Maze Grill

Dinner at Maze was a mixed bag. A few dishes were extraordinarily well conceived and a joy to eat whilst some were disappointing and the atmosphere was a tad stuffy.

The concept, as you'll probably know, is multiple small dishes, this does mean no amuse or pre starter which I find disappointing. Jason Atherton's kitchen has been praised in most reports I've read most claiming the desserts to be the winning course, yet I found this to be untrue.


I began with the smoked mackerel tartare which was stunningly plated up but lacked something, there were lots of components but it failed to excite, perhaps the dish was a little too cold, dulling down the flavour somewhat. Thomas too felt his starter of marinated white beets was a bit boring and over priced, at £10 for what was really a very small amount of food.

Things picked up as we moved onto our second selections from the 'cold and warm' section of the a la carte menu. The warm Scottish breakfast was my favourite course of the night with a smoked haddock risotto topped with egg and bacon and a piece of cured salmon with horseradish snow. This was both pretty and flavoursome, Thomas had food envy tucking into his scallop dish, a meagre 3 of them, outshone entirely by my breakfast.


Moving onto the meat and fish dishes and I was in no doubt about what to order, the pork cheek and belly. This was served with pureed potato, crispy onion rings and some kale. The rich jus and fruity apple sauce were perfect accompaniments and the meat was so tender and succulent with just the right amount of fat. Another faultless dish. Thomas again preferred my choice feeling a bit hard done by with his halibut which was fine but unremarkable.


The pork was another triumphant dish full of umami flavours, a case of excellent quality ingredients cooked perfectly, Atherton proving himself deserving of his Michelin star with such dishes.

My final savoury dish was the ox tongue and cheek served with ginger carrots and horseradish pomme puree. Both of my mains came with a side of pomme puree, I began to feel rather full up by this point but the purees were exceptional and somehow, I manged to find some room! The dark treacle like sauce on the ox cheek was brilliant, the meat so tender, falling apart with the merest of touches. I was less keen on the tongue which sat at the base of the dish and was far tougher than the cheek. Thomas said the same of his lamb tongue, but was much happier with his salt marsh mutton shepherd's pie, finally a dish well chosen for him!


Onto desserts and this time I think Thomas definitely chose the finer of the 2, his rice pudding with blackberries was pure creamy, velvety loveliness whilst my peanut butter and cherry jam sandwich tasted a bit plastic, Thomas disagreed and we hastily swapped. The peanut butter and jam dish looked the nicest but I'm a sucker for a good rice pudding.


We sampled an array of beverages, bloody mary's, peach bellinis, Gewürztraminer, Holzweg, André Scherer, Alsace 2008, which was intensely fruity and alarmingly easy to drink and coffees to sober us up.


This being a Michelin starred restaurant, you might expect a few little quality extras, the standard of the petit fours was high, served on a little slate, some fudge and fruit pastille type sweeties however, the bread was a complete disappointment and as the first impression the diner is given of the food you would think such an establishment would make more of this opportunity to impress.

As I began by saying, this was really a roller coaster of a meal. Extreme highs and lows and not too much in the middle. I much preferred the savoury offerings whilst most sing the praises of the desserts at Maze and I must agree that the idea of trying many smaller sized dishes is smart, it liberates the diner somewhat by not limiting choices to one of each course. That said I thought the room was very noisy and the vibe was a bit formal for my liking, tables are pretty close together in the restaurant section, with much more room being reserved for the bar, the layout of the room could have been better devised.

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It was the best of meals, it was the worst of meals. In fact in the end, it wasn't quite either, it was just maddeningly, bewilderingly inconsistent, and giving an overall score to a sequence of small dishes, 50% of which were excellent and 50% horrible, served half in daylight and half in increasing pitch blackness, accompanied by service that veered between winningly professional and laughably incompetent, will prove quite a challenge. Let's see how we do.

First of all, the traditional Ramsay velouté starter. Perfectly pleasant, with a miniscule amount of lobster meat but with an interesting if not wholly successful cold parmesan ice cream thingy (OK, a "parfait"). As with so many of Ramsay's sub-3* dishes, it's admirable if not entirely loveable. A bit like the man himself, in fact.

