Why London bakers obsess over this Michelin starred restaurant
Alex Dilling at Hotel Cafe Royal has maintained his second Michelin star for his on-trend style of decorative cooking, says Adam Bloodworth
It is dinnertime at Alex Dilling at Hotel Cafe Royal, although you wouldn’t think it from looking at the plates. The food, at quick glance, presents more like fine patisserie. Most dishes are glazed and shiny, more commonly than not covered in decorative multicoloured floral touches.
The hunter’s chicken, with bee pollen and black pepper flecks, was inspired by the shape of an Easter egg and looks just as pretty as a fancy one you’d buy in Fortnum’s. Only this is definitively not chocolate: the chicken is cooked in a steamer a low temperature for around 35 minutes to ensure a succulent texture, then covered in a layer of mushroom mousse, then a chicken mousseline with chicken breast, cream and egg white, and then a layer of foie gras, before Dilling finishes it off with the colourful little Instagrammy bits. It’s the sort of technical precision that means that, when I dine this week, Dilling tells me all he can think about is how to get that third Michelin star (it’s not good enough that he is one of 15 restaurants in the capital with two). It’s only available as part of the £215 set menu but Dilling’s put the mould on sale for £40 on Mould Brothers so you can make it at home for a fraction of the cost).
Bakers tell me they admire Dilling’s plating because it reminds them of fancy French patisserie. Look quickly and the chicken could be a croissant. Dishes are pretty but unfussy. The caviar with avocado, Devon crab and dill shimmers like jewellery thanks to a sprinkling of edible flowers on top, but it’s to be eaten “like a sandwich”, the caviar and fish slathered on buttery bread. Enjoy the shimmering flowers, take a picture, then forget about the preciseness by whacking it on bread as if it were Marmite. The bread itself is another showstopper, with folds of pistachio dough baked through giving the appearance of intricate little waves. Iberico pork shoulder, foie gras and pistachio arrives like a little savoury fondant fancy only this is defiantly savoury.
Alex Dilling at Hotel Café Royal retained its two Michelin stars this February
As for the vibe, there are too many luxury restaurants decked out with cream furnishings, but Dilling’s feels different. There are only 34 seats so even when the place is heaving it’s genteel. The restaurant is on the first floor of the Cafe Royal Hotel on the corner where Regent Street meets Piccadilly Circus – crane your neck and you could see the lights – and there is something particularly hedonistic about somewhere this opulent being this close to the tourist trap of Piccadilly mere metres away.
In terms of the new trendy bakeries, Le Cafe in the Burlington Arcade by Nicolas Rouzaud and Claridge’s Bakery are the gold standard, combining traditional techniques with playful modernity (at Claridge’s there’s talk of Wagon Wheel bakes; Nicolas Rouzaud is doing his Frenchified spin on the Victoria sponge). I’m told these are the sorts of men who look up to Dilling. If bakers have become the new cool kids, Dilling was already one step ahead.
Alex Dilling’s tasting menu is £215 for dinner; go to alexdilling.com
Read more: Hotel Café Royal’s world-first in hi-tech recovery