soft inside. The sauce was able to bring out the freshness of the seafood. Overall I gave it a 80% score.

Fois Gras Terrine : Its very rich in taste while texture remains solid. We like to do our own sous vide terrine at home with different liquor. This one was really great and we so want to learn the tricks to arrive this mixed taste. I gave it a 90% score.

Main Course :

Beef Wellington : I was quite skeptical first when Jean was obsessed to order this. I prefer medium rare streak as more juicy and less chewy and I kept worrying about our choice of beef wellington. Ok, it finally arrived. Interestingly, the waiter was pushing a food trolley towards us. When he opened the ceramic plate cover, it lied with a “pineapple look” crispy big “egg” on the plate. It looks quite cute as if an ostrich egg size object there but the smell was so good. Then the waiter explained about this crispy egg and put it on the wooden chopping board to prepare it for serving. I was a bit nervous how the meat would look like as I told you earlier. When he first cut off the ends and my eyes kept focusing on the centre of meat, I could not believe my eyes, oh my god, seriously, the centre was perfectly done as medium rare as I wanted while the covering pastry was so crispy. After the waiter put in on the plate, he added the sauce and the purree to make it look perfect to serve. When I cut it, I just kept nodding my head and then I started to work on it. It was marvellous! The taste was perfect, meat was tender , temperature was at best, rich flavour, pastry was well layered. I didn’t expect this “look great” restaurant would be able to deliver this dish far beyond expectation. I gave it a 100% score as it’s seriously the best beef wellington I tried after all (I may not try all you tried, so just among my limited sampling size experiences 🙂 ). I would highly recommend this dish if you plan a dining experience here. Beef Wellington

Dessert:

Crepes Suzzette : We were quite full after the main course but indeed I love crepe suzette so much and would like to try here too. We have been dining for quite long time here as we enjoyed so much while some tables next to us have left already though we arrived the same time lol. Interesting enough, the waiter already cleaned up and reset the table next to us, but suddenly he came to re-set the table again and put a ceramic tea pot with cups and some flower on it, I wonder, seriously , are you going to set up for tomorrow morning? But they only did it for one table but not the rest. And then I observed another waiter came out pushing a food trolley with a pan and some crepe suzette ingredients and finally stopped the trolley just in front of this reset table. So sweet, they wanted to set up properly the table behind as a background scene for us to enjoy his performance of cooking the crepes suzette for us. What a lovely detail. He had been explaining the story of crepe suzette and then explained every step he did while preparing the dessert. Every step was very dedicated and indeed I enjoyed the most “the fire scene” as usual and I love so much the liquor fragrance. The waiter carefully prepared the settings of the dessert and served on our table with a vanilla ice cream 🙂 . OK, what I was concerned at this moment was ” would the crepes be too soft after he played for long time in the sauce ?!?” , quite skeptical eyes I had. Ok, I was tasting it finally and to my surprise when the crepes were swimming so long time in the orange juice and liquor, it was still keeping a chewing texture. Great, it passed and exceed the expectation! The fragrance was so good and I love so much to have this dessert as the finale of the meal (of course there were some Pettit fours as usual at the very last). I gave it 90% score.

I forgot to mention, from around 8pm onwards, on top of live piano, there was also a live singer there. She sang very well and matched perfectly the elegant dining ambience here. Overall, the staff here were super attentive, helpful, knowledgable, talkative (I meant not just talk but conversational with us on various topics about food, and they know about the gourmet industry well and not just about their own restaurants), experienced, serving perfectly but not overdoing, very friendly and comfortable to talk with , casual while remains luxurious experiences. To be honest, for top quality services, it’s not only about they can serve you food or just explain what’s on their menu, the practical experiences and how knowledgable they are would brings your own dining experiences to the next level. I am glad they have these great quality of staff here to maintain top quality services as not every Michelin-stared restaurant could be equipped with staff of this level. This is more than just Michelin but about an overall legendary and upscale hotel experience.