The first proper course was a neat little row of marinated beetroot and cheese constructions. These were pretty good for a vegetarian dish - the sharpness of the marinated veg was balanced nicely with the rich cheese and pine nuts added some pleasant texture. Nothing too extraordinary though.

Up next, the famous Maze signature dish of an ironic 'BLT' - that is, tomato gelée, bacon onion cream and lettuce velouté. An ambitious dish (just look at the recipe) and one with a weight of expectation behind it, I'm afraid I was slightly underwhelmed. It was fine, just absolutely nothing more than you might think cold tomato jelly, bacon bits and lettuce soup would taste like. The best bit, in fact, was the accompanying croque monsieur, which was a perfectly balanced and strongly flavoured cheese and ham toastie. And who doesn't like a cheese and ham toastie?

So, from the ridiculous to the sublime. The next course of pork belly, pig's head, crackling and jasmine tea was a pleasingly powerful mix of flavours and textures. The jasmine "tea", in particular, was as good a sauce I have had for a very long time, rich and satisfying with an incredibly deep, complex flavour. The pork belly was slightly on the chewy side but tasted good enough, and the crackling was delicate and fun to eat. I can only apologise for the photo, my poor iPhone by this time battling with the bizarre compulsion of the staff to turn the house lights down every ten minutes. I should also mention that a vegetarian dining companion had by this time been served a full four out of five dishes garnished with pea shoots. If you are a vegetarian and want to eat at Maze, you'd better like pea.

So from the sublime, back to the ridiculous. Roasted Anjou pigeon was a disappointingly stringy cut of breast meat (I nearly pulled a muscle trying to cut the damn thing up), with a wobbly skin and an overly sharp red wine sauce. Sadly, that wasn't the worst thing about it though. Through the murk of the restaurant lighting (they had turned them down again) I noticed an ominous black blob of something very dark perched on top of the pigeon breast. Thinking it would be some sort of marinated fruit or braised vegetable, I popped it in my mouth. My stomach instantly heaved in reaction to a huge blob of bitter chocolate, sickly and overwhelming and completely unsuitable in this amount to the rest of the dish. Even if the pigeon had been good quality (it wasn't) or cooked well (it wasn't), the baffling addition of half a pound of raw 70% chocolate as a 'garnish' to this meat was a complete disaster. Adding a small amount of chocolate to liven up a red wine sauce or chilli con carne is perfectly acceptable. Dumping such a relatively huge amount onto a dish such as this (bearing in mind these are all small tasting plates) is a frankly unforgivable mistake. Awful.

Unbelievably, the house lights dropped yet again before the arrival of the pre-dessert, which was a lovely shot of lemon sorbet sat on top of an incredibly strongly flavoured lime and passion fruit jelly. Served with it was a perfectly moist almond financier (cake). I was beginning to feel dizzy by this point, and it wasn't just because I couldn't see the floor. How could the same kitchen that considered it acceptable to turn out that chocolate pigeon monstrosity also produce such an interesting and exciting dessert?

The final course was served in near-darkness. The ironically-titled "peanut butter and cherry jam sandwich" was nothing of the sort, it was just a pleasant combination of peanut-flavoured ice cream and cherry jam and sorbet. I would like to tell you it was presented well, but I could hardly see it - I just blindly hacked away in front of me with my spoon until it eventually came back empty. It tasted fine, but as the saying goes we eat with our eyes first, and if I wanted to dine in the dark I would have booked elsewhere.

I will also say a word about our waiters. The front of house was professional and sharp, and the sommelier friendly and helpful. But in between periods of excellent service was an incident where a member of our table (I wasn't drinking, for a change) was shown his empty wine bottle and asked (actually more like mumbled) something about wanting another one. This was, bear in mind, well after we had finished our last savoury course. Given a firm no, he slunk off, then another member of staff immediately returned and poured nearly a full glass of wine out of what suspiciously looked like the same "empty" bottle. Now, I wouldn't suggest for a moment they had swapped the bottles to make it look empty the first time, but even so the implication, without us being asked to examine the bottle closely, was that it was empty. And I wonder - had we had said yes to another bottle when first asked, would that final glass from the first bottle have mysteriously disappeared?

