Koffmann’s

I’ve eaten here three times, most recently on Friday Sep 25^th (before going to see Wales v England the following day at Twickenham). So we had a lads dinner to mull over the possible outcomes of the match whilst enjoying some very good food.
I’ve had the trotter here twice before and it is excellent but I didnt want to make it a hatrick so had a rib of beef, it was very good indeed but when I go back again (and I will) I’ll have the beef cheeks.
To start it was foie gras and to finish off the Soufflé. The food was excellent as you would expect and the prices reasonable for Mayfair. Two of our group had a beef wellington from the ‘Rugby World Cup’ set menu which they raved about that evening and the next day.
The entirely French wine list was a bit of a mystery (I spend most of the year in Malta so am au fait with Italian wines mostly) but the Somm was very approachable and helpful.
A very good meal with great company, I’ll be back for sure.

We went to koffmans at the Berkeley hotel to take advantage of their set price menu. We received a complimentary appetizer of an onion tart. Still warm and delicious. Next came a tray of 5 breads. Garlic brioche was best. For starters we had steak tartare and butternut squash soup. Main courses were kidneys and partridge. Partridge was the star. Perfectly cooked. Dessert was a plum tart with milk sorbet. Complimentary truffles and other sweets ended the meal. Regular menu looked nicely priced. Pleasant and efficient staff. Will return.

An interesting interior with an ‘podium’ entrance and a private room off to one side.
This is a happy classy place with enthusiastic staff serving classic French dishes.
A child at the next table had a teddy bear. I complained that I didn’t get one on the way out and got a laugh…
The lunch special is good value, and we arrived before our chums and had a great ‘wine by the glass’ while we waited.
A sensible lunch menu, and interesting wine choices available to match which we drank.
The food was first class, nicely presented and you could feel the tradition and thought in each.
Hope to return soon.

I never got to eat at La Tante Claire, Pierre Koffmann’s legendary 3* Michelin restaurant. However Im glad that he still cooks, and it’s the food he loves. There are some signature LTC dishes sprinkled throughout so you get a few examples of the Koffmann chef experience. Met up with a group of friends to just happen to all be in town at the same time. The space is quite large and just around the corner from Marcus in the Berkeley Hotel. Dont miss the pig topiary as you enter!
On a late Sunday, it’s one of the few nice restos to be open, replete with a large French staff. We ended up sharing:
FOIE GRAS CHAUD, ENDIVE ET SAUTERNES
Hot foie gras, chicory & Sauternes
CALAMARS BOLOGNAISE
Squid Bolognese style
LANGOUSTINES
Langoustine tortellini with langoustine broth
FLAN DE FROMAGE DE CHÈVRE ET BETTERAVES
Goat’s cheese flan with beetroot
PIED DE COCHON, TANTE CLAIRE
Pig’s trotter stuffed, sweetbreads & morels
MONKFISH Special
BAR SAUVAGE, PURÉE DE BROCOLIS ET SAUCE AUX AGRUMES
Fillet of sea bass, broccoli purée & citrus sauce
Pistachio Soufflé and Pruneau D’Agen as our desserts.
Everything was delicious and very filling. You also start with a charcuterie plate, 6 types of bread and mignairdises at the end. As far as London fine food goes, the prices arent too bad either. If you want to taste the food of a master in his more mellow days of cooking for the love. Definitely check it out. 4.3 stars

I have a mixed opinion about this restaurant. The food was really very good and we had some very memorable dishes. However, the service felt a little rushed and not polished enough for the prices that we were paying.
The amuse bouches and bread came out at the same time. We had a glass of champagne each, but there were no options to choose from. Whenever I indulge in a glass of champagne at a fancy restaurant, I’m usually reminded about how much I love champagne. However, in this case, it just felt like another glass of sparkling wine. Nice, but not indulgent.
We both had the snail ravioli with Bayonne ham & garlic croutons, as our entrée. It was actually hard to make our choice as there were a few tempting alternatives: lobster bisque, hot fois gras with chicory & Sauternes and langoustine tortellini with langoustine broth. We genuinely felt joy when the entrée arrived. It looked delicious and it proved to be so.
For my main, I had the pig’s trotter stuffed with sweetbreads & morels. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I was again impressed by how the dish looked when it arrived. You get a trotter as thick as your arm and a big quinelle of mashed potato with a pancetta chip planted on top. The trotter itself was gelatinous goodness, which my knife easily cut through. The sweetbreads and morels were like prizes. I was pleased with my choice. My wife had the roast grey partridge with Koffman’s cabbage (which was one of the plats du jour). There were a few bones which made it difficult to eat and it would have been better with some crispiness.
For dessert, I had the lemon tart with lemon sorbet and my wife had the pistachio souflee. The soufflé took 15 minutes to prepare, but we were not worried about the wait as we were enjoying our wine. When the desserts came out, I was really jealous of the souflee! The lemon tart was fine, but I really would have preferred the soufflé. Luckily for me, my wife was generous enough to share a few spoonfuls with me.

