What To Order At Chez Rose (And What to skip)

Chez Rose is one of London’s most anticipated restaurant openings this year. Led by Spencer Metzger, formerly of the two Michelin-starred Row on 5, it’s a more relaxed take on French bistro cooking. And it’s already pulling in plenty of attention.

Three weeks after opening, my sister and I head to Mayfair to see what all the fuss is about.

After our lunch, it becomes clear that Chez Rose is a restaurant of brilliant highs, and a few frustrating lows.

The cooking is often exceptional. Some of the dishes are among the best I’ve eaten this year. But as lunch goes on, little cracks begin to appear, and at over £200 for two, those cracks become harder to ignore.

So, if you’re wondering whether Chez Rose is worth it, here’s what we’d order again – and what we’d leave behind.

Quick info on Chez Rose in London

• Restaurant: Chez Rose
• Location: Pollen Street, Mayfair
• Cuisine: Modern French bistro
• Must order: Veal t-bone, dover sole, courgette flower, pomme puree
• Skip (for us): French onion gougere, sharing chocolate souffle
• Price paid: £200+ for two before drinks
• The lows: inconsistent service, timing issues

Find out more in the full Chez Rose restaurant review below.

A welcome that gets almost everything right

One of the nicest things about Chez Rose Mayfair is that it understands the little gestures.

Just as we’ve sat down, a basket of warm French bread and butter is whisked onto the table. We’re encouraged to ask for more whenever we’d like, and it’s the sort of generous touch that everyone loves.

The same thing happens at the end of the meal too, when the bill arrives accompanied by one crisp little biscuit each, made from Spencer Metzger’s grandmother’s recipe. They’re complimentary, they’re delicious, and they leave a lasting impression.

The dining room itself is elegant without trying too hard. Thick white tablecloths soften the room, moss-green leather banquettes sit opposite simple wooden bistro chairs, and although there’s only really one window, the lighting is warm enough that it never feels gloomy.

More importantly, during the first hour, the service is every bit as polished as the setting. Water glasses are quietly refilled before they’re empty, plates disappear almost as soon as we’ve finished, and courses arrive with reassuring confidence. Given Spencer Metzger’s pedigree, this is the sort of slick hospitality I’d hoped for.

Which makes what happens in the second half of the meal all the more surprising.

We begin on a high at Chez Rose London

The Chez Rose menu opens with a handful of snacks, which we’re told are designed to be one or two bites each.

The red prawn with tomato and Amalfi lemon is the obvious standout. My sister describes it as a delightful little bite, and she’s absolutely right. The sweetness of the prawn is allowed to shine, lifted by bright citrus and tomato before a gentle warmth quietly appears at the end.

The French onion gougère, on the other hand, leaves me rather more conflicted.

Inside, it’s wonderfully creamy, cheesy and bechamel-like. The problem is that the flavour immediately reminds me of a cheese and onion pasty.

Now, great food should transport you somewhere. Sometimes that’s a childhood memory, or a tiny bistro in Paris. Here, rather unexpectedly, I’m transported to Greggs.

That’s not necessarily a criticism of Greggs. It’s just not where I expect a £6 mouthful to take me.

Starters get things back on track

The Orkney scallop arrives sitting in a glorious pool of Café de Paris butter. It’s enormous, beautifully caramelised and wonderfully meaty, with a gently curried warmth from the butter that catches me by surprise.

Between bites, we tear off pieces of the complimentary bread and mop up every last drop of sauce.

Then comes my favourite starter of the meal: the courgette flower stuffed with ricotta and served with sauce vierge.

The courgette flower itself is sweet and delicate, while the ricotta adds a creamy,  grainy richness that gives the dish substance. Underneath, the sauce vierge brings freshness and acidity, and the tiniest cherry tomatoes are unbelievably sweet.

Every element seems to lift the next. It’s elegant, restrained and absolutely delicious.

Highs at Chez Rose carry on with mains

If the starters hint at what Spencer Metzger can do, the mains remove any lingering doubt.

The veal T-bone arrives first, and it’s magnificent. Thick-cut, beautifully charred on the outside and still delicately pink within, it’s one of those pieces of meat that reminds you why veal can be so special.

There’s none of the funkiness that sometimes accompanies older beef or lamb; instead, it’s clean, deeply savoury and surprisingly light. The texture is extraordinary too, with just enough bounce before melting away into something almost jelly-like in its tenderness.

Across the table, the whole Dover sole is every bit as successful.

At £55, it’s very fairly priced for a whole fish of this quality, and it’s cooked with the sort of confidence that only comes from knowing when to leave excellent ingredients well alone. The flesh flakes away in delicate pearly sheets, remaining wonderfully moist, while capers scattered over the top punctuate each mouthful with little bursts of salty brightness. It’s a classic French bistro dish, and Chez Rose executes it beautifully.

