CORD by Le Cordon Bleu — Restaurant in London

“CORD” offered a highly perplexing mix of positives and negatives, which was strongly overshadowed by offensive prices for underwhelming food.

This restaurant markets itself as offering the finest, Michelin star quality food, at provincial restaurant prices; by virtue of training London’s top chefs to create challenging dishes for sophisticated pallets. Unfortunately our individual dining experience can be described as being underwhelming, with need for clear improvement.

The restaurant is set off the street, and is accessed on a side street through major doors, which are not attended regularly. This certainly adds to the allure of an exclusive experience, but could’ve been signposted in a more appropriate way. There was, clearly, nobody in charge of a cloakroom, and no front of house staff who are set at a reception.

It was only when we walked into the dining room that we were ushered to our table. The decor is generally pleasing, but tricks the eye to missing the important points. Chairs were comfortable enough, but not something to sink back into during a long meal.

Service: Service was excellent. Pleasing to note is that when food is brought out, they explain exactly what they’ve done when preparing the food. This is a nice touch, especially when interesting.

Presentation: Almost Michelin level, and forgivable if it was. Some small areas for improvement.

Food quality: 4/10. We were sat near the kitchen and heard the head chef say to a junior not to over-saturate the raw ingredients with seasoning. This is absolutely the correct approach, but much of our food was under-seasoned, and bland without. Opportunities were clearly missed both for the starters and the main courses, which should be taken for granted at these prices.

Desserts were generally better, and I wonder if this is due to preparation beforehand, but they still lacked the magic dust of many a top establishment. In regards to our desserts, I regrettably write this while sat on my toilet. The nicest item we collectively had was my dessert, the “Chocolate Croissant”. I noted in the tasting notes that this dish was extremely rich; although there is a clear line that is drawn between what is rich and what is eye-watering. I am now painfully aware that the error of this distinction results in “gold leaf stew”.

Overall, we were not impressed, but this is not an embittered review where we say “we won’t be back”. I hope this place improves, as it has the potential to with a change of direction.

Please also be aware that everything you order, attracts a 12.5% service charge, so bear this in mind...

Was very excited to try this restaurant as it’s a fine dining restaurant running by one of the most famous French culinary school, Le Cordon Bleu. However I have to say that the dishes were very disappointing to me.

I have tried most of the signature dishes, scallop ceviche and lobster ravioli for starters. Scallop was okay, refreshing sauce and good level of acidity but there was this unknown herb that ruined the taste and aroma of the dish which made it felt very exotic. Ravioli was fantastic, inside was fully filled with lobster meat although couldn’t taste any sign of sea urchin. Shellfish bisque sauce was amazing, super rich flavour and perfect seasoning that goes well with the ravioli.

Got very disappointed with mains, I had venison wellington, which came with fancy basket on top of stones with smokey candles. On a separate plate had some other components such as mushroom with sausage and jus sauce. They were all bland and lack of flavours, zero chemistry. Venison tasted good even though the mousse didn’t really have any impact. Traditionally the wellington is a fillet steak covered with mushroom with ham to enhance and maximise the flavour of umami and savouriness which went completely opposite way in this case.

Similar problem with the monkfish, said bbq monkfish but had no bbq flavour, just taste like brewed in teriyaki sauce and clearly overcooked. Had much better bbq monkfish dish many times before. Avocado fish cake was the worst, weird texture, lack of flavour, not really sure what they meant to do here.

Bread, drinks and dessert were all great. Interior was really nice, luxurious and exquisite aurora everywhere. Super kind and friendly service too, the staffs were all professionals, really looking after the tables and knows how to deliver comfortable service. Not a big deal but couple of waiters had such small voice with accent that I could not understand the description of the dish very well.

In a nut shell, fantastic service and lovely interior, foods not quite there, if I may give a feedback regarding dishes please focus on the flavour of the whole dish and each component must go well together in order to create harmony. Care less with the decoration and fancy plating, it really does not mean anything if the dish is lack of flavour and...

We had dinner here as a party of five. We reserved online and were met with a very nice host who stored our coats and walked us to our table. Very spacious round table, it was elegantly prepared, as the whole restaurant was: tastefully furnished, it provided and elegant, but not pompous athmosphere to dinner, which was helped by the dim lighting. The kitchen is open view, but its position to the side of the dining room doesn't make it the centerpoint and a source of distraction. We had the 9 course dinner menu, which is supplemented by regular bread and butter refills. The dishes were all seasonal and elegantly presented, and provided for both classic and experimental combination of flavours, which were all well executed. We also ordered wine: a couple of bottles of white and a lebanese red cuvee. The service personnel were all amazing at their job and very cordial. Despite our rather extensive wine knowledge, the sommelier could still provide valuable details that helped in our wine choices. We all work in high-end gastronomy so we can recognize great service and great food, which was the case here. At the end of the dinner we were offered apricot-infused cognac, made in house, which was a nice touch. Price is fair considering the food quality, service quality and the attention to detail of this restaurant. Would definetely reccomend for a tasting...