The beautiful Celeste at the Lanesborough Hotel. A Michelin-starred restaurant that ‘honours British heritage and provenance with modern European creativity’.
We jokingly said that it’s like dining in the British Museum, it is just so gorgeous.
A few of my bluddies (blogger buddies) and I gathered a few months ago in the Lanesborough Library bar for a cheeky pre-prandial before trooping into Celeste for a birthday dinner – alas for a rather mixed meal – and I was so intrigued that I put a breakfast visit straight onto my London list.
Céleste’s aim (overseen by Chef Patron, Eric Frechon, who oversees the menu from the sister hotel Le Bristol in Paris, holds 4 Michelin stars) is to set guests on a culinary journey of great flavours and food with a real story.
But, it seems to be a little frustrated.
We popped in on a(n organised) whim, but most people booking in on a special occasion or perhaps guests might have their hopes dashed. And believe me, we were excited to visit.
From the phone call I recieved 45-minutes before our booking asking us to come in earlier than the time we’d arranged a week before – apparently their last breakfast booking is 10.30am, not the 10.45am we’d booked and had confirmed – to the slightly uneven levels of waiter service.
I wanted it to be amazing. Celestial even.
Maybe we were unlucky. We hit the end of breakfast service (though they still seated a table after we got in), the coffee was delicious, the orange juice beautifully fresh (and topped up) and the eggs Royale was lovely (although the Hollandaise could have been a touch softer.)
And the room is utterly stunning, even on a grey London day.
I didn’t take as many pictures as I wanted to – there were other people at their tables; some with their noses in a book, a few rustling newspapers and some even talking to their breakfast dates.
My breakfast date and I chattered away, discussing nearly 6 months of time that we hadn’t seen each other, and then going for a quick walk through the rest of the hotel (and slipping quickly into the Library bar – by far my favourite nook.
I realise that most of my reviews are positive – I’ve always made it a policy to only share places that I love or have redeeming qualities that still make it worth visiting. Will I be back? For those beautifully embellished walls and another afternoon in the Library nook, for sure. Will I be back to eat? That’s a good question.
