Muse by Tom Aikens — Restaurant in London

This review is split into a short faq/highlights and a general rambling, overall, I had a really great experience!

Who am I and when did I visit?

Seated for 1 July 2022. I am in my late 20's and have eaten at a few fine dining restaurants (michellin and otherwise). My taste preference is more for east / south east Asian type flavors and smoky flavors (e.g. American BBQ), as opposed to euro sauces. I don't know much about wine, so although I tried and really liked the pairing I'm not the best judge

Review:

1. From my perspective as a casual diner, I thought it could be helpful to think about how Muse compares to higher Michelin ranked restaurants that travelers might be considering: -Anecdotally, I ate lunch at a 3 star french restaurant on the same day as my dinner at Muse. I felt Muse outperformed the 3 star restaurant on a number of levels: the bread, the cuttlefish dish, the general "soul" and thoughtfulness of the course progression, the open kitchen / close seating ambiance, the flavor profile variety, and value for money. The 3 star restaurant had better seats, a slightly better main meat course, richer sauces, and "military" like attention to customer service. I would eat at Muse 9 times out of 10.

2. What makes the food at Muse special and worth a stop? (part 1) -have you ever watched reruns of Marco Pierre White cooking in his early days and wondered what it would be like to dine at the restaurant? While looking up restaurants to eat at, there were few opportunities to taste food prepared by the chef in their prime (e.g., Gordon Ramsay isn't the head chef at Ramsay anymore). If you are someone who's perception of flavor is influenced by ambiance and "energy", in addition to the quality of cooking, a meal at Muse could be a once in a lifetime chance to experience the "heart" and "intention" behind each course. In my experience, this created an unforgettable dining experience. Oh, and the bread is absolutely fantastic.

3. What makes the food at Muse special and worth a stop? (part 2) -flavor creativity. My personal philosophy is that the reason to dine out is to taste flavors I am not able to create at home (due to my lack of time and experience) . You'll find expensive caviar or prime cuts of wagyu or lobster at many fine dining restaurants. These are wonderful, but in theory could be prepared at home with a bit of guidance from YouTube and a higher grocery budget. Tom's meal at Muse is not one you can replicate at home. You will be exposed to new flavors (mackerel 3 ways, peach and snowcrab), food structures, and variations on classic ingredients (again, the bread!)

4. which courses did I enjoy most and which did I enjoy least? -Most: Mackerel trio snacks, Pickled snacks, Peach and crab dish, the bread, the lasagna component of the chicken dish, the lettuce sauce /garnish around the snail dish, the Laphroaig gummy from another world -Least: the roasted component of the chicken dish (although the skin was great), the lobster and potato snacks, the elderflower ice cream in the popsicle, a few parts of the post dinner desserts (the sour candies were too hard to finish quickly as an example)

Other highlights of my experience

1. The kitchen is open seating and for not a moment does that deter the chefs or staff from remaining composed and engaged with guests, everyone was so friendly and willing to chat for a moment!
2. Tom noticed I was progressing through my courses faster than other guests and went out of his way to instruct the servers to move my meal and food preparation along, which was cool to see live.
3. About midway through the meal I asked if I could buy a loaf of the bread. Obviously the answer was no. AND YET, low and behold, while sitting in the waiting room on my way out, the hostess gave me a half loaf of bread that must have been left after service. The thoughtfulness of the chef and staff really came through
4. the Laphroaig gummy, regardless of taste, is one of the most exciting single things I have...

Let’s start with the positive, the food, which to be honest is why you visit restaurants, was overall good with some expectational dishes. The 10 course tasting was both delicious, innovative, using some of our favourite ingredients from around the UK. The langoustine has to be our favourite and loved their take on the classic prawn on toast.

Sadly that’s where the positive ends. The restaurant is within a traditional muse, so small and compact, which made for a very chaotic evening. The seating has to be some of the worst we have had to endure, which made for a very uncomfortable experience. How can you seat a party of 4 with the table coming right up to your chest is beyond us.

The place is very warm, so beware.

We also felt ignored by the front of house staff, who frankly let us down with their slow, chaotic and sometime ignored service. We noticed the party of 5 at the next table appear to have the attention you come to expect from a Michelin star restaurants. We had to ask the staff twice if they would bring our pairing after the dish was serviced, after our first pairing was service 15 mins before.

The sommelier lack the knowledge and rush her explanation of the wine, and failed to give any reason why it was paired with the dish. This is sommelier 101.

At the end of the evening the guests are given a small care package. We were given one per couple after seeing that same party of 5 given one each. All guests should be treated equally.

Sadly the poor experience, mean I had given it only 2 stars and sits at the bottom of the list of 12 Michelin restaurants we have...

Delicious, warm, welcoming & unpretentious. Beautifully tucked away within a Mews, its by far one of the best 1 star restaurant I have eaten within. Every course was not only beautifully presented but had taste credentials to match. No dish disappointed, and even the bread & butter was note worthy. The staff were very friendly & the chefs actually served your dishes which was a nice touch. What impressed me the most, is as someone with an allergy who normally feels like I miss out due to the adoptions made to a dish so I can eat it - there was barely any difference between my dishes & the main menu the team simply substituted ingredients so the main essence of each dish was like for like. My only criticism would be there were two members of staff who really let the team down - 1. Handing us a menu and telling us we couldn't order the 8 course menu only the 5 (which was plenty, but would have been nice to decide!) and 2. Being told by a member of staff he would suggest we speeded up eating as we were behind where we needed to be, despite us not having a single break between courses apart from when we needed to take a break for the loo! This really did taint what had been a fantastic experience, however the rest of the staff noted our disappointment and really did there best to pull it back and ensure we were able to continue enjoying our experience without the pressure of rushing. Despite this happening, I would throughly recommend a...