Bye Bye Birdy

Gaultier is the grande dame of London’s vegan dining scene. But can it win over the carnivorous? Yes, finds George Chichester.

If you walk down Romilly Street in Soho you could easily pass by Gauthier without realising it was there. I should know, I’ve done it. Twice. Each time muttering at CityMapper as I turned heel and searched for the nondescript white Georgian townhouse. As it turns out it has a huge sign above the door, but that would rely on me looking up more than six inches from my phone as I furiously watched the little blue dot bounce up and down the street like a pinball. Pavement signing should really be the norm. 

Maybe I was stressed because I had a date. Ok, not a first date, but my girlfriend and I were celebrating a special occasion and I was determined to pull it out of the bag. She’s a vegan, and an American to boot, so I resolved to book this meat-free, French-inspired eatery as a little taste of European sophistication before Christmas. Then I realised the waitlist is three months long and bumped it to our anniversary in May. 

The restaurant is named after its chef patron Alexis Gauthier, who, having been vegan himself for five years, suffered a damascene conversion during Lockdown and realised he had to preach his gospel to the masses. Thus Gauthier, which had previously managed to offload some 20kg of foie gras per week, became London’s hottest ticket for kelp caviar and miso hollandaise. Meanwhile the goose torturers have had to find something else to satisfy their perversions – likely involving a ball gag and a feather pillow. 

Inside the decor is charming enough. The main dining room has tall windows facing onto the street and is decorated with pastel-coloured chiffon veils, perhaps hinting at the area’s previous reputation for romance and easy virtue. The bathroom, on the other hand, is an entirely different matter; thumping club music with such a thudding baseline that you’d think it’s trying to void your bowels by acoustic resonance. Still, it makes for a good conversation starter as you pretend not to zip your fly up at the table. 

Moving slightly further up the digestive tract, the food itself is little short of incredible. Alexis’ ten course tasting menu is served with optional wine pairings and changes seasonally to push the boundaries of what you thought was possible with mere vegetables and minerals. 

The spring menu which the Yank and I embarked on started with canapes, including the aforementioned vegan caviar along with chilled watercress, apple, lime and shiso leaf on a thin vol au vent. After that came focaccia – the fluffiest I’ve ever had in London – followed by artichoke and black truffle velouté with confit Jerusalem artichoke and artichoke crisps (apologies if you’re having a hard time picturing that, but trust me it was bloody delicious).

At this point in the meal we both looked around to take stock of our fellow diners. Some of the tables were a couple of courses ahead of us and, while everything on their plates looked incredible, none of it looked big. Sadly Monsieur Gauthier is yet to devise a recipe that incorporates an entire prize-winning marrow, so I would recommend you schedule a hearty lunch earlier in the day to avoid nibbling at your cutlery. At the very least hold off on that sixth after-work drink as the little vol au vent won’t be much use to you in soaking it up. 

After a bit of a wait the main courses arrive, though we quickly realise they have been worth the anticipation. The Jersey Royal potatoes were particularly exquisite, served with salty samphire and sea buckthorn, which look like those little berries children at school told you were poisonous but taste citrusy and delicately sweet. Even more brilliant was the petit pois à la française, which is traditionally served with bacon lardons. Instead our waitress brought us an upturned glass bowl filled with a kind of smoggy vapour, which she explained would make the dish taste faintly of bacon. The American, being both vegan and Jewish, was totally in the dark but I can attest to you reader that it really wasn’t far off – better than a frazzle but not quite a full butty. 

This is precisely the sort of poncy thing that most restaurants are trying to do away with nowadays but it’s so wonderfully gauche that you really just have to laugh along with it. It also didn’t hurt that the peas tasted utterly sublime – zingy and fresh before being suffused with eau d’trotters.

Likely knowing that desert is the Achilles heel of any vegan dinner party, Alexis came to the wise conclusion that two puds are better than one. To finish, therefore, we were treated to a deliciously light summer berry float, followed by an ominous sphere of dark chocolate ganache. The chocolate was powerful and rich without being at all overbearing and was a very strong note to end on. 

Or so we thought. As we were getting ready to leave, our waitress reappeared carrying a small plate of petit fours, with the words ‘Happy Anniversary’ floridly written in dark chocolate sauce. 

“What a very kind gesture,” I naively thought to myself. 

She then inquired about the rest of our evening, asking with a lilting French accent if we had any plans to go out on this Thursday night.

“No, no,” I laughed. “It’s a school night.”

“Oh,” she said, looking carefully at my pristine, youthful, you-can-hardly-tell-I’m-24-years-old face. “ ‘ave you got a little one at home?”

No, madam. I am the little one at home. Goodnight.

https://www.gauthiersoho.co.uk/

21 Romilly St, London W1D 5AF

Phone: +44 020 7494 3111