The final insult, as is sadly so often the case, was the bill. I had barely more than a sniff of our single bottle of wine between the three of us, from the lower end of the wine list, and we only ate the "recommended" number of dishes - that is, 7 small plates of food each. And yet the bill came to nearly £100 per person. This is too way much to feel like good value when there are such glaring errors in the cooking. Perhaps, if you went every day for a couple of weeks and worked your way through the myriad of dishes you'd eventually be able to construct a flow of their best offerings and be able to enjoy a reasonably consistent evening. But by that time not only would you still only have a solid single Michelin-star meal but you'd have permanently damaged your eyesight and be about £1000 worse off. So your best bet is just to go to one of the many other much better restaurants in this price range. And that, sad to say, is pretty much all of them.

Cheese's profile     Other reviews by Cheese     Cheese likes    

A month ago, Jon and I had dinner at Maze. Because it was Jon’s choice, I didn’t get a say in the matter, or else I’m pretty sure I would’ve nixed the suggestion (though hindsight is 20/20, I know).

First, although Maze has its own entrance off of Grosvenor Square (and wow, the US Embassy in London really *is* as ugly as everyone says it is), it’s also connected to a Marriott Hotel. And I have a major bias against restaurants located in chain hotels, especially mid-range hotels.

Second, upon stepping into the dining room, we couldn’t miss the glass case displaying owner Gordon Ramsay’s cookbooks. Classy.

Third, and most substantively, the service we had at Maze ruined our quiet evening out. “Indifferent” would be the charitable description of our server.

I don’t want or need fawning armies of servers. But at a 1-Michelin star restaurant, I want someone to hand me the menu, not put it on the table and shove it towards me. I want someone who graciously accepts that I don’t want bottled water, instead of making a show of taking away the “fancy” water glasses (presumably reserved for rarefied water that comes out of a glass bottle) and replacing them with other, different (presumably lesser) glasses filled with tap water. Or how about this - a server who aks me if I’m ready to order, instead of sidling up to my table, shifting all weight to one leg (classic teenager-slouch style) and asking me “you OK now?” The only thing missing from the tableau was some gum snapping.

I should’ve just walked out then. It’s a Wednesday night. I’m tired. I just want a quiet dinner with my husband. I don’t need to feel uncool and unwanted. And definitely not at these prices.

Looking back, I can see why service was sloppy at Maze. Jon and I were seated at a table surrounded by multiple groups of what appeared to be work colleagues (perhaps traveling together and staying at the Marriott hotel). If I were there having drinks and nibbles with coworkers, I’d probably care a lot less about servers pushing menus towards me and talking to me in casual-teen-lingo when taking my order

For the sake of argument, let’s assume I was in such a bad mood that it was inevitable I’d be annoyed with the service. Well, the food didn’t exactly improve things. I’m usually pretty tolerant of high prices and so-so service as long as the food delivers.

But at Maze, the high prices for small portions of occasionally-gimmicky food left me seriously (*very* seriously) wondering how this place has a Michelin star. Our experience at Maze was nowhere near the meals we’ve had at, for example, the Ledbury or Hibiscus (where, by the way, the servers are helpful and gracious without being overly-formal).

Maze’s chef, James Atherton, gets a lot of press for his “assiette of sandwiches,” for example, and the BLT in the martini glass would be charming if food-in-a-martini glass didn’t seem so distinctly trendy (circa 1990s), and if I thought drinking lettuce soup with bacon bits was worth £9. To be fair, there was a sliver of buttery ham-and-cheese sandwich (the croque monsieur), too.

Above, you’ll find a photo of the lamb chop dish we ordered (photos courtesy of this blogger) to illustrate the plate sizes at Maze. It’s no exaggeration to say you’re supposed to order at least four plates per person to make a meal at Maze, so while the menu prices (£9-13 a plate) don’t look high, your bill tallies up quickly if you’re at Maze for anything other than a quick snack.

The food wasn’t awful, but it wasn’t memorable. When you factor in our disgruntled server (whose pouting would be more at home at a McDonald’s than at a Gordon Ramsay resto in Mayfair), you’re left wondering why anyone goes to Maze. I’d go back for drinks with coworkers if they were staying at the attached Marriott, or maybe I’d go again if I had to get my passport renewed at the nearby US Embassy. But outside of those two unlikely scenarios, no thanks.