Four of us went with their special offer three courses plus two glasses of wine and coffee for £39.
The garlic brioche in the bread basket was sensational. The house wines were both good.
For starters the queens scallops and squid were excellent and the hare pâté was good. The main courses were good but not remarkable (admittedly we were on the specials menu). The desserts were perfectly normal bistro fare although there was a scoop of anise flavoured ice cream which was special.
On the other hand the macchiato served at the end was first class.
One of my sons commented that the waiters mentioned the fact we were in the special offer menu rather too often. Apart from that the service was enthusiastic and professional.
Overall it was a good meal but was not special.

I must admit I had a very high expectation of this place, due to the legendary chef Pierre Koffmann. I was hoping to see some unique local Gascon style food but nothing really stood out to be that.
His signature pied de cochon was… ok
Cold crab salad good
I must say the service was very good and the environment quite nice as well.
I don’t think I will go back but I will give Marcus Wareing, an another restaurant from The Berkeley a try.

I can’t compliment Koffman’s enough. The food, service and ambiance were second to none, but all executed with grace and not in the slightest bit pretentious. The signature dish, pig trotters are indeed excellent, but quite rich. The pistachio soufflé is one of the most delicious things I have ever eaten. We went for a Sunday lunch and it was a joy from start to finish. Flawlessly prepared French food. Well worth a visit.

I have eaten at fine restaurants all over the world and this restaurant is on the top of my list. The service here is wonderful and the food delicious and fresh. It’s hard to find great food in London and this was truly amazing.
The space is beautiful, clean and tasteful. The treats on your way out made it even better.

I’m quite a fan of The Berkeley’s dining options — notably the hotel bar and Marcus Wareing’s eponymous restaurant. Given Pierre Koffmann’s cooking background, I expected warm, hearty Gascon fare. Sadly, the food wasn’t great. Average at best.
BUT…I have to say that service was perfect. Genuine and inviting from the moment I walked in the door and passed over my jacket, to the servers who brought over warm bread and our dishes. It was attentive and enthusiastic — at times a little too much with numerous servers asking us during the main course if the meal was okay!
I went for the starter of crispy pig’s head with tiger prawns, whereas my friend had the chicken liver terrine. I was served with ONE prawn and a slice of what looked like pork roulade with a crispy exterior. It was fine, but I found the «pig’s head» very fatty — not sure if it was muscle, or fat, or what it was. The prawn also seemed out of place. My friend said the terrine was fine, but nothing spectacular.
My main course of duck breast was pink, but the end pieces were tragically overcooked. Cremated grey duck breast that I just pushed to the side of the plate. I found the duck to be overcooked in general which was disappointing — the skin was also slightly flabby.
We were stuffed by this point so we decided to go with a plum tart for dessert. What arrived was more like a plum frangipane tart — very dense, but tasted pleasant (I’m a huge fan of almond). Perhaps it would’ve been more apt to name it «Frangipane tart garnished with plum» because there was only two wafer thin slivers of plum.
It’s a shame to be honest because I expected a lot, a lot more from Koffmann’s. Even though I will return to The Berkeley, I don’t think I will come back here.

