Last Updated on March 10, 2025
A New Vintage
5.0 out of 5.0 stars
Named after the great Château Pétrus, the Pomerol Bordeaux wine producer, Gordon Ramsay’s restaurant Pétrus has long been one of the main players in the London fine-dining scene. From its opening 1999 in St. James St. as Ramsay’s second restaurant with Marcus Wareing leading the kitchen, to the relocation in The Berkeley Hotel where Wareing ended up running his own restaurant in the room which is now La Môme, the Pétrus name has retained its lustre.
Now in Kinnerton St, Belgravia, with new head chef 33-year-old Orson Vergnaud having just retained Pétrus’ Michelin star, it seems like the perfect time to check it out and see what this new phase in the restaurant’s history offers. Trained in Toulouse, Vergnaud has worked in London since 2012 and with Gordon Ramsay since 2022. With head chef roles under his belt at D&D’s Le Pont de la Tour, Jason Atherton’s City Social, and the Galvin brothers’ Michelin-starred La Chapelle, Vergnaud is no stranger to running a kitchen and is keen to bring unusual new ingredient combinations combined with classical French techniques into his four ‘seasonally led menus’ each year. Vergnaud has also developed the ‘chef’s table experience’ into a 9-course feast with matched wines.
Pétrus sits in a relatively modern development in the heart of Belgravia. Interiors are by the Russell Sage Studio, a favourite of Ramsay. The room is circular and centred around a spherical glass wine room which houses more than 2000 bottles from a 1200-strong wine list. There is a patterned oatmeal carpet, and the restaurant is punctuated by red claret and silver accents in a space that speaks of understated luxury.
The restaurant has just launched a terrific-looking new weekday lunch menu priced at £45, but to get an overview of the Pétrus offer, we mixed and matched dishes from the set lunch, Prestige and Discovery menus. To set us up for what turned out to be a fabulous gastronomic treat, we started with a couple of glasses of fizz; the crisp brioche notes of Devaux, Cuvée D, Brut and the elegant strawberry flavour of the English Coates & Seely Rosé Brut from Hampshire.
As with all the dishes we tried, our amuse-bouches were stunningly presented, technically immaculate and plated on a new set of fine Limoges china, which set them off beautifully. A fragile tartlet of heritage carrot combined a delicate crunch with the acid sweetness of a lemon gel.
The tender flesh of a beef tartare croustade was livened up by tiny slices of pickled gherkin.
A cylinder of a gentle taramasalata in a wafer-thin bric pastry was spiked up by a ‘coastal XO’ sauce and a salty dob of caviar on top.
The malty crunchy crust of pillowy sourdough bread came with salted butter and a clean, herbal chicken consommé.
We had two exceptional fish starters. From the lunch menu, a soft, tender cut of cured salmon, topped with a crisp shard of nori, sat in a lovely herbal buttermilk, peppery from horseradish. A more luxe dish of delicately smoked eel was perfectly cooked, with the flaky flesh sitting in an eel velouté and topped with the gentle saltiness of oscietra caviar, strips of celeriac and an apple gel. For me, the accompanying stuffed doughnut with its herbal chimichurri sauce filling was an unnecessary extra, with the sauce too powerful for the eel.
A silky lobster raviolo served with finger lime and fennel chutney sat in a rich, dark lobster bisque bursting with concentrated crustacean flavour. Our matched Corsican Vermentino, Paradella Patrimonio 2022, had a bright salinity and a long finish.
A beautifully plated dish of Isle of Skye scallop with coastal herbs, lemon gel, a foamy olive oil sabayon and a vegetal herb purée featured a perfectly caramelised scallop surrounded by ingredients that spoke wonderfully of the sea. The fresh minerality of our white Burgundy from the Mâconnais region, La Soufrandière, Pouilly-Vinzelles Climat, Les Longeays with aromas of white fruit and almonds, was a lovely accompaniment.
For our main courses, we stayed with a white Burgundy, but this time a very different proposition: the rounded tobacco flavours of a Saint Aubin Premier Cru, 2022. It brought out the savoury elements of a tempura-coated chicken breast topped with a rich meaty jus gras a glorious stuffed cabbage with miso.
A standout dish was my main of rack of Dover sole with textures of kohlrabi, yuzu and the mild curry spice of a Vadouvan sauce. Both main courses were technical triumphs that didn’t compromise on flavour. If you want to see how chef Vergnaud cuts and cooks the fish, his YouTube video, which has gone viral, is here.
A duo of sorbets, rhubarb and champagne sorbet and a powerful herb sorbet with blackberry granita were a necessarily astringent palate cleanser before our desserts.
A very refined pear sable (think posh shortbread) came with white chocolate, the spikiness of pink peppercorn and the fragrance of verbena. It was one of the prettiest desserts I’ve seen in a long time. The accompanying Donnafugata winery Ben Ryé, 2022, Passito de Pantelleria was full of punchy apricot and fig notes.
From the set lunch menu, the ‘Black Forest’ dessert, topped with white chocolate ‘opaline’ transparent tiles and the welcome acidity of a clementine sorbet, was gorgeous with the floral, caramelised Orange Muscat Essencia, 2022.
Not that we needed our Petits Fours, but melt-in-the-mouth honey and lemon madeleines, vanilla macarons and choux pastry with pecan nut cream were too good to resist.
From the evidence of our meal at Pétrus, fine dining is alive and kicking. With impeccable but friendly and informed service, food that blurs the boundaries between art and utility, and an innovative approach that pays homage to culinary classicism, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Orson Vergnaud didn’t pick up a second Michelin star next year. If Belgravia prices feel too daunting, go for the weekday lunch menu, one of the great value offers in London. The quality is outstanding, with the difference being the cost of the central ingredients. You won’t regret it!
020 7592 1609
Looking for other Gordon Ramsay restaurants? Check out our reviews of The Savoy Grill and Lucky Cat Bishopsgate
