Ask the family for good French food
While family-run restaurants serving top-quality, classical, French food are occasionally sighted in France they are as rare as hen's teeth in Mayfair.
Patterson's is the exception.
Raymond Patterson won his spurs during a fourteen-year stint in the kitchens at the Garrick Club, and somehow he has persuaded most of his family to join him in his restaurant.
The menu here is littered with those satisfying, classical dishes that are so very difficult to do well.
A smoked haddock soufflé served with a chive caviar sauce comes to table towering and quivering, the beurre blanc concoction in a jug to pour into its depths - a stunning dish.
Or there may be a ham hock and duck egg ravioli with roast chanterelles.
Other starters may include roast foie gras with peach caviar, or a venison and wild boar terrine with a white pear cake.
These are dishes that put the kitchen through its paces.
The mains continue the theme - steamed halibut with crab mousse and fondant leeks; saddle and civet of rabbit with a Swiss chard gateau; or tournedos of beef with foie gras and wild mushroom cannelloni.
The puds are good - a textbook tarte Tatin, an epic white chocolate soufflé with cherry sauce.
The wine list at Patterson's seems un-aggressively priced - and there are a good many classic bottles at just about accessible prices.
The service is charming, and there is plenty of both ambition and technical ability in the kitchen.
At lunch prices shrink a good deal - and there is sometimes a very reasonable and quintessentially civilised 'oyster lunch' on offer here: a dozen oysters, cheeseboard and coffee.
Patterson's
Mill Street, London, W1S 2AX
