LE CHABANAIS

May 2015

As restaurant enthusiasts here at Restaurant Property, we are constantly keeping our eyes open for exciting new venues to try out. This month we have chosen:

Le Chabanais
8 Mount Street, Mayfair
London W1K 3NF
http://www.lechabanaislondon.com/

After a life-changing trip to World’s-Top-50-Restaurants mainstay Le Chateaubriand in Paris, ex-Bollywood star and now restaurateur Varun Talreja has set his sights on London’s Mayfair with the opening of Le Chabanais.

The deal for Le Chateaubriand’s new Mayfair-based restaurant has been secured by Restaurant Property’s own David Rawlinson, and it will open this spring.

This new restaurant is paired with its Parisian counterpart, though Le Chabanais is set to be “a bit more Mayfair” in style, according to Talreja. Brass fittings and a marble bar are standout features.

When the restaurant opens its doors, it will comprise a 90-cover, ground floor Clement Blanchet-designed dining room with adjoined 10-cover private room, plus a 40-seat basement bar with a French-inspired short cocktail menu.

The kitchen will be headed up by Paul Bouder, who has been working at Le Chateaubriand for the last five years and built up an incredible wealth of knowledge within modern French cuisine.

According to owner Talreja, “I decided to move out of Mumbai and do something different. I had always thought about opening my own restaurant and everything just kind of fell into place. When I visited Le Chateaubriand, I knew immediately that Inaki was the chef I wanted to work with. We had a similar vision, and he was keen for his food to be introduced to London, so it was the perfect partnership. The kitchen is being headed up by Inaki’s second in command Paul Boudier, who joins direct from the Le Chateaubriand kitchen where he was head chef. We have had Clement Blanchet design the dining room, which will seat 90, and the basement bar which will seat 40 – the whole design will be very different to any other restaurant in London, coming from an architect rather than an interior designer. We chose Mayfair because we wanted to bring something completely new to the area – we hope to attract the Mayfair crowd obviously, but we want them to know that they can be a little more relaxed at Le Chabanais. The service will be a little more formal than in Paris, but I still want it to feel as casual as possible. There’s a lot of restaurant openings in London at the moment, at least five major places open up here each year, and we want to be one of them.”