One O One

Never has the phrase "don't judge a book by its cover" been more appropriate than when applied to One-O-One seafood restaurant in Knightsbridge. In this genteel part of town, over the road from the stately, baroque Mandarin Oriental and next door to the clean bright lines of Harvey Nichols department store, squats the ugly grey edifice of the Sheraton Park Tower hotel, its mould-stained pods stacked up like breeze blocks, blocking out the sun and casting a depressing dirty shadow over Hyde Park. It is largely this reason that I've taken so long to visit, because despite various excellent reviews by people who eat out much more than I do, it requires quite a leap of faith that anywhere could serve anything worth eating in such a hideous building. But if anyone can, self-confessed seafood obsessive and head chef Pascal Proyart can. Amazingly, Proyart joined One-O-One a full nine years ago, and yet it seems to be only very recently that the restaurant is being spoken about as a destination. And ever on the cutting edge of restaurant trends in London, I visited last Friday.

It is a blessed relief, not to mention more or less a requirement, that One-O-One is much, much prettier inside than out. You enter into a large, crescent-shaped bar with a fancy glass table centrepiece. To the right of the bar, containing plush comfy chairs and attractive spot lit wood-panelled walls, is the restaurant itself - by no means a large room but with well-spaced tables and the atmosphere of a luxury cruise liner. Service is almost perfect - friendly without being obsequious, efficient without being snooty. Our party, as is often the case due to a combination of the London traffic and London weather, arrived in drips and drabs before 7pm but this didn't faze the staff at all and everyone's food arrived at once despite the orders being staggered somewhat.

One-O-One does have a traditional 3-course A La Carte menu, but the done thing is to go for their 'Petits Plats' selection - you choose from 3 to 6 small courses (no prizes for guessing how many I went for) and, in a clever bit of organisation, it's possible for each person on the table to have a different number of courses. This is quite unusual for what amounts to a tasting menu, and yet I don't remember anyone ever obviously "sitting out" a course despite everyone ordering different numbers. Full marks to the front of house on this one.

House bread is served with a choice of normal unsalted butter and an extraordinary salty seaweed-infused butter that looked like a Walnut Whip. It seemed to split the diners on our table down the middle, with some people relishing in the fishy flavours and others being not so sure. I loved it.

Amuse was a rather forgettable fish mousse of some sort topped with salmon roe. Fine, but considering this is the only dish of the entire evening that the kitchen is pushing onto you without you asking for it, you'd think they'd have free reign to do something a bit experimental - after all if you don't like it you can hardly ask for your money back. As it turns out I need not have worried that chef Proyart was playing it safe, judging by what was to follow.

First of my selected petit plats was three cute little columns of the most unbelievably sweet and silky King Crab leg meat, served alongside a perfectly judged sharp hit of pickled winkles to cut through the crab. It was everything you'd want from a dish - honest, strong flavours from premium ingredients, cooked sensitively and with skill, and with a master's sense of balance of flavour. Full marks.

Next up, a little stack of lobster meat and celeriac (a great combination), a couple of presentations of apple, and a samosa (they called it a "pastilla") containing more of that gorgeous sweet crab meat. Amusingly, they first served this dish without the sorbet, and after I pointed it out whipped it away and brought it back con sorbet and rotated 180 degrees to try and make it look like a new plate of food. I didn't mind though, as the samosa was still hot and the service otherwise had been so superb. There were others who had this dish that evening who thought there was a bit too much going on here, what with the sorbet AND the jelly AND the hot samosa AND the lobster salad. But I thought it was just ambitious enough, and a very attractive plate of food to boot.

Pan-Fried Scottish Scallops were unfortunately slightly disappointing. The scallops themselves were tiny and although of high quality and sweet, there wasn't enough of them to cut through the big slabs of oily preserved truffle they were lumped with. Also the foie gras was quite dry and "liver-y", and although it may seem odd to criticize liver for being too "liver-y", proper seared foie should be buttery and sweet and rich and not taste like one half of liver and onions. A good dish conceptually, let down by ingredients and execution I think.

Slow Roasted Pheasant with (more) Foie Gras & Pancetta was much better. The pheasant had amazing texture, melt-in-your-mouth buttery-ness and great, deep flavour. A little accompanying endive charlotte topped with trompette mushrooms was slightly tough but had been cooked just enough to rid it of the bitterness without it turning into sludge, and a chestnut purée offset the whole thing quite nicely. A little messy in presentation perhaps but otherwise top notch Michelin cooking.

