THE SQUARE
The Square has recently lost its 2 Michelin stars and in our opinion for the high standard of food and the high level of service, they should still have been able to keep at least one of their Michelin stars. We have been to so many Michelin restaurants and this one definitely is as good, if not better than a lot of them. They lost their Michelin star this year when Philip Howard stepped down as chef after 25 years. And the French restaurant has also changed hands and now is owned by Marlon Abela, whose company also owns one of our favourites The Greenhouse. We don't see it being long before they get their Michelin star back, so watch this space.
The Chef creates some incredibly attractive dishes, and a lot of thought goes into the design of the plates and dishes. Combined with some truly unique and new flavour combinations alongside incredible cuts of meat, cooked to perfection this screams out Michelin through and through.
Not everyone of these flavours were to our taste but the chef has the conviction to be daring, which is what is needed in our ever evolving London food revolution. Too many restaurants play it safe and are just too “samey”.
The main element that lets this restaurant down is its lack of atmosphere. It is a reasonably large restaurant and in our opinion they should just dim the lights a little and play some quiet background music, even if it is only at the beginning of the evening when the restaurant is not so full.
However we must give some recognition to the waiters, their impeccable service is a credit to their whole industry.
The offer was on Bookatable at £55 for 5 courses, which is really a fantastic offer for the restaurant, especially as the a la carte prices are well over double that. This is the first time we have seen an offer for this restaurant, as they don't usually offer them, so definitely take advantage while you can.
To start they served us with a Pizzette filled with ricotta and olives, along with a tiny ice cream cone filled with Foie Gras and a small roll of cured duck ham, which were all great.
Next they serviced us with some lovely and warm Caraway seed bread and choice of either saffron butter or oyster seaweed butter.
Next came and amuse bouche of Celery with soy foam, which had an interesting flavour.
Then we were served some more warm bread, this time it was a choice between mini baguette, wholemeal roll or Mustard and Cheddar which was excellent.
For starters we had New Seasons Sardinian Tomatoes, with basil, deep fried artichoke that had some of its leaves deep fried like crisps and some were pickled which were fabulous, topped with parmesan.
The Pressed Pigs head starter with mustard foam, tarragon and gribiche“was not exactly what it said on the box”, it actually came served looking like a diced vegetable salad and the pigs head was not recognisable. It would have been better if it had been named something else so not to disappoint guests that imagined some kind of sliced pig head !!
For Mains we had the Barbecued Scottish Rib-eye beef, served with kidney beans, cedra, and mint Half the diners thought it was too salty whereas the other half of diners thought it was fabulous. It was a really beautiful cut of beef. So its the old adage “you cant please all of the people all of the time!!” It was also served with some duck liver which was a nice unexpected addition. Red kidney beans with onions came in a separate copper pot which was an unusual accompaniment but it worked.
We then were served a pre-dessert, palette cleanser of Mango Sorbet foam with Goji berries and Yoghurt.
Dessert again was unusual combinations of flavours, Sicilian blood orange with caramelised pecan chiboust, and burnt rosemary, not all flavours were to our taste but others were fantastic and it was a very pretty design and overall a nice enough dish.
We give this restaurant for its service and food 7.5/10, some points were taken off due to lack of atmosphere
The Square
6-10 Bruton Street,
Mayfair,
London
W1J 6PU
Tel: 020 7495 7100
Email: office@squarerestaurant.com
Website: http://www.squarerestaurant.com