(I don’t have a lot of detail on tasting notes since we had so many meals after this one before I started writing up all of my posts to catch up so I forgot a lot of it. Waah!)

This was the only restaurant I booked before we arrived here in London. I only picked this place because I remember when Buddha Lo was competing on Top Chef he mentioned that how much he admired the cooking of Clare Smyth and Hélène Darroze. We had such a fantastic time at CORE by Clare Smyth in January, that I figured why not give this place a try (you know, your random 3 Michelin star restaurant, lol).

We had a 6:30pm reservation, which was right when they opened, but since we arrived about 15 minutes early and since they weren’t open/ready, so they ushered us over to one of their 3 bars…one focused on cocktails, one on whiskey, and one on wine. We’re always game for cocktails so we headed there, but they were packed, so he took us to the nearby whiskey one (they do serve all of the same drinks at each of the bars anyway), and that was full as well, so we returned to the wine bar which was right next to the restaurant and they had space for us.

The ambiance was very nice and we were seated near the hearth with a little fire going. We ordered cocktails (can’t remember which ones) and some sparkling water. They provided some crisps and olives. We enjoyed the people watching and our just relaxing a bit although I was feeling a little anxious since we didn’t really check in to our reservation (they never asked our name), so I was getting a bit worried so we asked to transfer the bill to our dining tab and checked in, but wasn’t really much of a concern.

The menu options were the 7-course Taste of Autumn seasonal menu and an abbreviated 5-course which just excluded the Turbot and Fig courses from the 7-course. There were also some white truffle supplemental dishes available. I opted for the full 7-course menu, Andrea had the 5-course. There were two choices in the menu. For the first course, Andrea went with the Crab and I went with the Caviar supplement. For the meat course, I went with the Piglet and Andrea ordered the A5 Wagyu supplement. We also added the Cacklebean Egg “Tagliolini” and eyed the cheese supplment as well, but our waitperson said check in with us later in the meal to see if we still wanted it since there is a lot of food.

There were numerous offerings for beverage pairings – A Fresh Take on Pairing (non-alcoholic), A Tour Around the Wine World, A tribute to Hautvillers (champagnes), Great Classics Never Fade (with supplements available) and The Ultimate Wine Experience. I went with the Great Classics 7-course wine pairing and Andrea had the 5-course Ultimate with supplements (care to add a 2008 DRC Echézeaux for £650 and a 2014 Petrus for £550?).

The meal started with a broth and a trio of amuse bouche beautifully made. Our first course was the Caviar for me and the Crab for Andrea. The caviar was kaluga (my favorite) from Thousand Islets Lake in China was set atop a bit of langoustine. The crab dish used txangurro spider crab sourced from Davrik in Cornwall and also featured kohlrabi and green apple.

Next course was the Beetroot. The beets were sourced from Eastfield Farm in West Sussex and were set in a creme fraiche sauce with roe and topped with a beautiful birdsnest made of white kombu.

Then came our supplemental pasta course. This featured a twirl of tagliolini pasta topped with a soft egg yolk. This was topped with shaved white truffle from Alba which was very fresh and aromatic.

We were then served some bread and butter. Bread was hearty and the butter was extruded to look like an anemone or a koosh ball, lol, but it was very good.

The lobster dish featured pieces of lobster tail and claw with a sauce and a carrot puree with tandoori spices. I didn’t really like these flavors with the lobster, but I am generally a purist and prefer a simple preparation myself.

For my turbot course, the fish was wrapped in a roll of swiss chard. Sauce included cockles and Paimpol coco bean which is specific semi-dry haricot ben from Brittany, France.

For our final savory course, Andrea’s wagyu was from the Gunma Prefecture (don’t think we’ve even heard of that one) and was so evenly cooked I wondered if it was sous vide (I’ve never grilled a steak that evenly cooked).

My pork was served with a sauce and topped with a section of charred Tropea onion. On the side there was plum and a quenelle of a blended plum mixture.

We were definitely way too full to have cheese, so we just moved on to dessert. First we had a palette cleanser followed by the fig dessert. This was a whole round section of a fig surrounded by a crust basket. On the side were sauces that includede espelette

Andrea’s supplemental dessert dessert was their Signature Baba, which is the rum cake. The “signature” part of this is the choice of which vintage Armagnac to be poured over the cake. There was a choice of three evenly spaced out vintages – 2005, 1995, and 1985. Andrea, of course, went for the oldest one, 1985. Along with the rum cake, there was some raspberries, raspberry sorbet, and some whipped cream.

My dessert was the Chocolate, which had Mekonga chocolate from Vietnam served as a mousse and a sauce with some ice cream.

After dessert, we were asked if we wanted to visit the kitchen which of course we did. They were very focused on their prep so we were only greeted perfunctorily. When we returned to our table, we were given the migardise which consisted of a curry(?) flavored puff and a truffle. In addition, we were given a of couple small packages with canelés for us to enjoy later.

https://www.the-connaught.co.uk/restaurants-bars/helene-darroze-at-the-connaught