The last of the savoury courses, a medallion of beef fillet steak with a burgundy sauce, was again very good. The beef was clearly of very high quality and tasted strongly of cow (amazing how many don't), the rich sauce guiding and complimenting the meat instead of smothering it. More of those trompette mushrooms and a couple of cubes of roast potato provided vegetation. As with the King Crab and the pheasant, One-O-One knows when to let the superb ingredients shine through, and the star of the show in this dish was the meat.

Dessert was a very attractive bowl of day-glo apple sorbet and chunks of apple, served in a light pink blackberry froth. It tasted how you'd imagine apple and blackberry to taste - nice enough but little more than a glorified fruit salad. Very pretty though, isn't it?

A few very pleasant petit fours arrived to offset the shock of the bill. One-O-One is a proper haute-cuisine restaurant, and despite the 50% off the food offer (thank you Topable), I still managed to get through the best part of £100 just on my own. Having said that, we had plenty of very nice wine (the list is pretty eclectic), a glass of champagne to start and a lovely peaty Lagavullin 16 to finish, and I can honestly say that I felt the price I paid was very fair. Good food very rarely comes cheap, and these ingredients in particular - King Crab, lobster, black truffle (albeit preserved), foie gras - never do. And on top of these flashy ingredients you get sparkling service, glamorous surroundings and seven or eight superbly constructed courses of probably the best seafood in London. All you need to do is ignore the concrete monstrosity outside on top of it, and you'll have yourself a wonderful evening.

Cheese's profile     Other reviews by Cheese     Cheese likes    

101 is a seafood restaurant in the Sheraton Hotel in Knightsbridge. Pascal Proyart is from Brittany, so his love of the produce of the sea is natural. The dining room has (not surprisingly) something of the feel of a hotel but is smart and well appointed. Starters are £14 - £19, mains £23-£29, with the nice touch of being able to put together a tasting menu of 3-6 smaller versions of the a la carte dishes, from £38 - £68.

The wine list is substantial and reflects a lot of thought in the choice of growers. Examples are Cloudy Bay Chardonnay 2006 at £66 for a wine you can buy for around £16 in the shops, or at the higher end the superb Didier Dagenau Silex 2005 at £134 for a wine that you can buy for around £70 or so retail. New Zealand’s excellent Pinot Noirs are represented by Felton Road Pinot Noir 2006 at £83 for a wine that costs around £19 retail, and Ata Rangi Crimson at £50 for a wine that will set you back around £14 in the shops. Bread is made from scratch, and was either white, brown or foccacia, the latter fresh and with agreeably soft texture (5/10).

A nibble of brandade of cod and salmon with a little toast was a pleasant if slightly bland (3/10) way to pass the time as we browsed through the menu. Norwegian red king crab ravioli was cooked “Thermidor” style with cheese, served with duxelle of mushroom and a little crab bisque. The crab flavour came through well, and worked nicely with the earthy flavour of the mushrooms (5/10). Green asparagus risotto was capably executed, with quail egg “onzen” (a Japanese term for hot spring; in this case a slow cooking process) was a nice take on a classic ingredient combination, with chervil as a garnish and some rather superfluous dried morels (4/10).

My main course of guinea fowl and pigeon was roasted, still pink, and with careful seasoning. This was served with a little pancetta, broad beans and peas with sage, with a port-based jus (4/10). My dining companions’ fish dishes involved sea bass cooked in a salt crust, which had good taste but was cooked a fraction long, and an enjoyable sea bass fillet with tapenade. We didn’t make it to dessert, but coffee was strong and top-ups were offered without any greedy supplements. Our bill was very low mainly because of a half-price offer on the food from Toptable.

Service was attentive and dishes arrived at a steady pace. It is a few years since I have been to One O One, and it is as I recall: good quality fish, cooked generally well, without the dishes ever being really exciting. That may sound like faint praise but I don’t mean it to be; good cooking is a rare enough thing these days, and I have had all the “excitement” I need from a culinary perspective recently in some London restaurants. This is enjoyable food, well executed.

Andy's profile     Other reviews by Andy     Andy likes    

Breton Chef Pascal Proyart has created what I believe to be quite simply one of the best restaurants currently on the London scene.

