It’s so hard to get a table at restaurant Le Gavroche!  You need to phone up three months to the day before your intended date – over the past four years every time I’ve known three months ahead when I would be going to London I’ve called around noon and missed out!  But I got a table for this luncheon just ten days ago, through American Express’ Platinum Concierge service.

My expectations were set very high: this is a long-established, long-loved and long-time Michelin double-starred restaurant, noted for its classical French cuisine. And it has a chef/patron in Michel Roux jnr who’s gained celebrity status through his TV appearances, especially when he presented and judged ‘Masterchef – The Professionals’ on BBC TV.

The restaurant is in an almost anonymous building on Upper Brook Street, Mayfair. A smart young man in whites opened the door upon my approach and showed me into the ground floor bar area.  The dining room is downstairs, below ground, and without windows, so don’t expect anything bright and ultra-modern, but it’s not what I would describe as dull.  It looked quite traditional in a clubby kind of way, with carpets, white-dressed tables, pictures, mirrors and some beautiful flower arrangements.  Each table came with an animal figure sculpted from cutlery. Mine was a frog.  Also on the table were two

types of salt, plus pepper, and toothpicks.  It’s rare, but welcome, for a chef to ‘allow’ or even encourage seasoning of his dishes; I didn’t feel the need to.  The toothpicks were a surprise – they’re something I always use after eating, but I always have to ask for them.  To be honest, I enjoy asking for them in a French restaurant because the waiters always seem amazed a Brit knows the simple word “cure-dent” and they praise my command of French!

I took a while to read through the menus on offer: the “menu exceptionnel” (‘tasting menu’), A la Carte, and a lunch menu.  I was all set to go A la Carte, when I suddenly worried that it might be too heavy for me on a very warm spring day in London, so I revisited the lunch menu, which, at £70 for three courses, half a bottle of wine, mineral water and coffee appeared to offer a decent meal for less than a starter and main from A la Carte.

First I was brought canapés; two discs of lobster ballotine no bigger than a Pound coin, on “toast”, plus two tiny roasted chicken wigs with a light sweet glaze, which were very moreish. 8/10

Bread and butter were served, though I only had a little of my sourdough roll so as not to fill myself up.  The came an Amuse Bouche of a piece of chicken breast stuffed with foie gras on artichoke heart, which was good but too small to thoroughly enjoy. 7.5/10

My first course was ‘Parmesan risotto with pigeon liver and heart ragout and micro herbs’, which looked perfect. The risotto was rich and creamy, but IMHO the rice was a little under-done and just the wrong side of ‘al dente’ – a bit dry after biting.  The pigeon offal was very good and the few micro herbs were a good foil to the richness of the dish. 8.5/10

There’s a choice of four starters and four mains on the lunch menu. Unusually this menu is only written in French, though the waiter offers help when he tells you this. For my main I went for the “Maigret de Canard”. When it was revealed from under a silver cloche I was told “it’s finished in butter”, but I was left to guess how it was started – probably sous vide.  Two thick slices of a fat juicy breast were nicely pink and came served with charred baby gem lettuce, baby parsnips, a piece of Romano pepper, an excellent onion puree and a duck jus.  The duck was a little chewy, though not tough and the jus was robust and flavoursome without being too rich and heavy, if a little below temperature. It was a good plate of food, but I could have done with a little more veg to balance what was quite a lot of protein. 8/10

For my dessert I chose the “Glaces et Sorbets de la Maison” and I asked the sommelier to suggest a good dessert wine to accompany it. From a trolley at table-side, my waiter scooped up 6 one-spoon quenelles and presented them in a flower style on the plate.  I wasn’t told what flavours I’d got, but they all bursted with flavours and it wasn’t hard to identify vanilla, almond and date and white chocolate ice creams and cherry, orange and kiwi fruit sorbets. They were all very smooth and delicious. 9/10. And the German riesling kabinett was mineral-rich, subtly floral and worked very well indeed.

A selection of petit fours was presented with my coffee; a lovely candied physalis, a slim but nice and crunchy tuille, some kind of cake with a chocolate and a thin slice of apple on top, and a mini donut.  I was a little disappointed, but my double espresso was good – hot and strong.  I fancied a digestif so I ordered a Hennesy XO (£34) and another espresso.

The staff at Le Gavroche mostly appeared to be “at the top of their game”.  During service chef/patron Michel Roux Jnr. came out of the kitchen to speak to his guests, which brought smiles to everyone’s faces. Michel greeted everyone as if they were old friends and he enthusiastically agreed to my request for a photo. He really seemed to be a lovely man just oozing with friendliness, which suddenly made me view Le Gavroche very differently (better).  It’s not an arrogant, elitist, Michelin starred French institution, it’s a warm and friendly ‘neighbourhood’ restaurant!

For the food I was served I’m giving an overall score of 7.5/10, which is not very good for a 2-star restaurant.  I just found it quite uninspiring and ‘safe’ and I don’t think it reflected Springtime very well.  I sorely regret being seduced by the perceived  value of the lunch menu, and wish I’d gone A la Carte.  My total bill was £118, and one  of the things I really liked about Le Gavroche was that the prices on the menu already included service.  £118 for three courses plus appetisers and petit fours, half a bottle of decent wine, mineral water and coffee (with free refill) is very good value for a 2-star restaurant in Mayfair.  I just feel that if I had paid a bit more I would have had a better experience of what this famous restaurant is capable of.