Michelin 3-Star Dinner At Sketch In London
Last Friday I had a breath-taking gastronomic experience at Sketch Lecture Room & Library in Mayfair, London. Sophisticated French cooking and dishes artfully presented. Let’s explore why it has a three-Michelin-starred status.
Before we start, a little disclaimer. As always, I’m not getting paid for any of my posts and whatever I write it’s purely based on my opinion and experience.
What Is A Michelin Star Restaurant?
1-Star: “High quality cooking, worth a stop!”
2-Star: “Excellent cooking, worth a detour!”
3-Star: “Exceptional cuisine, worth a special journey!”
What Are The Countries With 3 Stars?
- France and Japan – 29 Restaurants each
- United States – 14 Restaurants
- Italy and Spain – 11 Restaurants each
- Germany and Hong Kong – 10 Restaurants each
- United Kingdom – 5 Restaurants
What Are The Restaurants In The UK With 3 Stars?
- The Waterside Inn in Bray – Chef Alain Roux. Awarded since 1985
- The Fat Duck in Bray – Chef Heston Blumenthal. Awarded since 2004
- Gordon Ramsay in London – Chef Gordon Ramsay. Awarded since 2001
- Alain Ducasse at the Dorchester in London – Chef Jean-Philippe Blondet. Awarded since 2010
- Sketch (The Lecture Room and Library) in London– Chef Pierre Gagnaire. Awarded since 2020
Our Experience At Sketch
We had our reservation at 7.15 PM for the The Lecture Room & Library but we were a bit earlier. You know what this means… a drink! The Parlour looked like a great idea as it was their bar. You enter, turn right and straight away you see that bar.
However, before that we faced a screening device to detect if we had fever due to the pandemic. Luckily, we were OK! So, we entered the bar, Kristina had a fresh grapefruit juice and I had a soft drink to be honest because I wanted to keep my stomach ready for some wine later in the restaurant. I had heard their acclaimed wine list was mind blowing.
Once ready, they picked us up and took us to the Lecture Room & Library restaurant upstairs.
By the way, I need to highlight that Sketch has 5 different areas / restaurants: The Parlour, The Lecture Room & Library (Michelin Star), The Glade, The Gallery, The East Bar & Pods. All of them look visually fantastic and truly striking.
The Lecture Room & Library
As we were moving past the braided rope and going upstairs to the first floor with the host, we felt that our expectations rose with every step. The toilets were located between ground floor and first floor… and fully decorated by Swarovski crystals.
We were already feeling like in a majestic dinner in a castle and still few more steps before reaching the first floor. Here we are, doors were opening and we were greeted by 4 waiters. I certainly couldn’t catch their names but it was a beautiful welcoming atmosphere. The way they opened the doors was like “ta-dah”. We felt like in a theatre with a splash of Louis XIV and a dash of an exotic palace. The host accompanied us to our table. And the fun started.
The Wine Experience
The Sommelier greeted us with a little moving trolley with champagne and other sparkling bottles. She offered us to start with that but again I wanted wine! Therefore, we shared with her that we were having the vegetarian tasting menu and what we liked and what we didn’t. So, we ended up with a 2015 Wiener Gemischter Satz, Nussberg, Alte Reben, Wieninger. In other words, a co-fermented field blend of 9 different varieties from “Walnut Hill” in Austria. This Viennese classic was floral, fresh, zesty and juicy. Beautifully pairing with the majority of our courses.
The Tasting Menu
At this point you know that Kristina and I are vegetarians. So obviously we went for the 6-course-vegeterian-menu (or 7 if you included the canapés at the beginning and 8 if you include the Petits Fours at the end). Before jumping into the first meal, they brought us some delicious bread with 3 types of butter and dips. After that some canapés: parmesan sable biscuits coated with almonds and few pistachio cherries. And ready to start with the following:
0. Fresh Bread and Canapés
1. Black Olive Jelly / Tapenade: Fig and Raspberry Marmalade with Basil
2. Roasted Artichoke Velouté / Beetroot with Cremona Mustard Fruit / Baby Spinach
3. Chilled Tomato Soup with Rosemary / Cucumber Sorbet / Aubergine Caviar / Grated Gorgonzola
4. Sand Grown Carrots & Trombetta Courgette Tagliatelle / Braised Carrot Cream with Argan Oil / Confit Egg Yolk
5. “Pomme Bilou” / White Summer Truffle and Black Truffle / Cornish Summer Bean Salad with Sesame / Almonds
6. Pierre Gagnaire’s Grand Dessert
A. Crunchy Raspberry Parfait / Basil Kelly with Arbequina Olive Oil / Simone with Black Olives
B. Strawberries: Panna Cotta / Marshmallow / Jelly / Opaline
C. Zerbinati Melon / Peach poached in Sauternes / Grapefruit Marmalade / Sorbet
D. Blackcurrant: Tarte Soufflee / Wurtz, Coulis and Sorbet
E. Ice Cream Chocolate 63% / Pamplona Water / Frozen Gianduja
Bonus Track. Petits Fours
Yes, the Grand Dessert where those 5 things at the same time. Well-presented, sophisticated and requiring an enormous amount of time and effort. I’m not an expert but Kristina is a Pastry Chef and she knows this stuff, so that’s what she said!
Every dish was composed of “mini” items artfully presented and greatly executed. Of course, few meals were better than others but we can’t deny its ambitious and sophisticated dishes. There was a high level of colours, flavours and textures. Some of them were telling a story. For example, the first meal which was the Black Olive Jelly with Fig and Raspberry Marmalade with Basil was involving so many different elements that to me it felt like “the story of olives”. People might have a different opinion but that’s how I felt.
The Pricing
This is the part you won’t like it. It’s expensive. But I guess you know that Michelin 3-Star restaurants are expensive. In this case:
Vegetarian Menu: £110 per person.
Lobster Menu: £140 per person.
Tasting Menu: £150 per person.
Discretionary Service Charge: 15%
Clearly drinks are not included, so if you want to have some water, champagne and/or wine, get ready. For example, our 2015 Austrian wine bottle was priced at £102. And this was not an “expensive” wine.
Because we are vegetarians, we’re by definition slightly cheaper but even that… we ended up paying £387.98. This is the breakdown:
1x Coca Cola Zero £3.50
1x Fresh Grapefruit Juice £6.00
1x Still Water £5.00
1x Wiener Gemischter (2015 Bottle) £102.00
2x Vegetarian Tasting Menu £220.00
1x Optional Charity Donation £1.00
15% Discretionary Service Charge £50.48
Final Thoughts
Again, it’s a Michelin 3-Star restaurant. The cuisine is top-notch, creative, innovative and delicious. The service is very good. The experience itself is “wow”. If there’s 2 areas where they can improve:
- Very crowded service. You need servers, runners, hosts but given the relatively small layout of the restaurant, they were walking all the time very close to all the tables. You can imagine when busy, it’s non-stop running for them. This was impacting the intimate experience that you typically want to achieve in these places.
- Price for drinks. No doubts, it’s a world-class place but not sure the alcoholic drinks are always justifying the price.
Bottom line, this is a great place, fancy and worth exploring if you can afford it. It’s one of those memorable experiences that will linger for long time.
In case you’re interested, I leave the video below:
