Aubaine Mayfair — Restaurant in London

Just over a week ago, I was alerted to a new cronut copy on the market by @Wilkes888. Aubaine (@Aubaine_UK) is a collection of restaurants/cafes in some of the posher parts of West London and serves up modern French fare all day. I've yet to try it out (although the food I did see on a later visit looked quite tasty) but more the point I was here for their cro-dough. In short, the cro-dough is rich and flaky, comes in two tasty flavours, and represents good value for money which puts it in a solid 3rd place in the London offerings. As a disclaimer, I got these cro-doughs for free as I turned up on the launch day to find they weren't ready yet although the PR company had assured me they would be.

Aubaine has two flavours of cro-dough on offer: nutella and cinnamon. Both feature the same cro-dough pastry with the nutella boasting a generous piped topping of hazelnut chocolate goodness while the cinnamon one has been tossed in a heavy coating of cinnamon sugar.

The cro-dough itself is fairly large and roughly the size of a flattened softball. It has sharply defined layers (a good sign of a well made laminated pastry) that peel apart with gentle pressure. It has a rich butter taste and is slightly oily to the point it leaves a sheen on your fingers but not so much that it becomes greasy. Toppings-wise, although I love the flavor of Aubaine's nutella, it's a messy proposition with the hot cro-dough causing the nutella to melt and smear. It's good fun to eat - just make sure to have a napkin on hand to clean up! The cinnamon sugar is more evenly distributed which does tip the scales slightly in its favour when I took a straw poll among my friends.

Ah, worth noting that the cro-doughs are only available starting around 8.30-9am each day as the kitchen starts up at 7 and it takes at least an hour to warm up the oil and do the final fry for the cro-doughs.

The Aubaine cro-dough retails for £2.50 if you take it to go or £3.50 if you...

Considering that this restaurant is in one of the most posh neighbourhoods of London, the least you can expect is flawless service and food. Unfortunately, our experience was anything, but this. Where do I even begin? Walking in to the front door, a member of staff who was outside barged in through the door and knocked my partner with her shoulder. After sitting down and waiting for at least five minutes before a waiter decided to ask us what we would like, we ordered two coffees and scrambled eggs. Specifically, we ordered one portion to share and we asked for two extra plates in order to share the one portion of eggs. However, even without asking for the extra plates, when someone says the portion will be shared, it is inevitable that extra plates have to be brought to the table. Unfortunately, the scrambled eggs came without extra plates, and when we asked the waiter to bring us plates, she brought us two tiny plates that a coffee mug cannot fit on, and after asking for normal sized plates, the particular waiter was wondering around taking orders from other tables, knowing that we are waiting for two plates. For these reasons, I cannot rate this restaurant above one star however, for a Sunday, I must point out that the restaurant was understaffed with only two members of staff serving the whole restaurant, which could be a reason for this atrocious experience. Personally, I will never be visiting again, and I would not recommend this place to any of you, especially with all the other alternatives in an area...

So the fork had a deal for food and we wanted to try it out as we haven't been to this location. It's a hidden gem of a location which you would walk past if you didn't know about it. I love the decorations they have used it feels very exotic and fun. We ordered the calamari which was lovely and fresh. Baked vacherin which was delicious a rich cheese that is messy but god does it task amazing. Miso aubergine which the miso sauce is so tasty and it's difficult to just have a bit of it. The chicken supreme it was so tender to eat and every bite just again makes you want more. The lobster pasta had that rich flavour and my girlfriend loved it. We shared it was half price so we went to town. The desserts are my favourite here. We had the millefleur which the filling is so lovely and you wish they just put it in a bowl for you to scoop. The pear tart had this home made goodness that reminds you of that skilled aunt that made amazing sweet goodness. The chocolate and coffee cake wasn't that rich and it was okay. They did a valentine's chocolate cake which was amazing I wish they did it again. Service was wonderful and they took excellent care of us. I highly recommend here and look on the fork app for deals and with the receipt they give you 20% off. If you found my review helpful please press like. Thank...