Claude Bosi at Bibendum, London

Michelin starred dining at former Michelin HQ

Sunlight, and lots of it, especially through stained glass windows, always cheer us up and our visit to Claude Bosi at Bibendum is no exception.

We were immediately placed into the happy zone with the airy interior and amusing, colourful windows depicting The Michelin Man AKA Bibendum, at his namesake restaurant.

Michelin House is one of London’s landmark buildings and was once the UK headquarters for Michelin between 1911 and 1985.

claude bosi at bibendum michelin house chelsea london

Head Chef Claude Bosi, from Lyon, became well known for his previous restaurant Hibiscus which closed in 2016. (Sadly we never made it there). He then opened Claude Bosi at Bibendum in 2017 and received two Michelin stars in 2018 and has retained them ever since.

It’s worth taking the time to admire the outside of the building before venturing in, it‘s impressively ornate and unique, while inside, it is a sanctuary of calm.

Even the seats in the waiting area have Bibendum and tyre influences.

Above we see Bibendum cycling with a cigar. He does look suave.

Is that the aroma of tyres? Not sure if we imagined it but we certainly detected the scent of rubber tyres in the air. There are other little touches such as tyre treads around the napkin holder. Salt and pepper mills that look like Bibbendum, a butter dish with Bibbendum perched there, which looks a bit like an ashtray I remember from younger days.

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Video

Menu at Bibendum

Here is the menu from our visit. The lunch menu has been updated to provide four choices for each course. We had a special deal which was a restricted menu with a bottle of wine to share.

Food and wine

An amuse bouche to begin…

Black olives and Parmesan cheese in a light and fluffy cake-like amuse. Sitting atop lavender flowers made me think of the South of France.

A glass of Deutz Classic Brut Champagne was poured from the Champagne trolley, yes a Champagne trolley that was wheeled between tables. We hadn’t tried this one before. It had a sort of scrumpy aroma (I’m sure Champagne producers don’t want their wines being described like cider but it’s not a criticism, it had a yeasty fermented apple aroma…)
Pleasantly sparkling, this tasted of crisp apples and pear with a honeyed finish.

The wine served with lunch was Schlumberger Les Prince Abbes Pinot Blanc 2017. This had a butter and pineapple aroma. The pineapple followed through on the tastebuds with a gooseberry finish.

Now the test….bread and butter. A malty bread with a chewy crust and soft and fluffy interior. Served with a pat of creamy butter.

claude bosi at bibendum bread and butter

Bibendum egg with cucumber sesame seeds. A delicate mousse inside an eggshell. Almost too good to eat.

French white asparagus with smoked hay mayonnaise. A much ignored vegetable in the UK. We try to time our visits to Berlin to coincide with “spargelzeit” when bars and restaurant menus are filled with white asparagus, and here was tender white asparagus with light summer flavours.

Next up, cod with miso and English peas.

Another outstanding summer dish. Light but with many layers of flavour, including heat from horseradish, or wasabi. The crisp quinoa on top added some interesting texture.

claude bosi at bibendum black leg chicken

Black leg chicken with black olive and feta. Moist, tender, succulent chicken with its skin intact to give yet more flavour hits to this dish. The acidity of the olive worked well with the courgette. This is possibly the second best chicken dish I’ve ever had (Sorry Claude, Die Henne in Berlin wins this one!)

Dessert was interesting in that it was madelines with your honey of choice, and who knew that choosing a honey would be so hard? We had to pick from linden, chestnut, heather, buckwheat, mountain and lavender honey.

Our choices were inserted into the warm madelines and served alongside our pick of ice creams from the ice cream trolley.

claude bosi at bibendum madeleines ice cream

Now that is what you call a selection of petit fours. What a way to end a meal.

Well what we thought was the end, a quick visit to say hello to Chef himself. Much appreciated.

Verdict

From the friendly and informal service to the musical background which included Bruce Springsteen, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Pulp’s common people. Claude Bosi at Bibendum is probably the most attractive restaurant we’ve dined in.

It has that seriousness of fine dining but with a nod to enjoying life, so somewhere to go to for a special occasion where you won’t feel totally out of place. What made the experience even more enjoyable was that the former GM of the Waterside Inn, Diego Masciaga, was working there on our visit and who was more than happy to chat to us between courses. We would happily return for the lunch menu again, or the tasting menu.