"Spending a chunk of money on a long-winded meal is easy to do in London. There are plenty of tasting menus that suck the life out of you before spitting out your wallet, along with a few petit fours for good measure. The Ledbury is different. It's a British fine dining restaurant that feels relaxed and worthwhile, even if its velouté-pouring fanciness can run longer than an opera. Open since 2005, this Notting Hill go-to has seen the townhouses around it renovated, the 4x4s in the driveways grow bigger, and the London dining scene change. The fable of a chestnut biscuit and an always-full water glass isn’t enough for many special occasions these days. The Ledbury gets that. This is a humming dining room with couples, tourists, swaggering bankers, and W11 mothers taking Etonian sons out for a spot of lunch. The sound of chatter can rise and sometimes you can’t quite catch what your server said about the British wasabi being scraped in front of you. All in all, it feels bizarrely like a normal restaurant for normal people because, for lots of those inside, it is. video credit: Jake Missing photo credit: Jake Missing photo credit: Jake Missing photo credit: Jake Missing If there’s one fine dining trap The Ledbury does fall into, it’s time. A full tasting menu here can easily break the three-hour mark, so come for lunch when the room is flooded with light and you can shave off a few courses and 40 quid. It’s also worth knowing that not every course has a crescendo, but there is some top-tier cooking going on here. Be it the laminated brioche with cheese, tomato, and koji glaze, or an absurdly luscious turbot with sake velouté. The Ledbury is all about British ingredients doing British things. Which doesn’t explain why one of the canapés is ham on a rock, but we’re not complaining. In the meantime, go look at the mushroom cabinet downstairs. Have a glass of fizz. Ask what the story is with that cuboid of goat’s cheese. Life at The Ledbury is about as laid-back as this kind of restaurant can get. Food Rundown photo credit: Jake Missing The Tasting Menu The full tasting menu at The Ledbury is eight courses and costs up to £225 at dinner. If that’s too dear, you can get six courses for £180 at lunch. It changes seasonally, but you can expect an array of nibbles, from cured hams on a rock, to a delightful little chestnut biscuit filled with parfait. There’s an obligatory tasting menu scallop, topped with a moreish dollop of caviar. And the turbot with sake velouté is one of the most faultless dishes we’ve ever had from a tasting menu. Not every course is like this, though. But when a plate at The Ledbury comes together, it may well enter the leaderboard for the best version of that thing you’ve ever had. Also, the bread course is sensational." - Jake Missing
