Espresso: Michel Roux Jr's London's Top 5 Hidden Gem Restaurants

0:03I'd love to know what are some of your hidden gems like in London or like yeah not necessarily favourite restaurants but those ones that aren't particularly obvious yeah yeah well and there's one that i really enjoy in clapham that's only been open a few years now and that's called plusar um that's opposite northcote pub yes yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah a little corridor of a restaurant small restaurant yeah um and the team in there really doing very well i mean i really enjoy there i've been there five or six times and my daughter and son know as well um it's really unpretentious well cooked food nothing silly no froths and foams and flowers or anything silly like that it's just good some really interesting wines as well really nice interesting wine list lovely friendly service yeah I really enjoy it and it's just got that lovely neighbourhood feel to it and you know I live 15-20 minutes away from it I'd pop in there whenever I can.

1:06So that's really heartwarming to see as well, to see small places like that succeed and do well. Because whenever I walk past, it's always full. So they're obviously doing really well. More and more difficult for me to get a table now. But that's heartwarming. And let's not always talk about negatives and talk about the pubs that are closing and restaurants, the hospitality industry, finding it more and more difficult. You know, let's showcase and say there are positive stories out there. That's one of them. Any other sort of places, hidden gems, underrated? Not that I've been to recently. I've been to some very, very well-known, big, you know, Mitch and Stard restaurants recently.

1:55I've been trying to work my way around. Because I've been working so damn hard at the restaurant at Gavroche over the years, I've got a lot of restaurants you go into then which one what's on your sort of search yeah I've got a lot of catching up to do so I've been trying to do all the one Michelin star restaurants in London and so you know I've been to Mountain recently I've been to um I was going to say BB but BB haven't got their Michelin star yet which is shameful bloody bloody good um Cole I'm trying to remember I went to Ikoi recently and it's got two stars the guys names escape me Cole guys coming on the podcast soon.

2:31Yeah? Yeah. George, isn't it? George? I can't remember his name either. Sorry, I'm terrible with names too. That was bloody good. Really? Jesus, yeah. Really, really good. But, yeah, it's really great. And it's, you know, that Michelin star rating, it's incredible how, and it's really good, I think, to see the different styles that they've got, all these one Michelin star. There's no, it's not one, you know, one size fits all. They're not going to be all the same. Yeah, because I think, yeah, what are the different styles? Because I'm stylistic and I love that. I love all that stuff, how you can kind of achieve the end goal.

3:14Like the brown omelette, white omelette is the perfect way of it. It's the same thing, right? Yeah, because both of those omelettes were Mitch and Starlet. Exactly, exactly. But it's how you get there. And I think that's where you can put your soul in your work, which I think is really, or your personality in your work is really important. So what are some of the sort of different textures in these restaurants that you've seen? So, I mean, if you ask the Michelin Guide, and I'm sure if they were here today, they would back me up on this, what makes a Michelin style? It's food. Yeah. They will say, first off, it's what's in the plate.

3:46So it has to be great ingredients, really well cooked, obviously. and what they're looking for as well is consistency. So it has to be really consistent. So if they come in on a Tuesday, it has to be exactly to the same level on the Wednesday, the following day or whenever. And they want to see the character and the character and the soul of the owner or there has to be real identity to the place. So a place like St. John's, for example, where it's, they might be serving up one day a boiled ham, parsley sauce, mashed potato. That's it on the plate. But it is the best ham you can get your hands on.

4:37It is beautiful mashed potato and a parsley sauce to die for. You know, lump-free, has a wonderful flavor, depth of flavor, a freshly chopped parsley, et cetera. So simple. really really really pared down simplicity but it's perfect but you could go to another mitchin star restaurant one mitchin star the equivalent same level yeah where you will have little flowers on the main course and it will be you know 100 ingredients in there uh and it Totally different. Totally different. Yeah, it has one which in style. But they are a reflection of the person that's running the restaurant. They are a reflection of their character.

5:26And it's not one's better than the other. No. It's just two different styles of cooking, but are reaching the same level of standard, as it were. it's very, very difficult to understand at times. I mean, even me as a seasoned pro. Yeah, but I think a lot of it is, again, I think putting your soul in your work in any kind of creative pursuit is it creates, it's one of those things, you can only notice it when it's not there. You have to look in reverse, right? It's like, it's... So as I said earlier, you walk into a restaurant and you can feel an aura. Yeah. You can feel it. Two months free. Yep, that's what Espresso sponsors Unleashed are offering.

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