La Petite Maison

Press Reviews (11)

• Michael Winner (19th October 2007)
  
  “Pathetic”, “inhospitable” and “miserable” staff do not contribute to our hero’s enjoyment of his visit to this Mayfair newcomer. The Gallic fare is “ordinary” and “average” too.
• Nick Lander (6th August 2007)
  
  A gum-chewing waitress in the only off-note in Nick Lander’s review of this “distinctive” niçois restaurant, the critical rave of the season. As Lander notes, its biggest challenge “may come only in a few months when these key Mediterranean vegetables disappear for the winter. “In the interim, La Petite Maison’s distinctive style is a welcome addition to all that London currently has to offer.”
• Tracey MacLeod (31st July 2007)
  Food 4/5 stars; Ambience 2/5 stars; Service 3/5 stars
  
  Despite having dropped the name of one of her own guests (Helen Fielding), Ms MacLeod comes over all woman-of-the-people in disparaging the clientele of this much-fêted Mayfair newcomer: “a spread of grand old Mayfair types, big-haired blondes, trustfund twentysomethings and Max Clifford”. “Not since I went to Cipriani, another Mayfair spin-off of a much-loved European original, have I looked around a restaurant with the more certain knowledge that I would not be coming back.” The décor – fêted by others – doesn’t do it for her either: “the overall effect is about as Mediterranean as Alan Titchmarsh” – “far from having any authentically French atmosphere, La Petite Maison occupies international waters”. For this is just “the latest addition to the theme park of brand extensions springing up in London to cater for the influx of wealth washing through the city”, and “though it will probably win a fanbase among the inhabitants of Richland, it seemed plain weird to us”. Enough already!
• AA Gill (31st July 2007)
  4/5 stars
  
  Adrian Gill is well placed to review the smash hit of the moment, as he reviewed the Nice Petite Maison “a couple of years ago”. It is, he says, the place “celebrities go who like to eat well, rather than to be seen”. So he’s in a position to pronounce that both the setting and the menu at the Mayfair newcomer are “frenchly French”. And, apart from the puddings, he finds the food – especially the roast chicken – very good too.
• (23rd July 2007)
  
  This is one of those rare weeks where not only does ‘everyone’ review the same restaurant, but they all come to pretty much the same conclusion. In fact, apart from the blessed Mrs M (who gave the place just two stars last week), almost all reviews of this Mayfair newcomer have so far been a rarely-heard hymn of praise.
• Giles Coren (23rd July 2007)
  Meat/fish: 7/10 points; Cooking: 9/10 points; Space: 9/10 points; Water: 0/10 points (Evian, Perrier); Score: 8.33/10 points
  
  Coren again has “a really wonderful restaurant for you”. He apologises, because he knows readers “love a hammering” – “all the surveys say so. It’s why the ‘my-starter-tasted-like-poo-in-a-sock’ school of restaurant criticism is so much to the fore these days.” Who can he have been thinking of?
• Jay Rayner (23rd July 2007)
  
  “In a city which appears to have skipped a season and moved straight from spring to autumn, La Petite Maison offered a wonderful blush of summer”, opines the Observer’s man. The first thing you should do when you arrive – the dish taken an hour to cook – is order the poulet de noir au foie gras, which is “the most thrilling dish to arrive on a London menu in years”. It is even as good as the benchmark, Parisian version (of Chez L’Ami Louis), and rather cheaper.
• Jenni Muir (23rd July 2007)
  5/6 stars
  
  “La Petite Maison has quickly become a hotspot”, notes the lady from Time Out. No wonder, on the basis of her review, where little – apart from the occasional price – is faulted. A scallop carpaccio, for example, was “quite marvellous”. And a crème brûlée “was enough to feed three and certainly ranks as one of the best in the city”. “Also generous was a drily moussey chocolate and orange tart that was offered as an alternative to the chocolate fondant that had sold out at lunchtime“. “But it looks like high demand is something this restaurant is going to have to get used to.”
• Terry Durack (23rd July 2007)
  14/20 points
  
  The Independent’s man comes in with one of the few middlish-of-the-road reviews on the Mayfair newcomer. The menu, he concludes, is “a breath of fresh Niçoise air for London, though sadly with Cote d'Azur prices. It's a typically South of France mix of the rustic and the sophisticated, the French and the Italian, with tapenade, artichokes, lentils, fish, seafood, pasta and grilled meats all present and correct”.
• Fay Maschler (17th July 2007)
  2/5 stars
  
  Most reviews so far of this would-be fashionable Mayfair newcomer have swallowed whole the bit in the PR about how the Nice original is supposedly patronised by the likes of Elton John. All credit to Mrs M, then, for doing a bit of lateral research, and finding out that the web reviews on it tend to have headings like "Over-hyped, Terrible, Save your Money, This is not a Restaurant, and Just Nothing Remotely Special". She doesn’t find the offshoot quite as bad, but the review is far from the raves seen elsewhere.
• Marina O’Loughlin (9th July 2007)
  5/5 stars
  
  “I lurved it. I want to marry it, have its babies.” Metro’s critic really goes overboard for this Mayfair newcomer, which “comes from the same stable as Zuma and Roka”. It “isn't the most technically brilliant, fancy-shmancy cooking in London”, but “golly, it's good”. And “fellow diners as eye candy add to the entertainment”. “There are reactionaries”, she fumes, “who'll say this is a weak copy of the Nice original”, but “it isn't”: “the food is every bit as good.”