Taking over the old Boxwood Café site wasn’t a particularly challenging return for Pierre Koffmann, doyen of 80’s expense account cooking and London’s first holder of three Michelin stars. The site has hardly changed since Ramsay’s departure, still a library-​like space of silk and grey. The hushed reverential surrounds feel fitting for the former owner of Tante Claire and darling of the nascent gourmet restaurant scene, but it feels at odds with his gutsy French cuisine.
If you do go to Koffmann’s, and go I think you should, then their £22 three course lunch menu is available all week and is very good value, though you don’t get to try the unctuous pig’s trotters stuffed with mushroom and sweetbread that made Chef Koffmann’s reputation. This is worth a trip of its own.

I really built up my Koffmann’s trip for my dad (starting with WOW! This is the dude from La Tante Claire, then oh, apparently he cooks there and finally shoving the Observer stella review in his face on Sunday). Well, apparently it didn’t disappoint as he decided to go back for my sister’s birthday dinner on Friday (if we can get a table).
Unfortunately, I have a sneaking feeling that is because he felt I made the better menu choice. My scallops with squid ink on a tiny bed of mash was delicious though I’d say the scallops could be bigger (but they were very sweet) and the 3 lines of red pepper coulis didn’t add to the flavor much in my opinion. The crab starter was fine, I just found it a tad too creamy for my liking.
Our mains were sublime! My fillet could be more meaty tasting but went very well with the celeric/​girolles gravy and my dad’s pig trotter was excellent also; a great combination of intense flavor, texture and gloopyness. The veg was over cooked. EEK!
Since I am a potato lover, I thought I died and landed in potato heaven. Our mains came with mash AND chips. MASH and CHIPS! PERFECT MASH AND CHIPS! No longer is there need to choose between the 2, you can have BOTH! And it worked. The crappy veg didn’t bother me anymore (though someone should teach them how to make proper buttered steamed vegetables)
My apple pie dessert was v yummy though apparently the peach melba was just ok. I wasn’t impressed with the madalines which were normal size and not light and fluffy enough and just really mushed in the mouth… I rather like small things for my petit four.
Apart for a few ironing issues, the service was pretty good and very attentive. We were unhappy with the table (again!) and they sat us at a different table without battering an eyelid.
I am already deciding what I am eating at the end of the week.

I am relatively new to fine dining and I wasn’t around that scene when Pierre Koffmann established his reputation as one of London’s greatest chefs with his 3 Michelin starred restaurant La Tante Claire, which was based at Chelsea’s Royal Hospital Road, now the site of Gordon Ramsay’s restaurant and then at the Berkeley. He retired in 2004 just as I was starting to get into fine dining.
I missed his pop-​up venture at Selfridge’s last year and so, I was very excited to hear that this French culinary legend, who was also head chef at the Roux brothers’ 3 Michelin starred Waterside Inn in Bray, had returned to the Berkeley.
There is always that slight trepidation that some legends don’t know when to quit and besmirch their memory with ill-​advised comebacks in the style of Lance Armstrong or Michael Schimacher (so far)
The Berkeley is also currently hosting Marcus Wareing’s 2 Michelin starred restaurant and I’m impressed that this hotel is aiming very high with its cuisine.
First impressions at Koffmann’s is how light the décor is. Unlike Marcus Wareing’s place with its dark wood veneer, the earth tones, food-​themed photos on the walls and oopen kitchen create a less over-​bearing atmosphere.
The menu is classically and unapologetically French. It shows the confidence of the chef in his method and his palate.
I started with a French fish soup, one of my favourite starters and this version lived up to my expectations with a satisfying depth of flavour, enhanced by the traditional accompaniments of croutons, rouille and gruyère.
For main course, it was a no brainer — I had heard so much about the eponymous Koffmann’s pig’s trotter stuffed with chicken mousseline, sweetbreads and morels, much copied but never bettered by other chefs. This was in fact the reason I chose to eat here. Well, his signature dish lived up to its reputation. The mind boggles to think how much work goes into its preparation but the unctuous softness of the trotter and its contents just melts in the mouth.
I finished with the pistachio soufflé, which was technically perfect and this was accompnaied by pistachio ice cream.
A warm welcome back to Chef Koffmann and thanks for a great meal.

Nothing much more to add to my review to the existing one. The pig trotters are certainly worth trying but be warned if you’re not at ease at seeing the trotters in full form. (of course I didn’t care). I ordered from the set menu which was the rabbit terrine and hare in pastry which was a little on the heavy side but delicious.