Bagatelle Unplugged

Last Updated on March 13, 2025

Wednesday nights at Bagatelle Mayfair, offers fine food, music and fun

Bagatelle in Dover Street, Mayfair, is one of a number of venues that belong to a French hospitality brand of luxury restaurants and beach clubs that celebrate the joie de vivre of the South of France with its epicurean spirit. They aim to provide a very good time to those who come to eat, drink fine wine and pop many champagne corks.  Bagatelle has branches in Bodrum, St Tropez, Courchevel, Dubai, Bahrain, Sao Paulo, Buenos Aires, St Barths, New York, Miami as well as Tulum and Los Cabos in Mexico. On Wednesday nights in the London Bagatelle Mayfair, the restaurant hosts Bagatelle Unplugged, an evening of live music which raves on until 3 am.

Bagatelle is located in an expensive neighbourhood where those with disposable income come to enjoy themselves. There was a time when young people in Gucci jackets might first go to a bar for drinks, a restaurant to eat and then on to another venue to dance the night away. Nowadays, they might instead opt for a clubrestaurant where food and live entertainment plus a club atmosphere are all rolled into one.

Invited to review Bagatelle Unplugged, I arrived at 8 pm, not sure quite what to expect. I was struck by how elegant it all was. Large chandeliers, comfy banquettes, lots of art on the walls, which on closer inspection were all themed around women, a white baby grand piano and more staff than I have seen on a restaurant floor in a long time. Bagatelle serves French Mediterranean cuisine and the staff are dressed in the manner of French waiters – black suits, some donning long white aprons. In the basement, there is a backlit display filled with bottles of champagne. There is a fabulous list of signature cocktails, whiskeys, Japanese whiskeys, Scotch and Irish, and an extensive wine list. There were a few middle-aged diners but for the most part, the clientele was in their 20s and 30s.

Bagatelle Mayfair is a place given over to conspicuous consumption. It is a venue that aims to entertain its clientele who arrive ready to party, in heels and party dresses. As the evening drew on the music got louder and louder, the chandeliers turning on and off to the beat of the music. Arriving at 8 pm all was relatively quiet with background music, a glass of champagne and a well rounded French menu to explore. By 11 pm the venue had transformed into a club atmosphere with thumping music, trays of shots crossing the floor, and some of the young people very hyped indeed. It was time for those of us old enough to be their parents to leave for home. I assume the party goes on until closing time.

In between, there was a very charismatic entertainer – a singer named Sophie who was accompanied by a pianist – and during their breaks, there were sections of disco music which I loved as it transported me back to my youthful era. I wondered what the younger diners made of these old disco classics which got my husband and I onto the floor to shimmy about. That really was fun and unexpected and possibly related to the fact that by now I had a glass of Perrier-Jouet champagne as a welcome drink, followed by a wine pairing with dinner. Later, the entertainment became slightly bizarre with an almost surreal floor show accompanied by sparklers, waiters jumping up on chairs and generally drumming up the vibe. Bagatelle does provide it all – food, music and entertainment – so be aware that if you are looking for a quiet French dinner, this is not the place. This is a loud and vibrant atmosphere.

Executive Chef, Franҫois-Laurent Apchié, who has worked in Michelin starred restaurants in Paris and Monaco, has a well-crafted menu and the food is really very good. The wine we tasted was delicious. The menu is well balanced with a list of starters, a cru section (ceviche, tartar and carpaccios), a selection of caviar, salads, pastas, mains, and desserts. We began with a few small sharing plates. A disc of tuna tartar looked very pretty topped with avocado and thin rounds of radish and basil leaves and was dressed at the table. The sommelier chose the wine pairing and the 2019 Chablis, Domaine Chevallier we enjoyed was utterly delicious. Its acidity and salinity was so good with the tuna and avocado combination.

