L’Art du Fromage

Press Reviews (4)

• Giles Coren (12th April 2010)
  8
  
  “I arrive at the position that L’Art du Fromage is a brilliant little place. Honest, wholehearted, fascinating, original and charming”. Despite needing nine hours sleep to recover from his visit to the Chelsea cheese restaurant, the critic is impressed by the French cuisine on offer, with “light, crispy, savoury, sublime” tarte flambée Strasbourgeoise proving a particular highlight. With the exception of Roquefort ice-cream (“I could eat it maybe as a starter”) desserts are also “lovely”, if unecessary: “I’ve got to say the tarte flambée aux pommes with calvados was almost too much. In itself, it may be the greatest dessert I’ve had in years...but you’d really only want to order it after a meal with no other cheese in it”.
• David Sexton (1st April 2010)
  2/5 stars
  
  “The cooking style here at L'Art du Fromage would suit outdoor workers in Siberia very well; the gentry of Chelsea, I suspect, not so much”. A mixed review of the new restaurant, where décor is “stark” and “very much northern French”. Non-cheese starters prove “disappointing”, and while tartes flambées are “satisfying and a bargain”, the critic can't help but feel that other cheese-rich dishes just aren't “irresistible enough to justify the damage it would do to the waistline and the carotids”.
• Jay Rayner (29th March 2010)
  
  “I regard the fondue as the very apex of man's achievement in the pursuit of deliciousness” – the critic embarks on his visit to this Chelsea cheese-based restaurant with high expectations. He is, however, ultimately disappointed. It may be a “rather sweet little place” run by “charming, earnest French boys you would want to hug”, but the much aniticipated fondue proves “dismal” and “underseasoned”, with the rest of the menu faring little better. Special mention is reserved for the Roquefort ice-cream – “the stuff of blood-soaked nightmares”.
• Marina O'Loughlin (11th March 2010)
  
  The critic is eager to visit this ambitious Chelsea newcomer that focuses “almost monomaniacally on le fromage: cheese, specifically French, in its unadulterated state or teased into all kinds of whiffy, calorific and heart-stopping incarnations”, and the menu - “the kind of thing that would make a turophile weep with pleasure” - does not disappoint. “Is it lunacy? Or are they properly on to something? Whatever, I love them for it.”