Restaurants

By Jenni Muir

You'd think Francesco Mattioli would want to stay away from Gordon Ramsay. Having come to national prominence as owner of the troubled Walnut Tree Inn in Abergavenny, memorably featured on 'Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares', the last place you'd expect to find him is right behind Gordon Ramsay at Claridge's. But here he is, manager at this new restaurant, imported directly from Nice by Arjun Waney, principal owner of hotspots Zuma and Roka.

La Petite Maison has quickly become a hotspot, too - something of a surprise if you first approach from Brooks Mews, the rear-end of Claridges. Come along Avery Row however, or duck through Lancashire Court, and the salons, lingerie shops and boutiques hint at the rich seam of ladies' lunches to be mined here. Our evening visit saw them arrive with husbands and Agent Provocateur shopping bags in tow. Nearly everyone had a leathery tan, suggesting familiarity with the original restaurant in Nice, which has a similarly feminine decor to the London outfit. Linen curtains and frosted glass block out the ugliness of the road and its delivery vans, but allow in a good deal of natural light. The table decorations - two tomatoes and a rough-skinned lemon - seem eccentric rather than pretentiously foodie, and every table holds a large bottle of Ligurian olive oil.

Mattioli went seriously, almost unobtrusively, about his business, but the other staff were bright, chatty and vivacious. In classic French brasserie style, chairs and tables are close together, making it difficult not to listen to others' conversations, or eye up their meal. On the next table, a bowl of bright, squeaky fine beans studded with tiny cubes of foie gras looked so good we just had to have it too. Finely chopped shallots worked a treat in the salty, crunchy dressing that made scraping the bowl clean a necessity. Simpler, but surprisingly moreish, was a little dish of very tender beetroot wedges sprinkled with herbs and served as a salad. At £3.50 this is one of the cheapest items on the menu; add a £4.50 pissaladière (Niçoise tart of onion and anchovy) or some roast peppers (£5.50) and a salad of broad beans and pecorino (£6.50) and two people could eat very nicely here for £10 a head. Best of all is that you are meant to order lots of dishes to share. It's not the high-falutin' style of Maze (whoops, there's Gordon again) or Club Gascon, but not as rustic as meze or traditional tapas either.

The original restaurant's deep-fried courgette flowers are said by some food critics to be the best in Nice. In the Mayfair operation, they're certainly very good, with pale, gauzy batter, but trumped by shards of sage leaves and anchovies sandwiched together and deep-fried with the same coating. Neither needed their little dish of intense red pepper sauce, though this came in useful for the onion rings included on the same 'trois saveurs de beignets' platter.

In keeping with the Niçoise theme, there are several fish and seafood options among the starters and mains. We opted for scallop carpaccio, the silky discs topped with herbs, lemon zest and the finest flakes of almond: quite marvellous. A modestly portioned main course of salt-baked sea bass came filleted and secreted under a pyramid of deep-fried artichoke, tomato and teeny girolles mushrooms. It was very nice indeed, but not worth the £28 price charged on the menu.

The wine list, which starts at £19, is restricted to France with a few showings from Italy. Most interesting is the choice of seven different rosés from five different regions of Provence. Elegantly fruity Château de Roquefort Carail 2006, at £23 a bottle or £4.60 a glass, is the cheapest, yet produced using organic and biodynamic methods.

We had room for desserts - until they arrived. The large oval dish of crème brûlée was enough to feed three and certainly ranks as one of the best in the city. Also generous was a drily moussey chocolate and orange tart that was offered as an alternative to the chocolate fondant that had sold out at lunchtime. But it looks like high demand is something this restaurant is going to have to get used to. No doubt that makes La Petite Maison a pleasant change of pace for the manager, then.

Time Out London Issue 1926: July 18-24 2007