- Five-star London hotel is giving breakfast the same treatment as dinner
It’s enough to make you choke on your cornflakes. More than £100 for breakfast?
But that’s what it costs to experience what Four Seasons Park Lane calls London’s first Michelin-starred breakfast tasting menu, served at the Pavyllon restaurant, overseen by Yannick Alleno, one of the world’s most decorated chefs with 17 Michelin stars behind him.
The five courses cost £70, but you’ll want to add the £20 juice pairing, plus 15 per cent service, taking you north of £100. That’s without the optional caviar at a fiver a gram for that special touch.
It feels particularly extravagant when, just up the road, you can pop into The Ritz for a bowl of cereal at £9. Even a full English at Claridge’s will ‘only’ set you back £40.
I’m an avocado on toast girl for a breakfast treat – a full-blown spectacle before coffee sounds like torture.
Still, in the name of research, I pull up a seat at Pavyllon’s counter with my gourmand of a son, Christian, to see what’s cooking in the open kitchen beyond.
Pavyllon London at Four Seasons Hotel London at Park Lane is redefining morning dining with the capital’s first-ever Michelin-starred breakfast tasting menu
We start with a slice of Epiphany cake from the Viennoiserie selection, paired with cream-topped cold moka infused with Szechuan pepper, nutmeg and orange syrup. So far, so posh cake shop.
But then comes the lobster croast (toasted croissant). Its delicate flavours of lobster, egg, tarragon, chervil, mustard, rocket and parmesan have my son rhapsodising: ‘I think it’s my favourite breakfast dish of all time.’
After an exotic chia pudding matched with an apple and celery palate cleanser, my favourite course arrives: eggs royale on a lighter-than-air muffin, the gossamer hollandaise applied from a canister by senior sous chef Nicholas Bussi.
He spoons on £25 worth of caviar. I toast it with a kir royale made of beetroot juice and zero-alcohol bubbly.
Christian opts for ravioli filled with black pudding, duxelles mushroom and yolk, surrounded by a sausage reduction with chorizo and parsley. He’s going to need to hit the gym afterwards – Bussi says it’s 560 calories.
Who needs cornflakes? Jane Knight and her son Christian test out the capital’s first-ever Michelin-starred breakfast tasting menu
A twist on French Toast also features in the menu devised by decorated chef Yannick Alleno
French toast rounds things off, its sweetness brought out by a juice of coconut apple extract with apple cider vinegar.
It’s certainly the best breakfast we’ve ever had. And it’s a great experience.
As Yannick says: ‘Diners are moving away from rigid, evening-only fine dining, and are looking for experiences that feel relaxed yet refined, making breakfast the perfect canvas.’
Don’t just take our word for it. Sitting next to us, Lui and Sofie Hovgaard are over from Copenhagen, where Lui works as a chef.
‘It’s a fun way to eat breakfast, and the drinks pairing was good,’ he says.
But is it Michelin starred, if the accolade is awarded to the restaurant not the meal? A spokesman says: ‘We don’t track this metric so are unable to validate it.’
So there you have it. Not technically Michelin starred, eye-wateringly expensive… but worth every penny. Talk about raising the breakfast bar.
