Maze

Reviews

• Dark

  It was the best of meals, it was the worst of meals. In fact in the end, it wasn't quite either, it was just maddeningly, bewilderingly inconsistent, and giving an overall score to a sequence of small dishes, 50% of which were excellent and 50% horrible, served half in daylight and half in increasing pitch blackness, accompanied by service that veered between winningly professional and laughably incompetent, will prove quite a challenge. Let's see how we do.First of all, the traditional Ramsay velouté starter. Perfectly pleasant, with a miniscule amount of lobster meat but with an interesting if not wholly successful cold parmesan ice cream thingy (OK, a "parfait"). As with so many of Ramsay's sub-3* dishes, it's admirable if not entirely loveable. A bit like the man himself, in fact.The first proper course was a neat little row of marinated beetroot and cheese constructions. These were pretty good for a vegetarian dish - the sharpness of the marinated veg was balanced nicely with the rich cheese and pine nuts added some pleasant texture. Nothing too extraordinary though.Up next, the famous Maze signature dish of an ironic 'BLT' - that is, tomato gelée, bacon onion cream and lettuce velouté. An ambitious dish (just look at the recipe) and one with a weight of expectation behind it, I'm afraid I was slightly underwhelmed. It was fine, just absolutely nothing more than you might think cold tomato jelly, bacon bits and lettuce soup would taste like. The best bit, in fact, was the accompanying croque monsieur, which was a perfectly balanced and strongly flavoured cheese and ham toastie. And who doesn't like a cheese and ham toastie?So, from the ridiculous to the sublime. The next course of pork belly, pig's head, crackling and jasmine tea was a pleasingly powerful mix of flavours and textures. The jasmine "tea", in particular, was as good a sauce I have had for a very long time, rich and satisfying with an incredibly deep, complex flavour. The pork belly was slightly on the chewy side but tasted good enough, and the crackling was delicate and fun to eat. I can only apologise for the photo, my poor iPhone by this time battling with the bizarre compulsion of the staff to turn the house lights down every ten minutes. I should also mention that a vegetarian dining companion had by this time been served a full four out of five dishes garnished with pea shoots. If you are a vegetarian and want to eat at Maze, you'd better like pea.So from the sublime, back to the ridiculous. Roasted Anjou pigeon was a disappointingly stringy cut of breast meat (I nearly pulled a muscle trying to cut the damn thing up), with a wobbly skin and an overly sharp red wine sauce. Sadly, that wasn't the worst thing about it though. Through the murk of the restaurant lighting (they had turned them down again) I noticed an ominous black blob of something very dark perched on top of the pigeon breast. Thinking it would be some sort of marinated fruit or braised vegetable, I popped it in my mouth. My stomach instantly heaved in reaction to a huge blob of bitter chocolate, sickly and overwhelming and completely unsuitable in this amount to the rest of the dish. Even if the pigeon had been good quality (it wasn't) or cooked well (it wasn't), the baffling addition of half a pound of raw 70% chocolate as a 'garnish' to this meat was a complete disaster. Adding a small amount of chocolate to liven up a red wine sauce or chilli con carne is perfectly acceptable. Dumping such a relatively huge amount onto a dish such as this (bearing in mind these are all small tasting plates) is a frankly unforgivable mistake. Awful.Unbelievably, the house lights dropped yet again before the arrival of the pre-dessert, which was a lovely shot of lemon sorbet sat on top of an incredibly strongly flavoured lime and passion fruit jelly. Served with it was a perfectly moist almond financier (cake). I was beginning to feel dizzy by this point, and it wasn't just because I couldn't see the floor. How could the same kitchen that considered it acceptable to turn out that chocolate pigeon monstrosity also produce such an interesting and exciting dessert?The final course was served in near-darkness. The ironically-titled "peanut butter and cherry jam sandwich" was nothing of the sort, it was just a pleasant combination of peanut-flavoured ice cream and cherry jam and sorbet. I would like to tell you it was presented well, but I could hardly see it - I just blindly hacked away in front of me with my spoon until it eventually came back empty. It tasted fine, but as the saying goes we eat with our eyes first, and if I wanted to dine in the dark I would have booked elsewhere.I will also say a word about our waiters. The front of house was professional and sharp, and the sommelier friendly and helpful. But in between periods of excellent service was an incident where a member of our table (I wasn't drinking, for a change) was shown his empty wine bottle and asked (actually more like mumbled) something about wanting another one. This was, bear in mind, well after we had finished our last savoury course. Given a firm no, he slunk off, then another member of staff immediately returned and poured nearly a full glass of wine out of what suspiciously looked like the same "empty" bottle. Now, I wouldn't suggest for a moment they had swapped the bottles to make it look empty the first time, but even so the implication, without us being asked to examine the bottle closely, was that it was empty. And I wonder - had we had said yes to another bottle when first asked, would that final glass from the first bottle have mysteriously disappeared?The final insult, as is sadly so often the case, was the bill. I had barely more than a sniff of our single bottle of wine between the three of us, from the lower end of the wine list, and we only ate the "recommended" number of dishes - that is, 7 small plates of food each. And yet the bill came to nearly £100 per person. This is too way much to feel like good value when there are such glaring errors in the cooking. Perhaps, if you went every day for a couple of weeks and worked your way through the myriad of dishes you'd eventually be able to construct a flow of their best offerings and be able to enjoy a reasonably consistent evening. But by that time not only would you still only have a solid single Michelin-star meal but you'd have permanently damaged your eyesight and be about £1000 worse off. So your best bet is just to go to one of the many other much better restaurants in this price range. And that, sad to say, is pretty much all of them.