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Gordon Ramsay looms over British cooking like a big bad shadow. He owns no less than ten restaurants (in the UK) under his label and his formidable marketing machine is used extensively to turn those restaurants into brand names in their own right. All that gloss is seemingly a way of guaranteeing a quality fine dining experience, albeit one that feels manufactured (aren’t they all to some extent?) . My visit to Maze was not based on Gordon’s merit alone, rather I was drawn to the man in the kitchen, Jason Atherton. He has gained a cult status since opening Maze and I had to find out just how creative his unique taster menu really was.

Will the real Gordon Ramsay please stand up?

When Maze launched a few years ago, it quickly became the darling of the culinary elite, bagging several awards and winning a Michelin star along the way. Much of the credit is attributed to the skill of chef Jason Atherton. Having become the first British chef to complete a stint in the kitchen of El Bulli (only one of the best in the world) , he has since worked magic at Maze in which his food is described as a mix of french inspiration seasoned with flashes of asian brilliance.

Credentials aside, what really attracted me to this place ( no, I do not randomly show up to michelin star restaurants ) is his taster menu, almost (dare I say it) tapas style mini-courses which let you sample more stuff in one sitting. I think that makes me sound a greedy bugger but I just love variety.

Souled out

Whizzing past the stone & brick exterior in the heart of the old Bond Street, Maze feels rather like an ultra chic 80’s style posh hotel lounge. Ok, maybe that’s abit harsh. The decor is squeaky clean with robust woods for furniture & floors and a clientele of business types in fine-cut bespokes, the odd honeymooning couple and a number of tables filled by trophy wives settling for a ‘quick lunch’ possibly after an exhaustive morning of shopping and manicure…. on second thought, it is a 80’s style hotel lounge.

Not that this is criticism (maybe it is) but that’s the problem when you put big budget advertising vehicles behind a restaurant; everything feels as if it’s a cog in the larger corporate wheel, that the chef’s personality is very much suppressed. The result of which, is a robotic and soulless dining space. Yes it’s admirable watching the well-choreographed staff ( they have a dedicated card machine handler, whose job is to ‘take payment’. Did I mention she’s a leggy blonde who can easily pass for a Karen Mulder lookalike? ) put in the hard work to ensure the smallest details are not missed but this is also the result of growing too big. Rustic ,passion & colour is replaced with refined, robust & dependability.

At the end of the day, it’s food we’re talking about here and its suppose to be full of life & vigour and most importantly, enjoyable. My hope is that the industry does not forget why one loves food and is passionate about cooking, don’t let pretention kill it. Good food is a harmony of flavours , if you overdo it, its no longer good.

Four recommended

Alright, so pretention killed the cat, but we haven’t touched on the subject matter yet: Is the food any good? Well, let’s elaborate on how the menu works. The waitress advised me to pick two dishes from the light (starter) section and another two from the heavier (mains) section. It’s quite clear the starter section is meant to be a light start being that it is a selection of veloutes , foie gras, the odd seafood and veges. The mains consists of a recognisable cast: cod paired with iberico, a rather interesting sounding venison in chocolate sauce and a seemingly wintery rack of lamb with shepherd’s pie ( I am delighted to see British cooking on the menu) . Have a look at the menu here.

I’ll point out the excellent service, I will expect no less from a Gordon Ramsay establishment, my waiter was forward, friendly, professional and unpretentious. She had a breezy charm and was excellent in fueling my appetite while explaining what each dish was all about. I have to say, at first, I was expecting an attitude to match it’s intimidating atmosphere, but I was pleasantly surprised. She actually got me excited about the food and you could clearly tell, she believed in the food and what the kitchen produced. So top marks on service and character. Am I excited so far? Yes.

Jellied Bread

The first course is assiette of sandwiches, ‘BLT’ and croque monsieur. Ok, translation it’s a sandwich which has been turned into a jelly. The Bacon, in the form of large chunks afloat a creme fraiche-like mousse, all sits on top of a savoury onion jelly foundation, which is suppose to represent the bread. The Lettuce is pureed and poured over it, all of which is served in a cocktail glass ( yes, its a sarnie in a glass). Oh, it’s fresh. The first hit of the mousse & the jelly produced a tangy edge in which I suspect that’s where the Tomato hides. The lettuce soup is very appetising and the varying degrees of sour from the different layers is balanced by the saltiness of the bacon. This gave way to a heady sensation which left my taste buds tingling. The cool crispness of the jelly really made this one special and the lettuce puree was a star. It’s certainly unique and a gamble that’s worked.

