Last Updated on May 24, 2025
New Head Chef Impresses at Pied à Terre
5.0 out of 5.0 stars
Pied à Terre has been around since 1991 and is London’s longest-running restaurant to retain a Michelin star. Head chefs have included such luminaries as Richard Neat, Tom Aikens and Shane Osborn; but the one constant has been owner David Moore, who still presides over this grande dame of Fitzrovia’s Charlotte St with style and authority. New Head Chef Alberto Cavaliere arrived in January 2025, taking over from Phil Kearsey. British-born and with a CV that includes Marcus, Robuchon and Sabor, Alberto combines Asian influences with a classical French technique. I’ve visited the restaurant a number of times over the years and am fascinated to see what he brings to the table.
Pied à Terre’s interior is intimate and sensual, decked out with copper, mahogany and Brazilian leather. It’s a floral cocoon with sage green banquettes, a ruby red carpet and teal bucket chairs. There’s an eclectic mix of artwork, mirrors and Edwardian light fittings with the gentle propulsion of low volume dance music creating a subliminal energy.
We are having a mix of the 8-course tasting menu (£155) and the plant-based tasting menu (£135) with wine pairings. There’s also an à la carte option, a three-course lunch menu at £69 and a ‘Lunch Complet’ at £135 with wine pairings and all the extras. Sommelier’s wine pairing starts from £85 per person.
First out of the kitchen were an unshowy rustic country loaf and a light, spongy brioche served with Normandy butter. The breads allowed the flavours of the four terrific canapés we tried to shine.
Barely cooked fresh Italian peas popped with flavour in a gentle dashi stock.
A soy and mirin marinated quail egg, cutely served in an eggshell, was pimped up by the fluffy piquancy of a wasabi sabayon.
A delicately crisp-shelled crab croustade came with a light crab filling topped with the saline crunch of salmon roe.
In a clever touch, a soft, sweet beef tartare was served in a caviar tin topped with some delicious Exmoor caviar. For these early dishes we were drinking an Alceo Verdejo from Familia Bastida in La Mancha, Spain which had both tropical fruit flavours and a layered minerality.
The first dish from the menu at Pied à Terre was a “Tuna” Crudo. It was actually mock tuna made with watermelon doused in a ponzu sauce with daikon (Japanese radish). Perhaps naively, I was looking forward to the “tuna”, so I was let down by the watermelon and its slightly oily sauce. Give the dish a different name!
Our next wine was a Sauvignon Semillon blend from South African winemaker Duncan Savage. Made using minimal oak, the wine was clean and saline with a fruity roundness that allowed the flavours of an Orkney scallop tartare to shine. Slivers of scallop were studded with the crunch of almonds, spiked with yuzu for acidity and sweetness and steeped in a dark, vegetal and salty Salsa Verde made with wild garlic oil and coriander and garnished with wild garlic flowers. A sublime dish!
Glazed Veal Sweetbreads came in a rich, unctuous Albuféra sauce with smoked olive oil, the saltiness of guanciale and the sweetness of Canadian Minus 8 Vinegar and Tropea onion. Fiona loved the stickiness of the sauce, which was cut through by the light fruitiness of a Moraza 4 Caminos Rioja, one of the new wave of lighter Riojas.
My tortellini sat plump and pleasing in another deep green sauce, this time a Cavolo Nero and garlic velouté with pickled lemon for acidity. The pasta had plenty of bite, and the velouté was a profound ode to the joys of chlorophyll! The accompanying organic and biodynamic Domaine Alice & Olivier de Moor Vendangeur Masque Bourgogne Blanc, 2022 from Burgundy was a classic Bourgogne Blanc with a lovely minerality and apple notes.
For fine dining to deliver you need some top-end ingredients. Cornish turbot with smoked eel, champagne, N25 Oscietra caviar and white asparagus was a gloriously luxe dish. An
Argentinian La Cayetana Criolla Blanc, full of orchard fruit notes and salinity, added to the experience.
A dish of Anjou pigeon with pink Lautrec garlic and blackberry-stuffed morel was fabulously presented with full-blooded flavours and a gamey, rich jus. The red fruit and spice notes of a
Navossa Xinomavro from Northern Greece (like a Nebbiolo) brought out the fruit notes of the dish.
Intense umami flavours were present in the grilled Maitake mushroom with aubergine caviar, chestnut mushroom and a vin jaune foam. This was another standout plate well matched by an Anthony Thevenet Morgon from 2022, which was full of earthy tannins and blackcurrants.
Tète de Moine is an Alpine Swiss cheese made with cow’s milk that is similar to a Gruyere. Grated and then plated at the table with a sweet pineapple and apple chutney, and a sesame and poppy seed Lavoche flatbread, the dish was a pleasurable diversion, especially with the spice and pear notes of the biodynamic Marc Tempé Am Zelle Pinot Blanc Alsace 2021.
For a palate cleanser, a loquat sorbet spotted with a Pedro Ximénez reduction hit the spot.
A white chocolate crémeux with yuzu, lemongrass and basil had beautifully balanced flavours. A Demeter Zoltan Szamorodni 2019 was a classic honeyed Tokaj that brought out the sweetness of the basil.
Petits fours at Pied à Terre comprised elegant Earl Grey and bergamot macarons and the tropical acidity of lychee pâte de fruits. They were perfect for a post-prandial energy boost with some excellent coffee.
It’s easy to take a restaurant such as Pied à Terre for granted, but that’s a mistake. Operating at such a high level for so long is an incredible achievement, and new Head Chef Alberto Cavaliere is opening an exciting new chapter for the restaurant. The fine dining experience still has a vital place in our culinary ecosystem as it’s the primary location for innovation. If you haven’t been to Pied à Terre, you should!
Pied à Terre
34 Charlotte Street
Fitzrovia,
London W1T 2NH
020 7636 1178
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