Labombe

Labombe opened in September 2025 in the COMO Metropolitan hotel in Park Lane. It is the younger sister of Trivet. The head chef is Evan Moore, who trained at The Fat Duck in 2011 and then moved on to work at Dinner by Heston. He also worked at Heston’s restaurant in Melbourne in 2015. The dining room seats fifty guests, with an additional private dining room. There is an open kitchen running along one side of the dining room. There was an a la carte menu, and also a two-course £30 set menu.

The huge wine list had 630 labels and ranged in price from £29 to £7,500, with a median price of £160 and an average markup to retail price of 2.8 times, which is unusually reasonable for a Mayfair hotel. There was a wide spread of countries, with more wines from Turkey and Georgie than from New Zealand. The list had 54% of its references from France and 15% from Italy, with no less than a dozen wines from Slovenia. Sample references were Chateau Croix Mouton, Bordeaux Superieur 2016 at £50 for a bottle that you can find in the high street for £16, Telmo Rodriguez Gaba do Xil Blanco o Barreiro Godello Valdeorras 2022 at £58 compared to its retail price of £22, and Cederberg Cellars Chenin Blanc 2024 at £75 for a wine that will set you back £22 in the high street. For those with the means, there was Geantet-Pansiot Charmes-Chambertin Grand Cru 2020 at £465 compared to its retail price of £168, and Casa Ferreirinh Barca-Velha 2015 at £1075 for a wine whose current market value is £584. 

Farinata (£14) is a thin, unleavened Ligurian pancake made from a batter of chickpea flour, olive oil, salt and water. This was pleasant but bland, and would have been much improved with greater seasoning, especially more salt (12/20). This was served with a dish of mortadella ham on the side.

The pate en croute (£18) had good pastry and very well-flavoured filling. It is actually bought in, from London-based charcutier George Jephson, who specialises in making this creation. He won the pate en croute top award in the UK in 2023 and represented the UK in the world pate-croute championship in Lyon. The pate is made with pork and duck farce, layers of boudin noir, brined chicken, mousse de canard, home-smoked belly, hazelnuts and prunes. The process can take several days, starting with a rich consommé jelly, then preparing pork belly, pork fillet, duck breast, roasted chicken skin, chicken legs, pistachios, and the pastry itself. This was very enjoyable, but I can’t really score it as it was bought in. Still, at least they sourced it well.

Breaded veal chop (£48) came with cabbage and an Italian condiment called agrodolce, a sweet and sour sauce made from reducing honey with vinegar. This was very enjoyable, the coating crisp and golden, the meat inside from the Ginger Pig butcher being of good quality. The condiment worked well, and there was a little miniature salad of frisee lettuce to balance the richness of the veal (14/20). 

Pear and almond frangipane tart (£12) was pleasant but rather dry. On the side, I had some pistachio ice cream, though the default offering was a cream of cinnamon and crème fraiche (12/20). The double espresso (£3.50) was pleasant enough, the coffee roaster being Assembly Coffee in Brixton. 

Service was good. The bill came to £133 each for lunch, sharing a bottle of pleasant Argyros Estate Assyrtiko 2023. If you ordered a cheaper wine, then a typical cost per person might be around £110. This still seems to me quite a lot of money for the level of cooking.