Muse has been on our to go to list for quite some time. John and I love Great British Menu, Tom Aikens often stars on there and so that sparked the ooo it would be cool to go to his restaurant. Johns birthday created the perfect excuse to book in. Here’s the details
Location
Located in London’s Belgravia, 38 Groom Place. It is not an obvious location, you wouldn’t just stumble across it. That said it’s perfect in the sense of it’s like a little hidden gem in amongst some gorgeous houses and a little London Pub. A stone throw away from Victoria and Knights Bridge. To book Muse check out their website here. We had cocktails and The Library Bar at The Lanesborough before hand. The best cocktails and nibbles (nuts, olives etc) but my god expensive..
Restaurant
It’s intimate and split across a few floors. Potentially was a house before hand. Kitchens on both levels and all open plan. The option to sit up at the chefs counter or at your own private table. We opted for the chefs counter and I thoroughly enjoyed watching them meticulously put dishes together. I’m still so impressed at how cool as a cucumber all the chefs were. It was busy and everthing ran like clockwork.
Food
The food was faultless, I mean how could it not be. Tom is about minimal waste and draws on child hood experience for his current menu. I loved this and the menu presentation was fun too. We had an 8 course tasting menu priced at £130 per head, including pre nibble mini poppadum and petit fours with coffee at the end (additional cost for tea and coffee)
Some stand outs for me, from the snacks their take on a KFC, so good and the corn dippy thing my god if I’d had a spoon the bowl would have been clean. The Langoustine was incredible too. The best of the best however was the sea bass, the best piece of fish I have ever eaten. Of the puddings the palette cleanser a mini Solero style ice-cream sorbet thing was just perfection. Lastly I can’t not mention the bread. The bread itself was a delicious sour dough fresh out of the oven, ordinary yes but the butters were a whole level of bread and butter that I’m sure should be illegal, a salted cultured butter and the most insane chicken flavoured butter with crispy chicken bits. I’m only accepting bread and butter this way from now on.
Drinks
Started with cocktails, there were nice, mine was a little strong but great non the less. I got a little bit carried away with the it’s husbands birthday so lets just do it and we went with the wine pairing. Something we have never done before and it seemed the perfect restaurant to try it. The wines were nicely paired and we very much enjoyed the experience of it. That said I did feel a little rushed, stupid yes but I felt l needed to finish the wine with the food course and you just couldn’t keep up with that. Saki with the scallop dish was great to try and something new to me. Another point to make, we are also more red wine drinkers and it was mostly white wines. It was a really great experience and I love hearing about the wines and why they had chosen each wine but I think for us we would have enjoyed a bottle of red more and at £95 per person, I would have been a lot better off too.
Final Thoughts
Muse is definitely one to add to your list if you’re the kind of person who enjoys a tasting menu. The experience of sitting at the chefs counter was brilliant and we both really enjoyed the food. An extra cute touch they gave you a little breakfast parcel to take away including a home made jam, tea, mini pastry and a little drink. Such cute touch.
The food was everything I had hoped and more and the experience was brilliant. It’s certainly a special place and I would love to revisit. My only comment would be it’s pricey if you include the drinks pairing. A gratuity is added which I nearly passed out at when I saw it. By that point however I was so happy from the evening I didn’t question it.
Have you tried Muse? Let me know in the comments. Leave me your favourite restaurants to check out too. For my last foodie post click here.
Rach xx
