Clos Maggiore

Enjoy outstanding French-influenced cuisine and one of the world's finest wine lists - winner of London's most romantic restaurant.

Contemporary French cuisine in London's most romantic restaurant : Clos Maggiore

http://www.closmaggiore.com

Clos Maggiore Restaurant Review

I’ve known of Clos Maggiore for a long time – it crops up in every poll of London’s most romantic restaurants (or as The Times announced in 2012, the UK’s Sexiest restaurant) – and this is perhaps why, to date, I hadn’t visited.

Staff float seamlessly around tables in that elegant French manner that is the perfect antidote to the hipster restaurant openings that have dominated the dining scene for the last few years.

Paris Brest was too retro not to be ordered and was a dessert to be shared with a delicious Gewürztraminer, recommended by the excellent Sommelier, rounding the meal off beautifully.

The staff’s expertise and professionalism make the experience really something special, and of course, the sweet and delicate dining room contributes to this hugely.

It is for all of these reasons that it really is a romantic restaurant in a classic, old-school glamour, swoon sort of way.

Clos Maggiore | London | Restaurant Review | The Arbuturian

When talking about the restaurant Clos Maggiore, I’ve noticed that people invariably do two things.

Well, it’s a rather tall order in a city that boasts 39 Michelin-starred restaurants, innumerable bijou wine bistros, tapas boltholes and fondue restaurants (the latter two might not scream classic romance, one involves poking bread on a stick into molten cheese after all, but something about sharing food is just inherently sexy).

Clos Maggiore is in Covent Garden, which always sounds like it should be romantic (an historic square, the boutiques, the opera, and so on) but is actually an off-putting pen of spatially challenged tourists.

I still maintain that my most romantic London meal was at Polpo in Soho (despite me spilling squid ink risotto on my cream trousers, the vague shadow of a stain remains on them as a touching reminder of the evening), the simple components of a carafe of decent red and lots of little dishes of juicy fresh Mediterranean food again proving a winning combination in addition to the company, timing and conversation being spot on.

But the snug enchanting Clos Maggiore with its fairy lights, blossoming walls and old-style Gallic suaveness is certainly romantic enough to leave a former SUP gliding off into the night feeling like Catherine Deneuve.

Romantic restaurants for Valentine's Day dinner - Decanter

With one Michelin star to its name, the Cantonese menu lives up to those sleek surroundings, featuring impeccable dim sum dishes – juicy scallop shumai or silver cod and caviar dumplings – alongside luxurious signatures such as black-truffle roast duck or Alaskan king crab in XO sauce.

Wine list: Perfectly pitched to match the complex cuisine, this innovative list takes oenophiles on a journey of exploration, with unusual grape varieties, biodynamic bottles and one of the capital’s best saké selections, alongside an impressive roster of the world’s top producers and prestige bottles such as Cheval Blanc 1982.

Prepare to be indulged, not least in the two-star Michelin restaurant where culinary legend Raymond Blanc presides over a  French-inspired seasonal menu using produce from his organic kitchen garden.

Four-legged friends and muddy hiking boots are welcome at The Dog and Boot Bar, but for a more sedate Valentine dinner head to the award-winning restaurant where Welsh chef Joseph Colman uses local ingredients such as Brecon venison and Hereford beef, with produce grown in his kitchen garden.

Wine list: The Samling’s extensive and award-winning list includes an impressive Bordeaux section, with New World names such as Penfolds Grange and Napa Valley’s Cakebread Cellars in support.

Clos Maggiore - London Restaurant Reviews | Hardens

One excellent choice - though for next year I'm afraid, given that it was fully booked by the end of January - is the subject of today's review.

Michelin does find a place for it, but their inspectors - in spite of their supposed eye for detail - somehow fail to comment on its truly remarkable secret: a wine selection over 2000 bins strong.

The presentation of said list is baffling (even for the relatively initiated), but those who really care about these things - the US magazine Wine Spectator for instance - have fêted the selection here with a rarely-bestowed clutch of awards.

(Perhaps in 35 years time it too will be a 'classic' like La Poule au Pot, reviewed yesterday).