  Chrisp
  Review Date: 12/09/2009 Report review
• Joy to behold.

  ‘A thing of beauty is a joy for ever:Its loveliness increases; it will neverPass into nothingness;’ Endymion by John Keats.I have an idiosyncratic aunt, who loves her steak well done, in fact preferably charred to death. Many a time I’ve witnessed the piece of meat on her plate embarrassingly returned to the kitchen to be re-cooked because a slight hue of pinkyness had been detected. A good steak is primarily a wonderful thing and to have it cooked well done will most definitely pass into nothingness.I was and still am apprehensive about the ambience of the dining room. It’s got that clinically corporate thing about it. Being south facing, I can only assume the bright room is thus perfect for business lunches and the evenings will probably appeal to romantic couples who crave dark incandescent lighting. When booking go for table 228, this is where the entire dining room is under your watchful eyes and the happy kitchen just behind you. The service from the friendly staff was brilliant but only let down by the usual incomprehensible English spoken (as we all agree, it’s all too common in London) when describing the dishes. Small plates of Salt and pepper squid and Padron peppers were I thought pretty much generous in portions and thankfully delicious as well. My Creekstone New York strip steak was simply profound, this piece of meat was so totally melting and buttery, you might as well order it rare instead of my regretted choice of medium. My companion’s Aberdeen Angus fillet was the best he’s had until he tried my Creekstone. Like Barrafina, where we don’t have to fly to Barcelona for decent tapas; the Maze Grill have also done us more than a favour with the steak served, which can only be as good as the one found at Peter Luger in New York. Incidentally my accompanying sauce of Red wine ‘bordelaise’ with crispy bone marrow was mind blowingly yummy and it ought to be rightfully merited as a standalone dish. Companion’s pudding choice of Cider apple trifle with financiers and cider granité was suggested refreshing and perfect after a gratifying steak. My three separate servings of Cinnamon doughnut, café coupe, hot chocolate were delightful; those doughnuts were simply the best I’ve had. There’s one thing for sure, there’s simply no way I’m going to tell my aunt about this place. Secondly LTS (life’s too short), go and treat yourself to possibly the finest steak you’ll have in Blighty.

  Bellaphon
  Review Date: 10/11/2008 Report review
• Sue

  My husband and i visited Maze for our 2nd Anniversary, it was the 2nd time we had been, we went for our first anniversary and had such a speical time we decided to book again.The staff are extremely friendly, highly professional nothing is too much trouble. We went for the tasting menu, everything is cooked to perfection, my husband had the assiette of sandwiches as one of his dishes, the BLT in a glass was excellent, i will definately order this the next time we visit. The scallops as usual were extremely succulent.When we had finished our meal we sat at the bar, a cake was brought to us which said haappy aniversary, my husand and i both thought each other had ordered it, but we hadn't my huaband mentioned that it was our anniversary when he booked the table, obviously this had been noted at the time of the booking a nice touch.We will definately be booking again.

  Icensue
  Review Date: 12/08/2008 Report review
• A-Mazing... Ha?

  It's great, but not, um, amazing.It's all you would expect from a restaurant run by a great chef, situated in the 'sophisticated' part of town. You don't even need to have been here to imagine exactly what it'll look like. Everything is prim and proper yet remains convincingly unpretentious.Service is good, at one point we had 3 different waiters cleaning the table, seriving us wine and taking our order. You'd almost expect them to spoon feed you so as not to crease your shirt or dirty your hands.The 7 course meal was very very tasty, but incredibly rich. I've eaten in many places and this was the only one where I came out of still feeling peckish, but completely satisfied. The scallops are to die for.It's just missing something that makes me want to go again, lacks soul perhaps?Good for an experience / date but if you're looking for better I'd goto Fifteen...

