Launceston Place

When the updated listings for the Michelin guide were announced in September 2011, Launceston Place missed out on its first star to the amazement of many people on Twitter. Going by the number of people who seemed to really rate it and the fact that the food sounded good (based on their website) it seemed like a good place to give a try.

Launceston Place is an easy stroll from Gloucester Road tube station and there were plenty of nice houses and cars to admire on the walk there. The restaurant occupies the ground floor of the round end of a building and this gives it an unusual floor plan.

Unusually, this was not a meal as a lone diner and I was joined by another Twitter user who loves their food. 

We had a basket of homemade plain crisps to eat while browsing through the menu which was limited to four options per course. These were really nice. 

Following food selection, bread was brought to the table. A lovely sourdough loaf that was accompanied by a small jar of pickled herrings that were absolutely fantastic. At this point things seemed to be shaping up really well and I was starting to side with the Michelin dissenters.

Starter was venison tartare with English mustard, quails eggs and walnut dressing. Venison is one of my favourite meats so the tartare sounded intriguing. This was okay but the tartare did not taste of much although the quail’s eggs were good. Not a particularly memorable dish. 

The main was the breast of duck served with carrots, bitter sweet onions and fennel. When this arrived we were pretty taken aback at how amateur it looked on the plate. Two columns of duck breast cubes formed a guard of honour for the fennel and carrot with a pool of juice to the side of the plate. Unfortunately, the cooking couldn’t elevate the dish and the some of the duck cubes were unpleasantly chewy. 

Pre-dessert was lemon posset although the waiter described it as lemon glaze. This was really delicious and it seemed to confirm we were having this amazing meal where any of the complimentary items were lovely but the actual menu items were poor. 

When ordering dessert, things sounded interesting so we both needed some input about what each dish consisted of. Our waiter really had no idea about what any of the dishes consisted of and this had been a theme of the evening. Any time he was asked a question he disappeared to see if he could find someone else to answer it. This seemed totally amazing. My dessert of choice was the apple tarte tatin with clotted cream ice cream. This was plated at the table when the Tarte Tatin was turned out of a pan onto the plate and then the ice cream added. It was fine but by this stage I was ready to leave. 

A dish of madeleines with vanilla cream came out as a post-dessert and consistent with the theme of the evening were very pleasant. They weren't on the menu so you’d expect them to be good. 

Overall verdict
A truly bizarre night. Some food items were fantastic except for everything that was ordered. Having wait staff who seemed less familiar with the menu than we were was an odd experience too.

Would I revisit Launceston Place?
 Hmmmm. What excites other people about Launceston Place? Would another visit help me figure it out?

Overall Rating - 2/5