Petrus, London

Having visited a couple of Gordon Ramsay's restaurants previously, we debated about whether or not to visit his latest opening but having checked out the reasonably priced lunch menu we decided to give it a try. This Petrus is the second version, The original was located at the Berkeley Hotel which is now Marcus Wareing's restaurant. This one is also located in Knightsbridge just a short walk away from the Berkeley.

The Restaurant
The restaurant is very open, styled with claret, silver and cream colours. sofas form a small waiting area at the front of the restaurant. In the centre of the restaurant is the wine celler/storage, a huge glass tube containing all the wines of the restaurant. visually impressive. Contained in this cellar is the most expensive bottle of wine I have ever come across on a wine list, a magnum (1.5 litres) of 1961 Petrus, at the wallet melting price of £49.500, we ordered a bottle each to get us started (if only). This is quite an epic mark up considering if you were to buy this bottle off a wine supplier it would set you back at around £15-16,000. The service charge for the bottle alone is around £6.000. For those of you are not Bill Gates there are glasses of wine at around £5+.

Menu
We went for the lunch menu of £25 per person. I ordered pressed foie gras and confit duck with carrot chutney and salad to start. For my main I ordered hanger steak with green beans, shallots and red wine jus. for my dessert I opted for roast fennel creme brulee with mango. First impressions of the food were that they were larger portions than what I was expecting. The starter was exceptionally rich but very very tasty, it was served with Melba toast and was a good combination of textures and flavours with the crunch of the carrot and toast with the buttery smoothness of duck and foie gras. The 'hanger' cut of steak is a recent discovery of mine and was quite happy to see it on the menu as I had been wanting to try this particular cut of beef. the hanger steak is taken from the diapraghm of the cow and located near the kidneys, it is usually known as the butchers steak as they would keep it for themselves instead of selling it. The steak was very deeply flavoured, much more 'beefy', for want of a better word, than cuts such as the fillet or sirloin, it was also a little more chewy than a fillet cut. The main overall was like a posh Sunday roast which was a nice change, a bit of relief from the intricately designed food of the previous restaurants. The dessert was a nice end to the meal, a light creme brulee with hints of fennel running through it served with refreshing mango sauce, prior to the dessert we each received a little brandy snap cone filled with lemon marscapone, very tasty. Our meal was finished off with coffee, mini bars of dark chocolate and chocolate covered almonds, the remainder were boxed up for us to take away.

Duck and Foie Gras

Hanger Steak

Creme Brulee

Service
The service was excellent, due to several underground lines being closed, it took over an hour to get across London, making us 20 minutes late, the staff were accommodating and told us not to worry as we stumbled in slightly sweaty. The restaurant manager for those of you who watch Hells Kitchen USA is Jean-Philippe Susilovic who was very friendly, charming and informative.

Overall
Good food, good service. If you want to try a Ramsay restaurant or two I would recommend trying this one first due to the good value lunch menu before trying his flagship restaurant at Royal Hospital Road or his restaurant at Claridges.

Petrus Restaurant
1 Kinnerton Street
Knightsbridge
London
SW1X 8EA
020 7592 1609

Nearest Underground Station : Hyde Park Corner