The top line: Terence Conran’s Marylebone restaurant, which opened in 1997, has adopted a new moniker with executive Chef Pierre Minotti adding his name above the door. Now part of The Evolv Collection, the restaurant has a celebrated past, having won a Michelin star in 1999 under then head chef Chris Galvin, but it lost it in 2008 and has failed to reach the same height ever since. Step forward Minotti, previously of two Michelin-starred Alex Dilling at Hotel Café Royal, who has been installed at the restaurant to rectify this, and possibly even move it beyond a one-star status.
The food: Orrery’s offer is described as ‘classical French technique guided by the rhythm of the British seasons’ with either a five- or seven-course menu available. In both cases it’s not a simple as sitting down an being served the menu, there are decisions to be made, with diners currently having to choose their starter from a choice of either spring crudités with onion soubise, Thai basil pesto, and colatura; or Devon smoked eel, cured sea bass and potato topped with oscietra caviar and between quail with English asparagus; or Creedy Carver ducj with black pudding for the protein course. Other dishes on the seven-course menu include John Dory with brown crab, fresh pea, lemon verbena; and a bouillabaisse of Cornish mackerel, finger lime, meyer lemon that is served cold. For dessert the option is either a dish of Gariguette strawberry, French meringue and elderflower, served somewhat inexplicably on two separate plates, or a chocolate, almond and coffee tart. As you would expect from a chef of Minotti’s pedigree, the food is devastatingly pretty and precise but it doesn’t just deliver on the eye, with a clever use of contrasting but complementary flavours making much of the menu a hit. The accompanying 800-bottle wine list is equally as accomplished with an excellent selection of wines by the glass thanks to the use of a Coravin that include a glass of 2012 Laurent-Perrier Cuvée Alexandra Rosé for £100, a 2008 Château Haut-Brion, Premier Cru Classé for £135, and a 2021 Château D’Yquem Premier Grand Cru Classe for £145. France rules supreme on the list, with a health choice of wines from Burgundy, Bordeaux, Loire Valley, Jura, the Rhône Valley, and Languedoc-Roussillon but wines from Italy, Spain, Portugal and further afield do feature.
The vibe: There’s a pleasing touch of the retro to the dining room that has retained much of Conran’s original design quirks, including rounded windows that open with magnets and a high sky-light filled ceiling. The bright room is flanked either side by tables, allowing waiting staff to move silently down the middle across the plush light blue carpet and curtains are theatrically drawn back in the evening to separate the tables on the wall opposite the windows. Hushed fine dining it might be, but there’s still a sense of fun by way of the Trou Normand - a pause between dishes during which diners are led to a 10-seater bar counter (pictured above) to the rear of the restaurant to partake in a glass of Chartreuse as well as palate cleanser of lovage sorbet atop galanga-infused jelly and more Chartreuse (pictured below). Every meal also begins in the adjoining Salon du Vin, which was once home to Orrery’s PDR but which now houses a cosy wine room where guests are welcomed with a glass of champagne.
And another thing: The first-floor restaurant overlooks St Marylebone Church gardens, which are in need of a bit of TLC. However, the church has declined an offer by The Evolv Collection to help give its grounds a bit of a spruce.
55 Marylebone High St, London, W1U 5RB / orrery-restaurant.co.uk