Bonheur by Matt Abé has earned serious critical acclaim, winning two Michelin stars just eight months after opening, a vanishingly rare achievement in the culinary world.
The restaurant is the solo venture of Matt Abé, an Australian chef who previously worked at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay and alongside Clare Smyth before striking out on his own.
Abé was handed the considerable challenge of opening a new restaurant in the Mayfair basement space formerly occupied by Le Gavroche, the three-starred institution founded by the Roux brothers.
Le Gavroche was a fixture of London high society for 56 years before its closure in 2024, making it one of the most storied addresses in British fine dining history.
Abé has redesigned the space with beige and gold decor that is opulent but unremarkable, though a sliding door offering glimpses into the kitchen provides a welcome touch of theatre.
The five-course tasting menu is priced at £195 and follows a classic French culinary approach, with dishes that are elegantly plated and technically precise throughout the evening.
The opening quiche lorraine is a highlight, described as an enticing, gooey melange of pastry and gruyère, with smoked ham and a pastry firm enough to hold its shape yet delicate enough to dissolve on the tongue.
Subsequent courses include a mouthful of melon sorbet, prompting one diner to remark, “this is what people imagine when they joke about tasting menus.”
A piece of Cornish turbot plated with fresh dulse seaweed follows, described as straightforward but pleasant, before the main course of Herdwick Hogget arrives in a portion the size of a large canapé.
The hogget, a sheep aged between one and two years with a rich, gamey profile, was offset by slivers of courgette, olive tapenade and marjoram, but the serving size left much to be desired.
Diners who realised dessert was imminent attempted to order the steak course from the seven-course menu at 10pm, but the kitchen had already closed for the evening.
The maître d’ failed to acknowledge that guests were still hungry, leaving waitstaff to offer extra desserts and double helpings of milk bread as compensation.
A promised pecan tart never arrived, compounding a sense that the evening’s hospitality, while well-intentioned, was inconsistent in its execution.
The seven-course menu costs just £30 more than the five-course option and includes both a steak and a lobster course, making it appear significantly better value for money.
Those two additional dishes alone appeared to represent more food than the entirety of what was served across the five-course experience that evening.
The Ile Flottante dessert, essentially whipped meringue with blackberries and summer fruits, is a light and airy finish that does little to address any lingering sense of hunger.
Bonheur’s publicist confirmed that the portion sizes were not designed with weight-loss medication users in mind, though the question speaks to a broader conversation happening across London’s fine dining scene.
After leaving the restaurant and its aggressive air conditioning behind, the evening concluded with a search for heartier sustenance at The Stafford’s American Bar, where fries were consumed alongside nightcaps.
Abé is clearly a talented chef whose technical abilities are beyond question, and the two Michelin stars earned in record time reflect genuine skill in the kitchen.
However, some adjustments to portion sizes across both menus would go a long way toward ensuring the experience feels genuinely reflective of its price point for paying guests.