L'Autre Pied

The plan for this trip to London was to try a mix of new places that had opened in 2013 and old favourites. One other category included places that I’d not been overly impressed with before but now had a new person heading the kitchen. L’Autre Pied fell into this third category where three unexciting courses on a previous visit had left me utterly indifferent to the thought of returning.

But there were a number of things that meant I still kept half an eye on it. Based on my experience of other restaurants owned by David Moore it seemed possible that this poor experience was a one-off. I’d been to Pied a Terre previously and loved it and Van Zeller in Harrogate had been one of my highlights of the summer. With the installation of Andy McFadden as head chef, it was noticeable that Twitter increasingly featured very positive endorsements of L’Autre Pied so it went back on my list of places to visit.

L’Autre Pied was established in 2007 by David Moore and Shane Osborn as a companion restaurant to Pied a Terre. Promotion from the kitchen at Pied a Terre meant that Marcus Eaves was installed as the head chef at L’Autre Pied and it was awarded a Michelin star in 2009. Their policy has always been to promote people from within the existing team following the example of Shane Osborn taking over the kitchen at Pied à Terre after Tom Aikens left to set up his eponymous restaurant. The group had to adapt when Shane Osborn announced that he was leaving after 13 years at the helm of Pied à Terre to tour the world with his family. This meant that Marcus Eaves moved over to Pied à Terre and Andy McFadden went in the opposite direction to take over at L’Autre Pied.

The dining room has the same awkward U-shaped layout as Trishna further along Blandford Street. The décor is plan with white walls around the perimeter of the room and plain dark wood flooring. The waiters’ station in the centre of the room was decorated with floral wallpaper to give some light relief to the starker walls. Seating is on red leather banquettes for anyone sitting against the wall and the stand alone chairs are green leather.

At lunchtime there is a choice between a set three course menu, the à la carte or a tasting menu that draws on a number of dishes on the à la carte listing. Bread was brought to each diner on a regular basis and I tried the sweet onion brioche, Guinness and star anise roll and raisin and walnut bread. Baguette and black olive and parmesan rolls were also available. The light fluffy brioche was delightful with its hint of sweetness and really didn’t need the butter. The crusty Guinness roll was dominated by star anise but not unpleasantly so. The raisin walnut bread was also a good choice.

The first dish was an amuse bouche of a rich airy chicken liver parfait with black olive on an incredibly delicate poppyseed wafer. This was a very nice start.

A second amuse bouche combined Jerusalem artichoke mousse, black onion seeds, artichoke crisp, basil and lemon. The mousse was featherlight like a vegetarian Angel Delight and had a lovely flavour. The crisps were superb and there were additional slivers of artichoke in the mousse. The lemon was quite strident compared to the other flavours but it was the pleasant artichoke that lingered on the palate.

The appetiser from the set lunch menu was the baked Crapaudine beetroots with horseradish milk, balsamic, herbs and hazelnuts. The various forms of the lovely sweet beetroot carried the dish and it was difficult to know whether the gel discs, the chunks of roast beetroot or the beetroot meringue were best. The balsamic added a wonderful acidic kick and the hint of lemon in the dish was so much more effective than in the amuse. The combination of hazelnut with beetroot is excellent and one that I’ve seen increasingly used on menus. It was really good here too. I absolutely loved this dish.

I stepped away from the lunch menu for the next course by opting to add the grilled mackerel with hazelnuts, apple tapioca, celery and miso from the à la carte menu. The kitchen noted that this dish had a hazelnut contribution same as the last course so asked if I would mind letting them do something different. Fine by me. The revised version incorporated toasted pumpkin seeds and squash purée. The sweet grilled mackerel was gloriously tender with a lovely crispy skin. The mackerel tartare wrapped in pickled butternut squash was a delight too; with or without the gently vinegary vegetable. The nasturtium leaves also combined really well with the tartare. Soybean sauce under the fish added a touch of astringency. This dish had a lot of flavours that all played really well together for a very satisfying whole.

Moving back to the set lunch menu I chose the venison over the poached pollock. This served haunch of roe deer with pearl barley, celeriac, turnip tops and toasted hay. The tender, pink meat and rich jus fully justified its star billing and most of the supporting cast worked really well. The spherical potato croquettes were light and delicious. The dish included chocolate grated over the meat that worked well and a white chocolate sauce that I found a bit jarring. The crunch from the nutty toasted barley was a welcome contrast to everything else. The toasted hay foam tasted almost medicinal by itself but added a pleasant fragrant component when eaten with other ingredients. The celeriac purée was a lovely mild partner to the rich components but vital for the dish. This was a good dish overall but I’d have been happier without the white chocolate.

A really delicious small pre-dessert of coconut foam, apple sorbet and caramel meringue followed. The intensely appley sorbet was superb and the toasted coconut sprinkled over the dish elevated it all. The flavour of the coconut foam brought back memories of drinking Malibu, but in a good way. Lovely stuff.

The main dessert featured burnt pears with tea marinated prunes, honeycomb, pistachio and mandarin sorbet and was a great way to finish things off. The mellow flavour of the toasted pear was kicked up a gear by its burnt edges. The tea marinated prunes were a blast back to my childhood with their rich flavour and the topping with pistachio crumbs was genius. The nut brittle was another superb touch. The chocolate cookie crumbs proved a rich foundation for the dish while the mandarin sorbet was an intense fresh centrepiece for everything. 

I’m very glad I made the effort to return to L’Autre Pied despite an indifferent meal before. After 7 very satisfying courses it was impossible to escape the conclusion that L’Autre Pied totally delivered here. Even better, the set lunch deal is excellent value for food of this quality. The service was efficient and helpful without being overly friendly although the atmosphere in the room was pretty relaxed.

It is still a bit short of the places that I would describe as my favourites but there’s no doubt that L’Autre Pied will be somewhere that I would happily return to in the future.

Overall Rating – 4/5