Twenty-four hours after leaving our sleepy village in the Languedoc (population 720 spread over 11 km2) JR and I disembarked the number 390 bus at the London Hilton stop on Park Lane to a quite different scene.
There was a host of men sitting both in and outside the branch of the EL&N café on the corner, a phalanx of taxis outside the Hilton, and a parade of limos, all black, cruising down Hertford Street. As we passed the entrance to Nobu, the COMO Metropolitan Hotel’s well-established restaurant, the doorman promptly swung its front door open for us. But we carried on walking a further 10 metres, which brought us to the slightly scary revolving door that is the main entrance to the hotel, where we turned right at the reception for the entrance to Labombe.
Labombe is the new restaurant that has been put together by the highly creative mind of Christina Ong, the owner of all COMO hotels worldwide, and the culinary talents of chef Jonny Lake and his wine-obsessed business partner, Isa Bal MS. These two met while working at Heston Blumenthal’s Fat Duck in Bray and then together opened Trivet restaurant in late 2019. It was over a dinner at Trivet (now with two Michelin stars) a couple of years ago that Ong first mentioned to Lake and Bal the possibility of the space that had been the disappointing Met Bar in the COMO.
Lake and Bal came to see the space and liked what they saw. Ong has considerable form when it comes to enticing well-known chefs into her premises. As well as Nobu, in the early 1990s she attracted Gualtiero Marchesi into the Halkin Hotel, another London COMO property a few hundred yards away, followed by David Thompson, the Australian-born Thai chef, and then the Arzaks, father and daughter, based in San Sebastián. Ong is blessed with an understanding of what chefs want: the hotelier provides the space and the capital, the chef provides the team, the menu, the magic and the energy. A relatively straightforward deal (the devil is invariably in the detail) was made, with a performance agreement that should ideally benefit and reward both parties.
When we were invited to try out this new restaurant during its soft opening, the first thing I asked Lake was to explain the name. Bearded, quite serious but with an obvious sense of humour, his response took him back to Canada and his youth. ‘I was about 13 and for a school project I drew up my blueprint for an imaginary restaurant with menus, a layout and a simple design. I jokingly called this restaurant Labombe. My teacher liked all the work I had done but added at the bottom “Où sont les boissons?” [Where are the drinks?], an aspect that I was too young to consider important but I am sure Isa hasn’t overlooked.’
An expansive, red wine list promptly appeared, labelled Voici les vins, followed shortly afterwards by Bal himself. Looking increasingly like a two-legged Long John Silver without the parrot, he explained their approach to what is obviously a stimulating wine list. ‘It is divided into an A and a B list. The former is the collection of wines we currently find exciting for everyday drinking, including several from Georgia, Armenia, Greece and Türkiye, my home country. The second, B list, is because so many fascinating wine-producing areas begin with the letter b: Bordeaux, Burgundy, Barolo, Barbaresco and Brunello. Also, Jonny and I agree that with the increase in the cost of wines, wine represents a larger part of everybody’s dinner bill, so there are 150 wines on the list under £100 and 280 under £150. Plenty by the 125-ml glass, too.’
As with Trivet, the designer of Labombe is the Turkish architect, winemaker and occasional contributor to JancisRobinson.com, Umay Çeviker, whom I asked about his redesign. ‘My main objectives have been to draw as much natural light in as possible and open the room out toward the street and to position the wine cellar as the anchor point, a feature that signals the central role of wine in Labombe’s identity. Also I took the opportunity to layer the room with objects – books and rotating artwork – that bring texture.’ Certainly, at night, with no background music and just lively, happy chatter from other tables, the room, which seats 60, felt both vibrant and comfortable.
We found the menu unusually titillating. Labombe must be one of the very few restaurants to open in London in the past five years that does not offer a piece of grilled beef with a variation of roast potatoes (although there are three cuts of steak on Labombe’s menu).
Instead, the notion of creating something new, something beyond the scrutiny of the Michelin Guide, has inspired Lake to create a menu that in ambition is as much a break with the past as happened when the late Joël Robuchon wrote his first menu for L’Atelier du Robuchon and Daniel Boulud created the menu at Bar Boulud.
The longish menu is well worth reading thoroughly before ordering. What I found most interesting is that Lake has given a great deal of thought to both sides of every dish. To the braised coco beans, vinegar chicken sauce and green peppercorns that accompany the grilled monkfish (above) to the sauce of pickled mustard seed, green sauce and charred tomato relish that accompanies the Ibérico pork chop. Even their crème caramel comes with a bitter Campari caramel which had me almost licking the dish in which it was served.
But the place to begin a meal here has to be the bottom left-hand corner of the menu where there are seven ‘snacks’. These range from a hot tongue bun, which I have enjoyed at Trivet, to a king-oyster gilda, but we began with what was called bottarga toast, a generous quantity of mullet roe sandwiched between two triangles of thick, fried toast. We were tempted to order a second portion before our main courses arrived.
We followed this with the monkfish and coco beans with that vinegar chicken sauce and the sweetbreads grenobloise, which were accompanied by a combination of capers, pickled cedro – which boosted the crucial acidity – and a plate of spiced skin-on fries. These were served on medium-sized round dishes which has the advantage of physically pushing the main ingredient upwards. With these we drank a glass of 2023 Pinot Blanc from Thaya in the Czech Republic and a 2021 Centum Syrah from Sevilen in Türkiye. Both were excellent.
We ate at Labombe, most unusually during its shakedown period (so no bill), 10 days before the restaurant officially opens on Tuesday 16 September. It will open for lunch and dinner seven days a week from the end of October. The hospitality provided by Austrian general manager Philipp Reinstaller and his team was warm and welcoming while the open kitchen was supervised not only by Lake but also, behind the pass, by Evan Moore, another Canadian, who has cooked at The Fat Duck, Trivet and also in Catalunya.
JR ended with Lake’s Canadian speciality, butter tart.
Labombe is recommended for both the hungry and the thirsty.
Labombe by Trivet, 19 Old Park Lane, London W1K 1LB; tel: +44 (0)207 447 3334
Every Sunday, Nick writes about restaurants. To stay abreast of his reviews, sign up for our weekly newsletter.