Next we shared an aubergine à la parmigiana, crème de parmesan and one of the Bagatelle signature dishes, pomme spunta farcie aux champignons, sauce Albufera. This was a potato dish on steroids – a halved spunta potato, stuffed with mushrooms and anointed tableside with a deeply flavoursome meat-based sauce that had been reduced to a syrupy consistency. The kind of sauce that makes you want to lick your plate clean. This was a very rich dish so was perfect for sharing.

The aubergine parmigiana was well presented in a round, stainless steel dish and its parmesan cream was added tableside along with a fresh grating of parmesan. It was also rich and a good rendition of this popular vegetarian dish. The sommelier revealed his talent once again in pairing these difficult dishes with a Pinot Noir, 2020 Domaine Faiveley, Mercurey, La Framboisière which was suitably light, fruity, and very drinkable alongside the strong flavours of the two dishes it accompanied.

One of the signature dishes we did not try was a truffle pizza and at one point the aroma of truffle wafted past our table regularly. There is quite a bit of truffle on offer at Bagatelle where it can be ordered as truffle pasta or added to your frites, mash, puffed potatoes and more. If you prefer caviar, that can be added to your burrata with asparagus.

Considering the rich starters, we chose a fish dish for the main course – a whole fish cooked in lemon leaves. This turned out to be a seabass which arrived on a platter in all its glory before the waiter skilfully filleted it tableside. I do enjoy tableside service as it adds theatre and glamour to the meal and allows the waiter to show off some skills. The fish was so flavoursome and perfectly cooked that somehow we managed to eat the entire platterful. It was presented along with a salsa of orange, onion and pomegranate which was quite excellent.  It was accompanied by two side dishes, greens in the form of cime de rape, a Puglian dish of turnip leaves that I like very much and rarely find on menus in London, and fregola which is a Sardinian pasta here served with spring onions and parmesan. For this fabulous main course, the sommelier presented us with a glass of 2020 Chateau Moncontour Vouvray which was very dry and fruity with the flavour of quince.

Meat eaters can enjoy a whole roast chicken, lamb chops, veal shank or beef sirloin as mains and there are also prawns and other fish dishes alongside the pastas and salads.

After this enormous meal, we needed to dance a while to make space for dessert. The dessert menu was enticing but all I could manage – for the sake of the review – was a selection of homemade sorbets, coconut, lime and strawberry (all refreshing) served in a delicate scalloped bowl. My husband ordered a crèpe dentelles, crème légère à la fève Tonka. It looked gorgeous and the crispy, lacy pancakes shattered satisfyingly under the spoon, a lovely crunchy contrast to the Tonka bean cream and caramelised hazelnuts. Fresh mint tea and a double espresso were needed to help digest this veritable feast of a meal.

I had not expected to be having such a jolly good night out and it is testament to the savvy structuring of the music and entertainment (which changes as the night wears on), that older guests can have their fun too in the earlier part of the evening. At 10.30 the lights dimmed, the younger diners and the waiters stood on their chairs, clapping and gyrating. When an entertainer in a bright yellow outfit and mask (not the Covid kind) ran into the middle of the restaurant with waiters behind bearing aloft giant sparklers, the young clientele responded with enormous appreciation. I thought that in my middle-aged stage of life I was possibly not supposed to enjoy this sort of spectacle but I have to say that I loved it. By 11 pm it was really becoming rather OTT. Chairs were held aloft, napkins waving, the decibel level was threatening my eardrums, the waiters were dancing, drinks were flying by.  

Bagatelle is a venue that encourages one to leave all cares at the door. Service was warm and welcoming, staff were as attentive as can be and utterly charming. Come ready to be entertained and to enter into the spirit of the place. If you do it will certainly be a night to remember. To be completely transparent, this is not the sort of restaurant I would usually select myself, but the truth is that I had a wonderful time. The food and wine were excellent as was the service, the music and entertainment great fun until about 11 pm when it felt more like a club with food than food with music. If you are young or young at heart, you may want to dance the night away and I am sure that most of those there did just that. Hangovers at dawn.

Bagatelle

34 Dover Street W1S 4NG