If you’ve read my previous post about Le Louis XV in Monaco, you’ll already know how much my husband and I love Alain Ducasse’s restaurants.
We’ve eaten at Le Louis XV in Monaco a few times now and have always loved it. Our first visit was just a couple of days after our wedding and we enjoyed it so much that we returned again. After having such a good experience in Monaco, we were really interested to see what his London restaurant would be like and whether we would notice any similarities between the two.
Alain Ducasse at The Dorchester has three Michelin stars and is situated inside The Dorchester on Park Lane. We went for dinner to celebrate our anniversary and chose the tasting menu, which is always my preference when we’re trying a restaurant like this for the first time.
There were lots of little extras before and between the main courses which is one of my favourite things about tasting menus. You think you’re having seven courses but by the time you include all the additional bits, you end up eating far more than that.
One of the first main dishes was hand-dived scallop with citrus beurre blanc and Kristal caviar. I love scallops anyway, so this was always going to be one I enjoyed. It arrived served in the shell and was probably one of the prettiest dishes of the evening, with smoke all around it.
We also had lobster medallion with chicken quenelles, Périgord truffle and homemade semolina pasta. This was another favourite and one of the richer dishes on the menu.
Next was Cornish turbot with courgette, sea vegetables, green anise and apricot. Apricot isn’t something I would naturally think to pair with turbot, which is why it was so interesting. You end up trying combinations that seem unusual at first, but go together really well.
After the fish courses we moved onto the Highlands Wagyu beef which was served with grilled cœur de bœuf tomato, capers and parsley.
It was actually quite a simple-looking plate compared with some of the earlier courses but adding anything else such as a sauce would have taken it away from the beef. After all the lighter seafood dishes, it was nice to move onto something richer towards the end of the savoury part of the menu.
We also had the French cheese selection because after getting that far through a tasting menu, apparently we still hadn’t eaten enough. I always love a cheese course and there was a really good selection to try before moving onto dessert.
One of the things I enjoy the most about a long tasting menu is that you really do make an evening of it. You’re not looking at the time or thinking about where you’re going afterwards. Dinner is a whole experience which is exactly what we wanted as we were celebrating our anniversary.
Our dessert was centred around raspberries with sorrel and Espelette pepper. I liked that dessert was fresh and fruit-led rather than something really heavy. The presentation was beautiful too, with fresh raspberries and a delicate sugar decoration.
The restaurant also knew that we were celebrating our anniversary and brought us an additional dessert which was rum baba with a candle and a Happy Anniversary message. Interestingly my husband had the rum baba when we were at his restaurant in Monaco, so it was a reminder of that experience.
After we finished our meal we met Chef Patron Jean-Philippe Blondet and was shown the kitchen.
When you’ve just spent hours having all these incredibly precise dishes brought out to you, it’s fascinating to actually see where they’re being made. Restaurant kitchens at this level have always interested me, so being invited behind the scenes was a really nice way to end the evening.
It was also interesting to learn more about Jean-Philippe’s background as before coming to The Dorchester he worked at Le Louis XV in Monaco, so there is actually an additional connection between the two restaurants we’d experienced.
It’s natural to compare The Dorchester with Le Louis XV as they’re owned by the same chef. There were definitely similarities in the style of food, particularly the focus on really good ingredients and experimenting with different textures. However, the two restaurants also felt completely different.
Le Louis XV is in the middle of Monte Carlo and a much grander dining room, I’ve never experience anything that has come even remotely close. There’s something about walking around Monte Carlo before stepping into the restaurant that makes the whole experience feel special before you’ve even eaten anything.
The Dorchester felt more contemporary and had an obvious London vibe. It’s hard to choose between them but our memories of Le Louis XV are quite sentimental. Our first meal there was only a couple of days after our wedding and the grandeur is something else, so it will also have that slight edge.
Three Michelin-star dining is obviously something we save for special occasions, but food is something my husband and I both genuinely love, so we’d much rather have an experience like this that we’ll remember.
I also liked being able to experience two Alain Ducasse restaurants in completely different places. Monaco and London give you two very different settings, but you can still see the same focus on ingredients and French cooking running through both.
Now we’ve done Le Louis XV and The Dorchester, we’re going to have to decide which Alain Ducasse restaurant is next.
Rebecca x