  Vexille
  Review Date: 06/08/2008 Report review
• Bad value for money

  I visited the restaurant on the 26th of July along with my partner.The restaurant is pretty, the service is excellent but the food was not impressive...The portions are just enough to get the idea of each dish and were enough for me and my partner. They are well presented, but unfortunately it seemed like the chef's need to impress took over it all.We had the Chef's menu 7 courses option. I had the Chilled pea veloute with goat's curd, elderflower and parmesan parfait which is pea soup with a teaspoon of goat cheese at the bottom, with a small roll of sweet parmesan ice cream. The dish was too salty and tasted like it had too much leek in it, although it was not described on the title.For the second course I had the Marinated beetroot, Sairass cheese, pine nuts and Cabernet Sauvignon dressing - beautifully presented cheese nestled between thin layers of beetroot. I personally don't like beetroot but the combination of the cheese, roasted pine nuts and the vegetable was amazing.For third I had the Assiete of Sandwiches BLT - awful dish! A jelly of smoked bacon which takes over all other flavours. Wrong texture and flavor.My partner had the slow cooked quail & marinated foie gras - the texture of the foie gras wasn't right - too creamy and sickening.The forth was the Cornish red mullet, rice in sardine and saffron stock, roasted pepper puree and paella air - the fish was good and tasted fantastic with the red peppers and black olives (not original but at that point it was very refreshing). Now the paella was something else - a Spanish person would be insulted. It is a tiny portion of rice topped with raw whisked egg whites - it was tasteless and just wrong!For fifth I had the slow poached lamb - to me it was a bit too raw, but my partner loved it. The stock was fantastic and so as the mint hollandaise. The potato mash was creamy and rich.Overall - a nice experience, but the food was disappointing. Seems like creativity came first, and not the whole dish as a complete experience. I would not recommend this restaurant purely because I don't think you get a good value for your money.

  Foodbuddha
  Review Date: 11/07/2008 Report review
• Very easy to navigate

  I had to make a play on the word there, but the title is accurate. Maze felt effortless and I’ll expand on why below.A friend was visiting recently and we went on ‘Trusted’ tour of London. Sampled some of the best pubs, bars, nightclubs, small restaurants, pub food, but of course we had to visit a Gordon Ramsey place for the experience to be complete. Naturally, there had been very little planning before my friend arrived, so getting a table at Maze for Tuesday at 8pm when you call at 3pm on that usually unlikely. But here’s a tip. It’s hard to book a table at the restaurant, but you can still eat (very well) at the bar. And because most people don’t know that, the bar usually has some free space even you just walk-in.Note: there is a ‘helpful’ button below this review that was specifically designed to reward such generous sharing of insider knowledge.Now back to Maze and the fact it was effortless. Firstly, the menus. We had to go for the tasting menu, as there are simply too many very seductive tastes on offer to exhaust in one visit. At £55 per head it’s not cheap, but hey you won’t be going there every day. The thing that impressed me was that despite the amount of choice, going through the different options was simple and quick. Two pages only with excellent line spacing and some beautiful fonts made the process fast and pleasurable. The staff was very friendly, with Mr Atherton being at the door when we arrived and dispensing a warm hello and welcome. I think he was there working on the seating plan with the reception staff. The barman was excellent and in general the whole place had an air of quiet efficiency, without being at all overbearing or stiff. Mr Ramsey himself made an appearance later greeting the diners at the restaurant across the room, although not stopping to chat at us on his way to the kitchen. For some reason he was also wearing his kitchen apron, although I don’t know if he’s still cooking while there. He may be…Seemed like a very nice guy and you could sense the slight, extra alertness on the part of the staff while he was around.Ah and finally let’s talk about food. The tasting menu is split between small courses (starter equivalent), some more substantial ones and finally desserts. I won’t go through all eight of the courses we had, but the ones that really stood out for me were the ‘Beef ‘tongue ‘n’ cheek’ caper raisin and ginger carrots’ – with ‘tongue and cheek’ being a literal reference. I love a cow’s tongue and cheek, so combining the two was exceptional, but perhaps a bit heavy for a full course. I loved the artichoke veloute with braised duck leg and although the deconstructed pain au chocolat, required a small intro on how to eat, it was definitely worth it.After a two hour experience we both felt fantastically satisfied and not the least bit overeaten. The bill did approach the cost of a bargain flight to New York, but who’s got the time to fly there anyway? Plus with the way airports are these is much easier to just pop over to Grosvenor Square.

