Hélène Darroze at The Connaught

Hélène Darroze has cooked at The Connaught since 2008, but the room she cooks in now is not the one she started in. Pierre Yovanovitch Architecture d'Intérieur took it apart over two months in 2019: the dark oak panelling was lightened, the cornicing and window frames repainted a soft salmon, and the sideboard that had split the room in half was removed. It reopened that September with curved banquettes, colour-blocked chairs and bay windows looking onto Carlos Place. The restaurant holds three MICHELIN stars in the current Great Britain & Ireland selection.

The cooking is French and tied to Darroze's native south-west, built on long relationships with growers and producers. The wine side is unusually deep for a dining room of this size: a glass-walled cellar sits directly off the tables, a head of wine runs the list, and a lit vitrine holds a collection of vintage Darroze Armagnacs reaching back to 1918.

Private bookings work at three scales. The chef's table, a pink marble oval on a terrazzo dais, seats ten directly above the pass and looks straight into the kitchen. The sommelier's table seats eight against the cellar glass, led by a private sommelier. Beyond those, the whole restaurant can be taken exclusively for up to sixty guests. Larger parties move to The Connaught's own event rooms, which this kitchen caters to bespoke menus.