So that’s one part of the ‘assiette’. The other part of the set is the croque monsieur. Yup, the ham tasted spot on, the melting cheese was great and the grilled bread, crunchy exterior and buttery soft interior was umami rich. It was just a damn good ham and cheese finger. But is it world shaking? No. I’ve had better on the streets of Paris for significantly less money and five times the portion. Having said that, it worked well as a dish.

Bread Soup

I changed my mind last minute for my other starter. I initially wanted scallops ( its a michelin establish, gotta have great ingredients) , but I’m a sucker for gimmicks and unique selling points. Instead I settled for the two texture white asparagus, ‘two hour egg’, smoked mussels and brown bread velouté . Ok so I had jellied bread at first, now the bread’s been made into a sauce. Cool. I was more interested in the two hour egg as I’m told the egg white turns into something mystical after being cooked for two hours.

The bread veloute had a distinctly sour flavour (perhaps it was sour dough… too obvious?) , the highlight was definitely the smoked mussels which were beautifully smoky and of great texture. I was utterly disappointed with the egg though. I had high expectations of this dish being a kind of nirvanic slow cooked flavourful adventure, but it was abit of an anticlimax. The egg yolk, just tastes like boiled egg apart from it being powdery. The egg white was reduced to a brownish mushy paste which was a little on the bitter side, but mostly it drowned in comparison to the rather strong bread veloute. The crunchy asparagus was bland. Not much more that I can say to that.

Overall, this dish was delicate. All the flavours were subtle and felt as if it had been matured for a long time. However, I did notice a very good aftertaste, it was a strange after-eating goodness, perhaps because of the combo of egg, mussels and bread finally coming together. Maybe I should have chewed my food longer, but it was too little too late when the fireworks came on.

Even if it was mild fireworks.

Frozen ham

Roasted organic Shetland cod with onion soubise, confit cod tongue, French onion velouté and frozen Iberico. This was the one dish which I thought stood out from the menu, the frozen ham in particular. Cod and Iberico, both of which are ingredients that I love, wrapped around an onion soup, made for an excellent marriage of flavours and topped off with an asparagus stem and two small pieces of cod tongue.

As expected, the fish is just on the right side of cooked and the specks of shavings on the plate are actually the frozen iberico. Granted its abit gimmicky, but a nice subtle touch. The fish depends on the onion reduction as well as the sweet onion soubise for flavour; It works well and there are also subtle hints of white pepper which lifts the entire flavour profile. The cod tongues had a firm texture, but was easily chewable and tasted abit more dominant that the fish itself. So far so great.

Just on its own, the fish and onions are delicate. Coupled with the potato puree with ham shavings, served on the side, it made this dish an absolute godsend. I suspect the mash is heavily seasoned in order to compliment the delicate fish, spooning up all the individual parts gave rise to a forward flavour, appetising due to the mash, fragrant because of the fish and colourfully enhanced by the onions and white pepper. The ham rounded everything off perfectly. In summation, this dish was gracefully mellow and just like the two hour egg, it too had an excellent aftertaste, which I think, was a consequence of the ham. I was really impressed by this. Good solid cooking.

I tell porkies

Rare breed Sussex pork ‘Head to Toe’. This came highly recommended. She told me I had to try this, and so I did. There are three elements to this dish, two of them come on the first plate. On the left are the pork cheeks resting on top of a whipped apple puree and topped with lentils. I’m not a big fan of lentils, I feel as if they were used to cover up natural flavours, as it’s done so in this case. However, having said that (and having pushed the lentils to one side) , the cheeks were fantastic, supremely soft and matched beautifully with the rich apple puree it sat on. Lovely. The fruitiness of the puree played a good contrast to the flavour of the cheeks.

On the right is pork belly in gravy. This was again very good, nicely roasted, pork belly can be quite a strong taste & smell ( verging on stinky to some) , and this was no exception. However, the gravy mellowed it out but honestly speaking it didnt blow my mind. Good, but so is my mum’s pork belly roast.