As a prelude to an evening at the Opera, however, the pre-theatre dinner here - with a well-chosen bottle of wine - would certainly be a hard act to follow.

Clos Maggiore restaurant review 2009 November London | French ...

Sudairaut 1996 dessert wine is priced at £12 for a 75 ml glass (one tenth of a bottle) yet retails at just £20, a six times retail markup.

Sea bass cooked whole served with Charlotte potatoes, sauce vierge and wilted English watercress was perfectly pleasant but perhaps the least interesting dish tried (14/20).

A trio of scallops were plump, sweet and carefully cooked, each on a bed of Jerusalem artichokes and winter truffle sauce, garnished with a potato crisp (15/20).

A trio of scallops from the a la carte were served each on a little heap of crushed ratte potatoes, along with slivers of winter black truffle (which in itself did not add much for me as it was surprisingly lacking in fragrance).

For main course my set lunch menu featured an etuvee (slow cooked in a covered pan with minimal liquid) of pulses with basil pesto, topped with beignet of St Maure goat’s cheese.

Clos Maggiore - London Restaurant Reviews | Hardens

One excellent choice - though for next year I'm afraid, given that it was fully booked by the end of January - is the subject of today's review.

Michelin does find a place for it, but their inspectors - in spite of their supposed eye for detail - somehow fail to comment on its truly remarkable secret: a wine selection over 2000 bins strong.

The presentation of said list is baffling (even for the relatively initiated), but those who really care about these things - the US magazine Wine Spectator for instance - have fêted the selection here with a rarely-bestowed clutch of awards.

(Perhaps in 35 years time it too will be a 'classic' like La Poule au Pot, reviewed yesterday).

As a prelude to an evening at the Opera, however, the pre-theatre dinner here - with a well-chosen bottle of wine - would certainly be a hard act to follow.

Grace Dent reviews Clos Maggiore | London Evening Standard

Of course, the real risk of typing ‘London romantic restaurant’ into Google is that it will throw up the option of Clos Maggiore in Covent Garden, accompanied by images of a breathtakingly beautiful wood-panelled dining room — nay, dining grotto — filled with  greenery and twinkling lights: Narnia with added silverware.

A London newbie would find it nigh on impossible not to be lured to Clos Maggiore on account of its horticultural splendour and vicinity to theatreland, which means the restaurant is perpetually booked up.

This doesn’t excuse the four separate times I was informed that my 7pm table needed to be turned by 9.30pm; other restaurants seem to manage multiple sittings with less dead-eyed brusqueness, but Clos Maggiore relies on semi-affluent tourists and we have a tendency in London to treat these people sloppily, while shafting them for large amounts of cash.

More on Valentine's Day The sole reason I booked Clos Maggiore was to dine in the very gorgeous room.

CLOS MAGGIORE Royal Opera House, 33 King Street, WC2 (020 7379 9696; closmaggiore.com) 1 crab £13.90 1 foie gras £13.50 1 Ibérico pork loin £19.50 1 chicken leg £18.90 1 chips £4.50 1 carrots £4.50 1 cheese £8.90 1 coffee/petits fours £4.50 Drinks £59.50 12.5% service £18.46 TOTAL   £166.16 Browse Grace Dent's latest restaurant reviews Browse Grace Dent's latest restaurant reviews 1/10 El Pastór 2/10 Radio Alice 3/10 Lingholm Kitchen 4/10 Luca 5/10 Anzu 6/10 Temper Paul Winch-Furness 7/10 Smokestak Daniel Hambury/Stella Pictures 8/10 Noble Rot 9/10 Laughing Heart Evening Standard / eyevine 10/10 Park Chinois

Clos Maggiore | Restaurants in Covent Garden, London

Everything from the fairy lights to the fireplace is cosily soft focus at Clos Maggiore, often billed as the most romantic restaurant in London.

Romantic settings don’t get more splendidly over-the-top than this.

Take your pick from the wood-panelled restaurant or the atmospheric conservatory, bedecked in a forest of fake white blossoms that seem to extend into eternity as they bounce off the restaurant’s mirrors.

Fairy lights, candles and a fireplace add to the soft focus vibe.