Review of Roux at the Landau - fine dining on a budget
Some restaurants cost an arm and a leg to eat at. There’s nothing wrong with that, it all depends on whether you’re willing to pay that price. If you’re not, but you still want to see what all the fuss is about, then your next alternative is to find an offer.
That’s exactly what I did when choosing to dine at Roux at the Landau.
In case you hadn’t figured it out, this is one of two restaurants under Michel Roux Junior. It’s situated inside The Langham Hotel on Regent Street and is a posh restaurant without any pedantic intimidation.
The offer I had included a 3 course meal with half a bottle of wine – all for only £49.00. Considering a main dish alone could normally cost over and above £20.00, this deal was pretty good.
After I’d made my choice of starter and main, the waiters brought over a few little bonus taster dishes for me and my friend to try.
Smoked trout with crème fraiche on a mini pancake
Croquettes filled with onion and cheese
Even the butter served with the bread was fancy!
For my started I had the crispy hen egg served with brandade, smoked haddock and piquillos coulis. If you’re into the gooey hen egg business then this is a dish for you. It was like mouthful after mouthful of heaven.
My friend chose the vegetarian starter of beetroot tartare, burratina, granny smith and pickled cucumber. In terms of taste, the different ingredients really do complement each other well. But there wasn’t much variety in the textures.
She continued her “healthy” eating by choosing the nori-wrapped Cornish cod, fennel, yuzu and saffron gel for her main. This was a little underwhelming compared to my main and I think it was more suited to be a starter than main.
For my main, I chose the steak because there’s nothing better than eating a perfectly cooked steak at a fancy restaurant. Apart from the steak itself, the best part of this dish was the watercress pesto.
We were full enough from all that food, but as dessert was included in the offer, we opted for the following:
Coconut, toasted cocoa nibs, manjari chocolate sorbet
‘Choux croquant’, vanilla ice cream, hazelnut Gianduja sauce
Both were excellent choices and a yummy way to end our meal. Or so we thought, until the waiters bought out some petit fours for us!
As well as the food, it’s the small gestures throughout the night’s service that makes the experience memorable. Like how the waiter brought over a little stool for me to put my bag on, when he saw that I’d placed in on the floor. Roux at the Landau isn’t a place I could afford to eat at all the time at full price, but it’s definitely on my list of places for a special occasion.
Website: rouxatthelandau.com
Address: 1C Portland Pl, Marylebone, London W1B 1JA (Inside The Langham Hotel)
Phone: 020 7965 0165