Launceston Place, Retelling the story of the British cuisine
Launceston Place
Kang Leong Reviews….
Launceston Place
1a Launceston Place
W8 5RL
tel: 020 7937 6912
‘Retelling the story of the British cuisine.’
It is true british food has a bad reputation. It’s so bad even british
people think so too. but not everybody. There is a growing contingent ( or
I should say, one that has always been there, but just very quiet ) who
know that British food is more than curry chips and fried fish. It so
happens, I’m one of those buggers.
‘SW Seven’
South kensington is home to some landmarks such as the Royal Albert Hall,
the natural history museum and is in fact, just off the side of hyde park
where you can catch a glimpse of the Prince Albert statue in all its
golden glory. Its suburbia and very residential. Did I mention that it’s
also terribly expensive to live in this particular part of town?
So what is the point of me telling you this? Well, its history. Launceston
Place has history. It’s been serving the residents for many a moon, but
recently ( as recent as 8 months ago I believe ) , the old management ran
out of steam and sold the place on.
Today, at the helm is Chef Tristan Welch, formerly of Petrus, of Marcus
Waering fame and yes, formerly of the Ramsay empire. Excellent pedigree,
so expectation naturally, is high.
‘Enter the Great British restaurant’
I’ve walked past this place many times on my way to Wholefoods on High
Street kensington and have always been rather intrigued by their sunday
roast menu. Then one day, it shut down for refurbishments and when it
eventually re-opened, it just looked as if Mark Ronson did a remix
version. I.e. it looks cooler now.
Black woods and pristine, pressed white table cloths. The restaurant is
very smart and very clean, almost too clean to the point where I felt I
like I had to put on a jacket just to eat there. They have comfortable
long sofas for the tables by the window. Very nice for the lady to just
sink into, I suppose.
This reminds me of the time I was told that is table manners for the man
to sit facing the wall (or window in this case) such that you give the
lady your absolute, undivided attention. What say you ladies?
Intense, I do digress.
‘What’s for lunch?’
Today, I popped into for a spot of lunch. The weather is just all over the
place these days. One day its sunny, the next is raining. If only it were
sunny all year round, London would be such a beautiful town. Then again,
it’d be nicknamed something like the big glare instead of the big smoke,
which is a cooler name.
Their £18 three-course lunch menu caught my eye, have a look on their
website here. I noticed that it’s pretty seasonal. On their website,
starters include a duck rillette & spider crab risotto and they’ve got
cornish lamb with globe artichokes for mains; on the occasion I went, the
duck & the lamb were replaced with scallops & roast plaice respectively.
For £18, all the ingredients are of quite high standards. Ok so, I’m only
expecting three courses, right?
Well, not quite, yes its good, smiley face. While I studied the menu, they
brought over these rather interesting razor thin crisps with a rather
lovely and smooth garlic cream cheese dip.
Cool, so what’s for lunch?
I do digress, yet again.
‘Pre-starters’
Oh, hang on this doesnt look like my spider crab risotto starter. Not yet,
while I wait (for my trouble) , they bring over a hearty celeraic soup
with toasted almonds.
(Freebie!)
A mightily tasty one to boot as well. It is, what I can only describe as a
savoury espresso. It’s quite thick and creamy, it’s a very straightforward
soup and a good way to start, even though technically, I’ve not started as
yet.
At this point I must point out the elaborate service as well. The
sommelier is professionally warm, once he took my order, two waitresses
started shuffling in the background and one of them started by placing my
cutlery and then proceeded to perform a well-choreographed dance by
placing the crisps, then stealthily inserting the butter and the garlic
cheese before another finally brings the bread basket for a choice of soda
brown or white.
Yeah it was pretty fun.
‘Spider crab risotto’
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