Les Platanes on Bruton Place will be chef Thierry Laborde's French Bistrot de Luxe

Catherine Hanly 10 May 2019

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A Hot Dinners exclusive:

What: Les Platanes

In a nutshell: A taste of Southern France in Mayfair

Summing it all up: French chef Thierry Laborde is back in London and this time he's bringing a taste of southern France to cobbled Bruton Place.

The low-down

Tucked away off Berkeley Square, Bruton Place already has two cracking London establishments on it - the venerable Guinea Grill and Bellamy's. Now a new restaurant hopes to make that a holy trinity. Les Platanes sees French chef Thierry Laborde - who you may remember from the well-regarded Chabrot Bistrot d’Amis - turning a 19th century townhouse (most recently the site of Babel House) into a French Bistrot de Luxe.

Laborde, whose CV also includes time at Le Gavroche and Alain Ducasse, will have as his Operations Director Anton Efimov who you might recognise from Mari Vanna or Chinawhite.

So far, so good, but what about the food? Well it seems Laborde is sticking with what he does best. Les Platanes will celebrate Southern French cuisine - but they'll be serving up a more modern take on the region's classic dishes. So there'll be starters like warm native lobster salad with fennel and fresh peaches or you might fancy the warm potato salad, topped with a poached duck egg and Ossetra caviar.

For mains dishes include Cornish turbot accompanied by Artichokes à la Barigoule alongside sweetbreads, fresh morels, and asparagus or you can opt for a larger dish to share as a group like roast chicken from Gascony, served with foie gras and extra fine beans. Laborde is also promising a Paris Brest for the dessert section.

Any Mayfair restaurant needs to offer a good wine list and Les Platane are saying theirs will be 'keenly priced' with a selection of Bordeaux, Provence and Languedoc wines. There'll be a selection available by glass or carafe but also some more spendier wines for bigger budgets like a 1996 Chablis Grand Cru Valmur, Maison Verget or an 1986 Château L'Evangile, Pomerol.

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