In fact, if this restaurant review has a recurring theme, it’s that the Chez Rose menu and kitchen consistently get the important things right.

Don’t forget to order the Pomme Puree

Chez Rose’s pomme puree, described to us as 90% butter, 10% potato, is every bit as indulgent as that ratio suggests.

Silky smooth and somehow lighter than mashed potato has any right to be, it’s the sort of thing you’d never attempt to recreate at home because you’d have to explain yourself to your GP afterwards.

At £6, it’s worth every penny.

The trombetta courgettes are almost as good. Beautifully charred until their natural sweetness begins to intensify, they’re finished with parmesan and toasted pine nuts, both of which amplify the naturally nutty flavour. 

By this point in lunch, my sister and I are exchanging that familiar look across the table: the one that says this place is really rather good.

Which is precisely why what happens next feels so disappointing. Because, as the restaurant fills, the experience around it begins to unravel.

And then the wheels start to wobble

It’s funny how quickly the atmosphere of a restaurant can change.

When we arrive at half 12, there are only a handful of occupied tables, and the service is every bit as polished as the cooking. Plates are cleared almost instantly, drinks appear before we realise we’ve finished the previous one, and the whole lunch moves with an effortless rhythm.

Then, an hour later, the dining room fills. And things begin to slip.

Our finished main courses sit on the table long after we’ve put our knives and forks down. Water glasses, once topped up before we’d even noticed, remain empty. An extra drink we’d ordered simply never arrives.

The biggest casualty, though, is the timing.

We’d pre-ordered the signature sharing chocolate souffle right at the beginning of the meal, exactly as the menu asks you to. Even so, there is a long wait after our mains are finished, followed by another small but telling misstep when the espresso we’d ordered to accompany dessert arrives well before the souffle itself.

It’s a small thing. But good service is often made up of lots of small things.

None of these issues are disastrous in isolation. But, together they interrupt what until that point has felt like an exceptionally polished lunch.

Here’s where price matters

Lunch comes to just over £200 before drinks.

At that level, I’m not really paying for potential anymore. I’m paying for an experience where every moving part works together seamlessly.

Chez Rose has only been open three weeks, and that undoubtedly explains some of these teething problems.

But it doesn’t entirely excuse them. Because once you ask diners to spend this sort of money, perfection stops being aspirational and starts becoming part of the promise.

The signature souffle doesn’t quite justify the hype

Chez Rose’s signature chocolate souffle dessert is impossible to ignore.

It’s emblazoned with the restaurant’s logo, designed to share between two people and, at £34, arrives with the sort of flourish that tells you this is meant to be the grand finale.

And visually, it’s wonderful.

But once we begin eating, I’m not convinced the spectacle translates into the best possible souffle.

The centre is soft and chocolatey, but verges on being too eggy, almost scrambled. The exterior has the delicate shell you’d expect. The problem, oddly enough, is the size.

Because the souffle is so enormous, the ratio between crisp exterior and soft interior shifts dramatically. We spend most of dessert working our way through the soft, eggy centre, while the crisp shell (surely one of the greatest pleasures of any souffle) becomes a relatively small part of the experience.

By two-thirds of the way through, we’ve both had enough. It also doesn’t help that the accompanying chocolate sauce simply doubles down on the richness.

Personally, I’d have loved something sharper alongside. A tart cherry compote, perhaps. A raspberry coulis. Even strawberries would have brought a welcome burst of acidity to cut through all that chocolate.

Instead, the dessert becomes increasingly one-note.

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Is Chez Rose worth it?

Walking out onto Pollen Street, my sister and I find ourselves having exactly the sort of conversation that the best restaurants provoke.

Not was it good? That part is obvious.

The more interesting question is whether it was worth it. And I think the answer is – mostly.

The cooking at Chez Rose is frequently exceptional. The veal T-bone is among the best pieces of meat I’ve eaten this year. The Orkney scallop is superb. The courgette flower is beautifully judged, and I’d happily return for the pomme puree alone.

Spencer Metzger’s talent is never really in question.

The issue is that, at the moment, the restaurant around that cooking hasn’t quite caught up.

Service begins brilliantly before losing its rhythm as the dining room fills. Small details start slipping through the cracks. The signature dessert feels designed more around spectacle than outright deliciousness.

The frustrating thing is that Chez Rose is so very close. You can already see the restaurant it’s going to become.

Now it just needs the service to operate with the same confidence as the cooking.

Because once those two things align, Chez Rose won’t just be one of Mayfair’s most exciting new openings. It’ll be one of London’s best French bistros.

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Address – 5 Pollen St, London W1S 1NE
Nearest Tube – Bond Street