Great attention to detail has been given to the immaculate and glossy decor. Earthy colours have been matched to deep blue sea tones, giving an overall elegant yet relaxing atmosphere. The lunch menu, which includes a great selection of petit plats (small dishes), is divided into an a la carte and business set menu, with a selection that varies from two to six dishes. The menu has a strong Breton influence with fish as the predominant dish, however there are a couple of meaty choices also on offer.

Both waiters and sommelier are very attentive and professional, offering expert explanations for individual dishes and good wines to pair them with. The a la carte menu has an excellent selection of cold and hot starters and four mains. We decided to opt for the Three Tsarskaya Oysters and Pan-Fired Norwegian Scallop with Onsen Quail Eggs. Each dish was presented with artistic perfection and tasted sublime, as well as looking pretty on the plate. The oysters served chilled and in tempura, offered an explosion of textures and flavour. Whilst the pan-fried scallops were incredibly meaty and brilliantly paired with the soft and creamy poached quail's egg.

After such a good start we were eager to try our mains. The Pan Roasted Norwegian White Halibut, also known as Atlantic Halibut, was served on a bed of coco beans with a delicious Langoustine dumpling on the side. Norwegian seafood is known for its quality, especially White Halibut after it's presence in the 2007 Bocuse d'Or competition. The fish had an incredibly soft texture and distinctive taste, which was well complemented by the truffle and coco bean side. We also ordered the Poached Norwegian Cod Loin that was accompanied by a chorizo carpaccio and squid. The chorizo gave the cod a creative twist, whilst the squid with anchovies complemented the overall texture and taste of the dish.

Cheeses and desserts were brought to us at the end of our mains. Equally superb in choice and taste I could have not been happier with our lunch at One O One. I had great expectations for Chef Pascal Proyart and have been magically satisfied with this surreal but real Sunday lunch.

Valentina's profile     Other reviews by Valentina     Valentina likes    

We had dinner on Saturday 8th March.We had booked a table for 7 people the name of Millward looking forward to what we had gbeen told would be a great dining experience.We arrived to be told that they only have a maximum of 6 to a table in the restaurant and we wou;ld have to eat in the private dining room and that they would waive the fee! We were then told that we would all have to eat the same so no choice we asked why seeing as it was their mistake and were told it is the rules in the private dining room (which we did not ask for) why would the chef care where we sit and why could we not order what we wanted.We were upset and as we had no where else to go we stayed.We then paid ???110.00 pounds each and went home hungry as the portion sizes were tiny.I would never go back and we as a group feel very cheated.

maggie's profile     Other reviews by maggie     maggie likes    

Breton Chef Pascal Proyart has created what I believe to be quite simply one of the best restaurants currently on the London scene. Great attention to detail has been given to the immaculate and glossy d???cor. Earthy colours have been matched to deep blue sea tones, giving an overall elegant yet relaxing atmosphere. The lunch menu, which includes a great selection of ???petit plats??? (small dishes), is divided into an a la carte and business set menu, with a selection that varies from two to six dishes. The menu has a strong Breton influence with fish as the predominant dish, however there are a couple of meaty choices also on offer. Both waiters and sommelier are very attentive and professional, offering expert explanations for individual dishes and good wines to pair them with. The a la carte menu has an excellent selection of cold and hot starters and four mains. We decided to opt for the ???Three Tsarskaya Oysters??? and ???Pan-Fired Norwegian Scallop with Onsen Quail Eggs???. Each dish was presented with artistic perfection and tasted sublime, as well as looking pretty on the plate. The oysters served chilled and in tempura, offered an explosion of textures and flavour. Whilst the pan-fried scallops were incredibly meaty and brilliantly paired with the soft and creamy poached quail???s egg. After such a good start we were eager to try our mains. The Pan Roasted Norwegian White Halibut, also known as Atlantic Halibut, was served on a bed of coco beans with a delicious Langoustine dumpling on the side.Norwegian seafood is known for its quality, especially White Halibut after it???s presence in the 2007 Bocuse d???Or competition. The fish had an incredibly soft texture and distinctive taste, which was well complemented by the truffle and coco bean side. We also ordered the Poached Norwegian Cod Loin that was accompanied by a chorizo carpaccio and squid. The chorizo gave the cod a creative twist, whilst the squid with anchovies complemented the overall texture and taste of the dish. Cheeses and desserts were brought to us at the end of our mains. Equally superb in choice and taste I could have not been happier with our lunch at One O One. I had great expectations for Chef Pascal Proyart and have been magically satisfied with this surreal but real Sunday lunch.