Recently I booked a table at Roux at the Landau in The Langham Hotel for my sister Hailey’s birthday. Roux at the Landau is a collaboration from Albert and Michel Roux Jr and headed up by Chris King who is the Chef de Cuisine and trained at Le Gavroche. We were pretty excited because we love watching Michel Roux Jr whenever he’s on TV, especially when he presented Masterchef! So it was great to go to a restaurant where he and his team designed the menu.
Amuse Bouche – Unfortunately I can’t remember what else was in these croquettes (oops food post fail) but they were a tasty little canapé served to us as we were browsing the menu.
Starter – Burford brown egg, smoked haddock mousseline, coriander bhajis. This starter was quite strong in the fish flavour but it didn’t consume the whole dish so along with the crispy bhajis, it was really interesting to eat. Main – Skrei Cod, chicken jus, parsnip, trompettes – so so good! Dessert – Coconut Mousse, spit roast pineapple, white rum-coconut sorbet. I love anything coconut – so this was lovely.
As expected, the lunch service was impeccable and they were super attentive (did anyone watch his show, Michel Roux’s Service?) We had the Du Jour menu (set lunch menu) which at £35 is really excellent value and perfect for a bit of a birthday treat. The Du Jour menu consists of little amuse bouches, a seemingly endless supply of bread, a starter, a main, a dessert, coffee and petit fours. The starter featured a slow cooked/very softly poached egg (sous vide I think, there is such a science to cooking eggs) and the bright red/orange yolk looked amazing on the plate. Out of the dishes, I loved my main – the cod was perfectly cooked and a really flavourful dish – I still remember the sweetness of the parsnips and the little deboned chicken wings which were glazed in that yummy chicken jus.
Coffee and Petit Fours are for some reason, always one of my favourite things at a restaurant if they offer them. I think it’s because it’s a chance to sip coffee and have a bit of a chat and kind of wind down after all that food. I still remember the great chocolates at Apsleys at The Lanesborough a few years ago!
All of the dishes we had were plated up beautifully with plenty of attention to detail and the atmosphere was incredibly relaxed. Hailey and I were there for about 2 hours and we left the restaurant feeling absolutely full with delicious food and big smiles on our faces. I’m singing this restaurant praises (and it fully deserves it) but it isn’t quite up there with my favourite places to eat. I’ve been thinking about it a lot and I’m still not sure why – maybe it’s because my expectations were too high or maybe it’s because I’m more of a simple girl at heart (give me dumplings any day). Having said that, the food was great and I’d certainly make a return visit.
Naturally, my sister and I decided that the best thing to do was to walk off all the food and take a walk around Selfridges for a bit of retail therapy. Food and shopping? Definitely a recipe for a great day out.
