Pavyllon at the Four Seasons, Mayfair
This month, Fleur and I headed to Pavyllon London to try their popular Lunch in 55 Menu for Plush Life
The Lunch in 55 menu at Pavyllon offers four courses served in 55 minutes for £55.50 (although we couldn’t help but have five courses). It’s a decent proposition if you’re after a time-efficient, casual-but-elegant Michelin-starred lunch in Mayfair, and the option to sit at the counter offers the opportunity to watch the chefs prepare the dishes up close.
The perfectly thought-out and concise tasting menu was incredible. We loved all of the sauces, extractions and emulsions in the dishes, which French chef Yannick Alléno, who launched Pavyllon London in 2023, is particularly famous for.
Alléno holds 16 Michelin stars across his 17 restaurants around the globe. At Pavyllon, his reinvented take on modern French cuisine is brought to diners by head chef Benjamin Ferra Y Castell.
To give you some background on a few of Alléno’s other flagship restaurants in 2008, he opened 1947 at Cheval Blanc, Courchevel. In 2014 he acquired Pavillon Ledoyen on the Champs-Elysées.
Pavillon Ledoyen became the most Michelin-starred establishment in the world when he opened Alléno Paris, Japanese sushi counter, L'Abysse, and the first ever Pavyllon.
In 2022, he opened a second Pavyllon in the Hotel Hermitage Monte-Carlo in Monaco, before the arrival of Pavyllon London in 2023.
On arrival, Fleur and I paused to admire a print of a photograph of Kate Moss by British contemporary artist Chris Levine, She’s Light (Dots) 2015, at the entrance to the light, airy Pavyllon Lounge area, a gorgeous place to relax decorated in duck egg blue and cream tones with fresh flowers and a large floor-to-ceiling window.
It was lunchtime, and we were more interested in the food being prepared before our eyes than the wine list, but we enjoyed a glass of Gusbourne Blanc de Blancs (2019) English sparkling wine from Kent to toast our good health when we were seated at the counter.
First up on the menu was the Not So Classic Prawn Cocktail, with fennel and cucumber, dill, trout roe and Parmesan, served on prettily glazed contemporary-style ceramic plates.
This was followed by delicious artichoke glazed with dashi vinegar with aubergine ‘caviar’, mussel emulsion and katsuobushi (simmered, smoked and fermented skipjack tuna).
My personal favourite course followed: a steamed comté soufflé with a watercress coulis monté sauce with eel butter (there was an option here to add foie gras for £10).
The most substantially filling dish followed this: dry-aged poached trout with a Grenobloise sauce, a soft poached egg with a runny yolk and leek fondue.
To round off our lunch, a dessert of roasted figs with Isigny Sainte-Mère ice cream with a fig extraction and thyme oil dressing with Bokobska jelly proved to be the perfect finale.
I was so sorry to learn that Bar Antoine is named after Alléno's late son, who hoped to become a chef like his father but who was run over at 24 while riding his scooter at a red light near the Alma bridge in Paris. Yannick has since set up the Association Antoine Alléno to support families in similar situations.
We decided to walk through to the bar to check it out as we digested our meal, and the drinks list and menu in there also looked to us like a very fine option for more casual dishes in luxurious surroundings, such as casarecce pasta with a lobster bisque and a pistachio crust, a fennel risotto with shrimp extraction, a crispy chicken burger in a fried steamed bun, confit Scottish salmon with olive juice and pepper sauce, with spiced churros, Guinness tart of honey cheesecake for dessert.
We’ll be back soon – our only regret is that we didn’t also have time to go to the spa.
The Plush Life Verdict: The five courses (and little entrées too) hit the lunch tasting menu sweet spot, the comté soufflé was to die for and the counter dining element was fun, with attentive service
The details: Pavyllon at the Four Seasons Park Lane, London W1J 7DR; 020 7499 0888; pavyllonlondon.com