  Sokratis
  Review Date: 09/05/2008 Report review
• amazing Maze

  I took a trendy friend from Australia there;she is hard to impress.She was delighted with everything except for the artichoke and potato starter.For me the food was superb;I love the concept of taster quantities all immaculately presented.It is always a frustration when everything on the menu looks good,to have to choose 1.Here you can eat 2 starters,2 mains and a pudding with ease! The cost is not surprising but mounts up-with cocktails and good wine we spent £110 a head.The service was friendly and very efficient.Hard to fault it.

  Amandajf
  Review Date: 07/03/2008 Report review
• Top-notch

  Maze is a fantastic restaurant and is well-deserving of it's current one-star Michelin rating.I chose the Chef's menu on my last visit since I wanted a well-coordinated range of tastes, and I was not disappointed. All seven courses were absolutely stupendous, and the sommelier chose an excellent "flight" of three wines to accompany the menu. My wife chose from the standard menu and was also nicely surprised by the power and subtlety of tastes in each dish.If you can get a reservation, this restaurant is a must-taste!

  Jedc
  Review Date: 02/09/2007 Report review
• A-Maze-ing Menu and Wine Selections

  What a wonderful concpet and delicious dining experience. I love the creative flavours and textures on the sample menu and (although it bumps the bill up considerably) having the sommelier choose wines to accompany each course just jets the whole thing out of the stratosphere. I am not a huge lover of wine and found myself writhing in gastronimic delight at some of the combinations.The menu is a sort of french/fusion with small taster portions being served in succession. For someone who rather likes her food, I was nervous about being satiated after a series of small portions and can assure one and all I was fed full to bursting :)For the full Maze experience (and die hard foodies), I reccommend booking the Chef's table or private dining room; both of which make you feel as though you are sitting right in the heart of the kitchen action.If you are looking for an interesting night out with a group of friends who love good food, great wine and a relaxed but funky atmosphere you need to make a booking right now!

  Inkognitoh
  Review Date: 05/07/2007 Report review
• Ramsay's Protege

  I was invited to Maze last-minute and I have to admit I didn't even know of its existence until the day before.Its chef Jason Atherton is Gordon's protege and pretty bloody good.Three ways of eating. A La Carte (normal 3 courses), Set menu (4 dishes £30, 6 dished £45 all half or third normal size), or tasting menu (each dish £7-12 - recommended to have 4-6 each - pick your own tasting menu).I wasn't paying (thank God!) as we went for the A La Carte option. The courses we ordered amounted to almost everything! (except the ones involving Foie Gras; I am an conscientious objector).The rule here seems to be - be bold and you will be rewarded. Things are there for a reason. I am not a fan of beetroot and certainly wouldn't order it if there was lamb on the menu but when you have the freedom to order everything on the menu you can be pleasantly surprised. The "Marinated beetroot, Sairass cheese, pine nut and Cabernet Sauvignon dressing" was so good I have included a picture...The "White onion velouté with duck ragoût and cep brioche" was absolutely one of the best things I have ever tasted and suddenly resented everything on the table being 'for everyone to taste'; I wanted it all. This dish alone is worth the trip.It is worth noting here that you can just go to the bar and try just one or 2 things - tapas-style - but be warned the food is GOOD and you may order more.So much more to say. The drinks menu is awesome; I had a 20 minute tour of the booze (thanks Tom). The Sommelier, insightful and enthusiastic, the wine lovely. The desserts, inspired. You also strangely don't finish the meal awkwardly full but totally satisfied. Restaurant Director Michael very jovial, polite and witty. All the waiting staff attentive - just a little thing but I saw several people pull out cigarettes and a lighter appeared at the business end of the ciggie before the smoker had even found his/her own light.Point of interest: the food revolves around salt, not in every dish but it is there. Sometimes even still there in grains. I don't eat much salt so this was noteworthy to me but its just interesting how often it comes up even in the desserts. The almost bad bits: a bit pricey but this is some of the best food you will eat and we are not at Le Manoir/Petrus/Oxo-flippin-tower prices - I would venture that this was almost 'accessible' especially in this tasting format. We ate 20-25 dishes between the 3 of us (including desserts) that day and I expect I have forgotted some. Again relief of not paying; immense.We couldn't stay at our table all afternoon - understandable as they needed to get the evening set up ready. We could move to the bar.This is one of London's hottest mealtickets. Go.

  Robcarter
  Review Date: 01/11/2006 Report review