Living the fast paced London lifestyle, days pass by and dusks turn to dawn within a blink of an eye. This often means I don’t get the chance to catch up with my closest friends as often as I would like to. Sometimes you have to specifically set aside parts of your day for quality time over lunch, dinner, a drink or even a weekend walk through one of the Royal London parks.
I hadn’t seen Angie for some time, especially with the new year in full swing meaning lots of travels and events to attend. We decided to schedule in lunch on one dreary, wet afternoon and lift our spirits with the colourful French delights served at Les 110 de Taillevent. Prior to visiting, I had great things about the food and service of Les 110 de Taillevent. Stemming from its sister restaurant in Paris, it eventually hopped over to make its debut in the big smoke too.
We kicked off our lunch the only way we know how, with a glass of bubbles. We were served up a glass of Frerejean Freres Premier Cru Brut, before we clinked glasses to reuniting after some time. Quality time between two friends at its best.
Whilst we looked through the menu and started to catch up, we were brought over some lovely soft cheesy choux buns. I love anything with cheese in, so they went down a treat.
Our waitress suggested we have a wine pairing with our meal, so we agreed to enjoy what we saved as a lovely afternoon out of the rain.
I started with duck foie-gras mi cuit, which was served with mango and passion fruit and toasted brioche. I like the contrasting and exotic flavours from the fruits compared with the rich and salty foie-gras, but it was a little too salty for me so I couldn’t finish it.
My starter was paired with a glass of Francois Chidaine Montlouis Les Choisilles, quite citric with green apple notes.
Angie ordered the starter of dreams. I had a little try of hers and was rather envious that I didn’t order the heritage artichoke with capers, anchovies, garlic and mayonnaise. The dish was creamy and the artichoke was soft and delicious.
We ordered the spelt lobster risotto which was served in a lobster bisque as a midway dish between our starters and main courses. I fell in love with this dish, I couldn’t stop eating it. Especially for someone that doesn’t normally like seafood, the lobster was so delicious and the bisque was extremely flavoursome. The addition of the spelt risotto made it really hearty on a cold day. I think I would go back to Les 110 de Taillevent for this particular dish alone.
There was a serving of Palette Wine from Chateau Simone that was served with our lobster risotto.
For our mains, I ordered the Scottish strip loin lamb which was served with potatoes filled with slow cooked lamb shoulder inside served with soft goat’s cheese and a gorgeous, rich lamb jus to finish it off. I had the lamb cooked medium-well and it was absolutely divine. I’m normally like meat to be well done, but I think if it was cooked anymore, it wouldn’t be at its prime.
The lamb dish was served with a deep ruby red wine, Côtes du Rhône: ‘Mon Coeur’, with rich dark berry notes.
Angie carried on the theme of lobster into her main course and ordered the lobster with glazed root vegetables and tarragon before being finished off with a red wine bisque.
We made our way through to the desserts and both of us had been eyeing up the chocolate dessert, but we both thought we would be good and try something a little less calorific. I ordered the coco mango, which was coco mousse served with fresh mango, exotic fruit coulis and a divine coconut sorbet.
I was served a glass of Domaine de Juchepie Coteaux du Layon dessert wine which compliments fruits in a dessert really well.
Angie ordered the totally Instagrammable calamansi lemon dome which was served with passion fruit, meringue shortbread, tequila and lime sorbet inside. I had a taste of it and it was absolutely delicious, lovely and tangy yet sweet. You can’t go wrong with a lemon flavoured dessert.
As we finished our desserts, we were told by our waitress that we had two bonuses desserts being sent out by the kitchen for us to try. Angie and I just looked at each other in shock because we couldn’t eat another bite. However, we did have a spoonful each of the desserts to try them at least.
The first dessert happened to me the chocolate dessert Angie and I had been eyeing up, so it was nice to be able to try it after all. The chocolate is made with caramelia chocolate, guanaja chocolate mousse, fleur de sel salt, chocolate sablé crumble and cocoa sorbet.
The final dessert was a chestnut entrement with chestnuts and chocolate. It resembled a moist cake that had been hardened a little, quite unique I must say, but it was still very good.
Overall, we had an amazing meal at Les 110 de Taillevent, the food was to die for and the service was second to none. It being so centrally located in Marylebone, it makes it easy to access from all over central London. Whether you’re coming for a business lunch or a catch up with friends, Les 110 de Taillevent won’t disappoint.
Until next time…
