Bonheur

Bonheur is on the site that was the iconic Le Gavroche. It has been taken over by Matt Abe, and opened in November 2025. Mr Abe was formerly the head chef/patron of Restaurant Gordon Ramsay from 2020. He started working as a chef in his native Australia and moved to the UK at 21 years of age 2006. His first UK job was at Claridge's, moving from there to the flagship Gordon Ramsay in Chelsea, becoming head chef there at age 28.

The menu is modern French, with some distinctive dishes like a version of quiche Lorraine. The basement dining room has been extensively refurbished since the takeover. The room is much lighter than it used to be, with the general colour theme seeming to be a sandy colour, which I gather was to reflect the Australian origins of the head chef. The room can seat 48 diners at one time, with up to 56 at maximum, including the chef table seats. In the kitchen, there were 14 chefs, and 13 waiting staff in the dining room, including five people dealing with wine. A five-course tasting menu was priced at £195 and a seven-course one at £225, and there was a la carte too, which cost £165 for three courses (plus canapes). The cutlery used, for those that are interested in such things, is from Christofle in France.

The wine list was extensive and expensive. It also had the odd error e.g. Chappaz Grain Arvine de Fully Valais 2020 is from Switzerland and not Austria as shown on the list. The same was true of the Jean-René Germanier Heida de Vex ‘Clos de la Couta’ Valais 2021. Doubtless these teething issues will be fixed. The list had 560 labels and ranged in price from £55 to £6.500, with an unusually high median price of £275 and an average markup to retail price of almost exactly 4 times, which is simply rapacious, much higher than the norm in Mayfair (usually around 3.3 times). Sample references were Niepoort Rotulo 2020 at £55 for a bottle that you can find in the high street for £13, Terras Gauda O Rosal 2024 at £75 compared to its retail price of £18, and Château Bouscaut Grand Cru Classé 2021 at £80 for a wine that will set you back £29 in the high street. For those with the means there was Maison Trimbach Clos Ste Hune 2016 at £680 compared to its retail price of £247, and Côte de Beaune Domaine Joseph Drouhin 1er Cru Clos des Mouches 2021 at £560 for a wine whose current market value is £139. France accounted for 60% of the list, but there were a few wines from further afield, including Canada, Georgia and Slovakia. It was a shockingly expensive list, even by the demanding standards of Mayfair. There were just three wines under £75, and just 16 under £100. There were more wines between £2,000 and £4,000 than there were between £75 and £100. To add to the joy, there is no possibility for corkage.

The meal began with an array of canapés. A buckwheat tartlet contained Cornish bluefin tuna, specifically otoro, with yuzu, pickled English wasabi, shiso leaf and Korean seaweed along with a little pickled ginger.  For me this was the pick of the canapés, in solid two-star territory. Warm potato and chive dauphine also had oscietra caviar from Imperial Caviar, with creme fraiche and chives. This was comforting, the caviar adding an air of luxury to the humble potato. A Parmesan cracker contained Vacherin, pickled walnut puree and Iberico ham, and was very enjoyable. Finally, there was a tartlet of whipped chicken liver and quail liver parfait with toasted pecan and maple syrup, which was very good, the toasted pecan bringing a contrasting texture to the smooth bird liver parfait. A further amuse-bouche was a broth made using 125 aged veg fat and root vegetable consommé, which had quite a good flavour, though it could have been a bit warmer when served. For the canapés, an average score of 17/20. Milk bread was made in-house and came with butter from Oxfordshire. The bread had a pleasing soft texture, though for me it could have done with just a touch of salt.

Scallop was seared and finished on the barbecue, served with a range of citrus fruit, specifically pomelo, clementine and finger lime, as well as carrot. This all came with a pool of yuzu koshu (a fermented Japanese condiment made with chilli, yuzu and salt) sauce. The scallop had good natural sweetness and the sharpness of the citrus provided some balance to that, with a gentle hint of spice from the sauce. This was a simple but nicely designed dish (16/20).

I had a quail blanquette, the quail sourced from Vendee in western France. The quail breast was poached and served with black garlic puree, crushed Jerusalem artichoke, a little Morteau sausage and a quail jus. The quail was cooked carefully, still retaining some pinkness, and the sauce was very good. The artichoke was very good, and the smokiness of the sausage added an interesting extra dimension (17/20). Quiche Lorraine was a luxury take on the classic Alsace dish. This version had an aged Gruyere filling, creamed leeks, black garlic, smoked pork belly and a vin jaune sauce. The texture was delicate and the Gruyere and garlic went well together, the seasoning also being well judged (17/20).

My main course was venison, sourced from Brett Graham’s farm. This came with ribbons of beetroot and some oxalis. This was again a quite simple but very well executed dish, the sharpness of the beetroot cutting nicely through the richness of the meat (17/20). Turbot came with a quenelle of lobster and celeriac purée. The turbot fillet was from a large 7.5 kg Cornish fish that had very good flavour. This was accompanied by two sauces: a Hollandaise and also a lobster vinaigrette. The sauces were well made and the turbot was carefully cooked (17/20). It was not quite hot when it arrived on the plate, which was a little odd since we were seated just a few metres from the kitchen door.

I didn’t have enough appetite left to try the cheese board, though the selection of La Fromagerie cheeses looked very tempting, a mix of French and British cheeses. A pre-dessert was apple and calvados granita with cazette crumble. Cazette is a Burgundian hazelnut, the inner shell of the hazelnut roasted into brown butter to make a crumble. This came with vanilla cream and was pleasant and refreshing, which is what you hope for from a pre-dessert (16/20).

My dining companion had a chocolate and banana dish. This had chocolate and rum delice with cremeux of miso, along with roasted banana ice cream. This had a rich dark chocolate and could perhaps have had something sharp to balance the richness a little more (16/20). A dessert of grain and whisky had toasted grain parfait, smoked chestnut ice cream, whisky gel, salted brioche tuile and a whisky caramel made from fine 12 year old Macallan whisky. This was pleasant, quite an appropriate dessert for this cold winter night (16/20). We also tried Ile flottante, which had a citrus meringue with clementine and blood orange. The meringue batons came with a citrus creme anglaise sauce. This was a very good rendition of this classic dessert (16/20). The pastry chef here is Heskey Meyer, who formerly worked at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay. Coffee was from Workhouse Coffee, a roaster in Reading. This came with petit fours, which were a Christmas pudding bonbon, calamansi jelly with kaffir lime and a pepper and orange zest, and a chocolate tart filled with goat milk caramel, as well as a lapsang souchong meringue. 

Service was a genuine delight, with plentiful waiters who were uniformly friendly, helpful and engaged. Our main waitress, Katie, was excellent and enthusiastic. The bill came to £328 per person, with initial drinks at the bar, a bottle of Willi Schaefer Riesling between us and a single glass of red wine. The size of the bill is the main issue. The menu prices do not in themselves seem out of line with other Mayfair places at this kind of level, but if you drink wine, then the heavily marked-up list quickly bumps up the bill. We ordered a la carte, but the food bill would be a bit higher if you opted for either tasting menu. Even if you went a la carte and just shared a modest bottle of wine between two, then your bill would still come to around £240 per person once you factor in water, coffee and service. With a tasting menu and better wine, the price would rise quickly. Clearly, Bonheur is in Mayfair and aimed at a clientele that can afford this kind of pricing, but it remains to be seen if there are enough of them for the restaurant to prosper. I hope it does, as we enjoyed our evening: the food was very good, and the service was exceptionally good.