The third element are the ‘toes’. At first, I couldn’t quite place this. It tasted of a fried cake consisting of a floury filling. It’s very smooth and easy to eat, yet there’s this strange texture, bouncy but then cakey all at the same time (What is that I wonder?) . The topping tasted of a cheesy, slighty salty concoction of sorts which worked well with the flavour of the cake.

Gosh it was really bugging me so I turned to the ever so helpful waitress who told me that the cake were the trotters. Ah! Hence, the cakey and bouncy texture. The topping was indeed a concoction of sorts being capers, pepper, cheese and a host of other ingredients. Think tartare but without the raw beef. I was really surprised by this dish. I felt that it was an interesting mix of ingredients coming together to produce one consistent taste and it managed to achieve a kind of simplistic balance. Very good indeed.

When the battery in your camera runs out, do you still eat pudding?

Crapola! I knew I should have charged my camera the night before. Although in hindsight, I think it was a good thing I didnt. I ended my meal with a pannacotta and popcorn sorbet. It came served in a maxi shot glass and was, very simply just good. The popcorn sorbet was rather nice I thought, it tasted like iced pop-corn with a good dollop of cream smothered over it. Heartily good and a cheerful way to end the meal.

You know, these days I step into restaurants with the mindset that I have to write it up later on and I have (almost) forgotten the joy of just eating good food. When my camera died on me, I kind of put my blogging hat away and just enjoyed my pudding, no pressure, no notes and no photographs. It reminded me why I loved food and I came away from the meal feeling uplifted.

Now if you’re wondering why I’ve been a little harsher than my usual self, it’s because the media and marketing filled me with expectations of greatness. The sole michelin star, in my opinion is correctly awarded, the food is interestingly unique, some dishes are must-tries and overall, Atherton’s cooking is subtle and delicate. No doubt, the menu looks great on paper, but I’m afraid on this occasion, some dishes while good, weren’t signature good.

Having said that, four courses for about £45 is not bad ( if we ignore the recent economic turmoils ) and for the price class, Maze is formidable. But is the best in class? No. Would I go back again? Yes. There is definitely depth in the menu and I suspect there are a few gems I’ve yet to sink my teeth into. But that is for another meal on another day and another post.

Kang's profile     Other reviews by Kang     Kang likes    

Maze seems as successful as ever, packed out early this evening. We tried a wide range of the dishes this evening. Crab salad with pickled mooli, apple jelly and Bloody Mary sorbet had excellent crab, and the taste combination was refreshing. A pair of roasted scallops was served with a classical pairing of cauliflower puree, and a muscatel vinegar dressing to give a little acidity to balance the sweet scallops. Honey and soy roasted quail had good flavour, served with a little foie gras from Landes and a spiced pear chutney.

Roast squab and Peking duck leg was served on a wooden chopping board with marinated turnip and date sauce. Roasted organic Shetland cod tasted excellent and was attractively paired with crispy pigs trotters, tripe and ears, along with some broad beans and peas. Cornish red mullet tasted fresh, with sardine and saffron rice, Pimento pepper puree and “paella air”. A rare breed Suessex pork was served “head to toe” with parsnip and spiced lentils. There was also a Cornish crab mayonnaise with avocado, sweet corn sorbet and Oscietra caviar, another dish whose flavour combinations worked well. All these dishes hovered around the 6/10 level.
The star of the evening for me was the BLT and Croque Monsieur pairing that will be familiar to those who have watched the 2008 Great British Menu TV series (this was the winning starter). This witty dish reinvents these sandwiches, the BLT arriving in a cocktail glass, with a lettuce soup in a glass on the side, the main cocktail glass holding tomato jelly, bacon onion cream, the dish garnished with fried onion rings and bacon lardons. This was a wonderfully successful combination of refreshing flavours (8/10). The brioche croque monsieur was less interesting for me, but the BLT was inspired cooking; the great thing was the flavours were so intense and complimentary; this was not just a dish relying on originality, but actually tasting great.

The wine list at Maze is excellent, with attractive choices from all around the world, at just about tolerable mark-ups. Service was excellent, though quite why the staff find it necessary to dim the lights to the point of gloominess shortly after the evening began eludes me: this is an attractive room with pretty food, and it would be nice to be able to actually see it.

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