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Blandford Comptoir, London: Xavier Rousset's 'wine list of gems ...
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I say wine bar but its a bit more than that: more of a modern bistro with a very good wine list and a bar with – hallelujah!
Some dishes such as the Italian summer truffle risotto (£8) and an umami-rich dish of quail with truffle boudin (£7) are clearly designed to show off the Burgundy list.
The wines by the glass are part of a model wine list pitched at every price point to encourage you to experiment.
There’s a mouthwatering list of ‘older and wiser’ wines including, at the time of writing, Patrick Jasmin’s Côte-Rôtie 2005 for £79 but that will almost certainly change from week to week.
With a wine list of gems like this, I doubt that will deter many.
Restaurant review: Blandford Comptoir | The Week Portfolio
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Located just off Marylebone High Street, Xavier Rousset's newest venture "is the kind of place where lunch makes things better and the sort of restaurant that, increasingly, London does really well," says Jay Rayner in The Guardian.
"Everything looks exceedingly tasteful and refined, but once you dig into the menu, you realise there is much more to this place than presentation," says Time Out.
The section entitled Raw includes offerings such as "Sicilian red prawns bathing in Amalfi lemon oil have that paintbox crimson and surprising sweetness" while the Vegetable section offers up a gazpacho "in which the flavours of lemongrass and ginger subdue the metallic clang of raw green peppers," says Fay Maschler in the Evening Standard.
The courgette flowers stuffed with goat's curd are "remarkable," says Grace Dent also in the Evening Standard, while the risotto served al dente, buttery and earthily fungi-strewn was also "very impressive".
The menu is essentially "Italian without feeling the need to bulk things up with pasta" and while full size dishes can set you back £14, they remain a bargain, says Rayner.
Blandford Comptoir, London
Blandford Comptoir | Marylebone | Restaurant Reviews | Hot Dinners
Blandford Comptoir, Marylebone, London: Restaurant Review - olive ...
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Xavier Rousset is kind of a big deal in the wine world.
In 2002 he became the youngest master sommelier in the world and has worked in the likes of Hotel du Vin and Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons before opening Michelin-starred Texture and the 28-50 group.
The menu is split into simple sections – raw, vegetable, fish and shellfish, and meat – but what arrives are dishes that deliver bold flavours.
Start with a plate of juicy, buttery raw Sicilian red prawns dressed in a zesty amalfi lemon oil and a carpaccio of meltingly soft fassone beef with subtle truffle dressing and salty, 36-month-aged parmesan.
Each course is expertly matched by the charismatic sommelier (in fact, we struggle for room on the table) but perseverance is rewarded by standout discoveries from less-known areas.
Fay Maschler reviews Blandford Comptoir: Grape escape in ...
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It is a noticeable presence in the restaurant and I wonder if wine mavens react as they do when you sit next to one wearing recently applied perfume —ostentatiously shuffling away.
A dish to share which begs the question of pushing the boat out with wine is 1.2kg Fassone côte de boeuf at £60 and one that answers it is the large seafood platter at £100 for two that includes a bottle of Grand Cru Champagne Moncuit Blancs de Blancs — a great summer celebration if that season ever arrives.
To one dinner I invite my friend Zeren Wilson, who has worked in the wine trade, is wild about restaurants and currently writes a well-immersed impressive blog under the name bittenandwritten.com.
“Any wine list stamps a lot of its character with the opening salvo of its champagnes and the selection here is scintillating, shimmering with great growers … It’s a rock-star line-up worthy enough to grace any Michelin-starred restaurant … The balance and range of choices under £49 is fantastic, again the calibre of the names here inspiring confidence.
Lunch dish of the day (until 5pm) with a glass of wine and coffee, £15.
Blandford Comptoir, London: restaurant review | Life and style | The ...
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Blandford Comptoir, 1 Blandford Street, London W1U 3DA (020 7935 4626).
Look beneath this piece and others online and regularly that one word, London, has been re-engineered as an expletive – a synonym for snobbery and excess and exclusion, the restaurants I review an expression of that.
But London is also home to concentrations of brilliant cheap Turkish grill houses and ramen shops; of superb Hunanese places that make your scalp sweat, and Kashmiri curry shops that smell of more roasting spices than you could name; of killer sushi bars, world-beating tapas joints, and Korean cafés ripe with the stench of fermenting cabbage.
And yes, other places in the UK have bits and pieces of this, but nothing like they do in London.
■ A waiter at STK, the restaurant of the ME hotel on London’s Aldwych, has been given his job back after his union intervened over what they said was his unfair dismissal.