Wine List of the Week: Mazarine - Dining and Cooking

Set just off London’s Hanover Square, Mazarine brings Riviera-inflected seafood and classical French technique into a polished Mayfair room. Does it convince? “Largely,” writes Douglas Blyde. “With assured cooking, thoughtful sourcing and a space built for the long run, it stands as a confident early statement.”

Within – though not formally of – the Mandarin Oriental Mayfair, Hanover Square, Mazarine arrives via Khaled Dandachi and Fred Srouchi, the duo whose Mayfair footprint already runs from Sparrow Italia to the nocturnal institution of Maddox Club. Where Sparrow courts the city with American-accented Italian ease, and Maddox keeps later hours, Mazarine turns its attention seawards, presenting itself as a seafood-led “atelier”. The name plays a neat double game – a nod to Cardinal Mazarin, the art-minded 17th-century powerbroker of the French court, and to that deep maritime blue which seems to tint the restaurant’s outlook.

At the stove stands Thierry Laborde, whose formation at Le Louis XV under Alain Ducasse, followed by a tenure as head chef at Le Gavroche, lends the kitchen a classical backbone beneath its Riviera inflections. Early visitors have taken note. Robin Swithinbank admitted he would return “for the cabbage – a review line I never expected to write”, while Sofia de la Cruz observed that “whispers of classical French technique meet a distinctly modern sensibility”. Not everyone has been convinced, mind. One earnest Google reviewer found the chicken bland and the portions wanting, inadvertently channelling Annie Hall: “The food at this place is terrible.” “Yes,” comes the reply, “and such small portions.”

Interiors by New York based Bolt Builds – whose work includes Nat’s on Bleecker and Agency of Record – curve the square shell into something closer to a tuffeau cave, softly washed in flattering light. The brand identity, developed by Man The Studio, draws, they advise, on coastal textures and wave-like motion, its monogram flowing like water while flecks of gold echo sunlight across the sea. The result draws fashion-aware influencers, thankfully spending their own cash, while Alain Souchon’s “Le Baiser” drifts through the room.

Drinks

Drinks fall under the watch of Ian Sheldrake, also beverage director at Sparrow Italia, a figure whose steady competence has made him one of those reassuring Mayfair presences capable, one suspects, of keeping order even on a listing vessel. His grounding began at The Ivy under Darren Ball before sharpening under Clement Robert MS, moving from Gloucestershire pubs through Soho’s Century Club. The resulting list reads more international than Sparrow’s Italian-leaning cellar, with by-the-glass wines tasted blind by the team, and a range stretching confidently across France, Italy, Iberia and the New World.

Champagne sets the tone with prestige cuvées – Krug, Dom Pérignon, Rare and Pol Roger Sir Winston Churchill – alongside growers such as Pierre Péters and Larmandier-Bernier, with English sparkling from Hambledon and Hundred Hills folded in. The register feels polished and recognisably Mayfair. Yet the pricing ladder occasionally jumps rather than climbs, and one category remains conspicuously absent: large formats. In a dining room of this quality, magnums and above are not decoration but catalysts. If they are never listed, they can never sell.

White Burgundy forms the intellectual centre – Olivier Leflaive, Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey and Pernot-Bélicard moving from village through to grand cru territory including Corton-Charlemagne and Montrachet – while the Loire and Rhône broaden the field. Italy appears through its modern white canon, notably Gaja’s “Gaia & Rey”, Jermann’s Vintage Tunina, and Cervaro della Sala, with Spain, Austria and the New World completing the arc.

Reds follow a similar compass: Burgundy’s Dujac and Confuron-Cotetidot through to Bonnes Mares and Chambertin Clos de Bèze; Bordeaux ranging from satellites to Lafite, Latour and Margaux; Italy surfacing through Sandrone Barolo, Prunotto Barbaresco and the Tuscan aristocracy; and Spain countering with Vega Sicilia Único. Sweet finales, recounted verbally, rather than listed, include Château Suiduraut 2008.

Spirits lean toward familiar international names, though the French accent could be stronger – a French whisky or deeper Cognac bench would sit comfortably here. Cocktails keep the mood Parisian, from the peach-and-lavender fizz of the Dassault 28 to the Puritain martini of London gin, Noilly Prat and yellow Chartreuse.

Dishes

Thierry Laborde brings Riviera instinct filtered through long London service, including a Michelin star at L’Oranger, Chabrot Bistro d’Amis, and Platanes, where he was confirmed him as a cook of “bistronomic” nerve.

Lunch opened with a wonderfully gentrified croque monsieur enriched with black truffle and blue lobster, followed by smoked caviar presented on immaculate brioche soldiers. Oysters next, Belon natives pitched against fins de claires from David Hervé, considered one of the meticulous oyster farmers in Marennes-Oléron, shucked with precision. Burgundy snails followed in handsome shells, garlicky but disciplined, then a scallop dressed with hazelnut whose sweetness drifted toward white chocolate – like a Ferrero Rocher reimagined by someone who prefers beurre noisette to confectionery.

Hand-cut bluefin tuna tartare carried the grassy depth of small-batch Provençal Grandjean olive oil. A textbook salade Niçoise followed – crisp vegetables, olives, tuna confit and leaves glossed with mayonnaise – proving one of the menu’s quiet triumphs. Paired with J. Braud’s Moulin de la Justice Muscadet Sèvre et Maine 2023, the entire plate and glass could be secured for a little over thirty pounds.

More elaborate compositions followed. Cornish crab ravioli swam through a concentrated lobster broth lifted by lemongrass, paired with XL Sebio’s O Con Albariño from Rías Baixas. The wine, drawn from Atlantic vineyards on granite, showed the broader Galician style rather than razor-wire austerity: saline, textured, with orchard fruit rounding its maritime edge.

Then came slow-cooked cod, opalescent and supple beneath a Basque pil-pil, and the dish of the meal: tagliatelle cut from steamed squid, tangled with sliced button mushrooms and black truffle. As the ink loosened through the plate the whole began to resemble an edible sketch, dark strokes spreading across the plate with each turn of the fork.

Dessert concluded in two registers alongside Château Laville Sauternes 2020. A Basque gâteau layered sponge, praline and mousseline, while a soufflé chocolat noir made with XOCO dark chocolate developed by chef, Jean-François Piège, built for intensity and structure rather than sweetness.

Last Sip

The haven of an interior already draws a polished crowd, with the enclosed terrace set to extend the Riviera mood onto Hanover Square this summer. A little front-of-house refinement would sharpen the overall impression – the carpet already showing marks from dropped cutlery, some lighting systems on the blink, the private dining room could benefit from improved acoustics, and a little guidance on the art adding welcome context. As the kitchen moves through the seasons, we look forward to seeing how its seafood offering evolves. For now, Mazarine stands as a confident early statement – assured cooking, thoughtful sourcing, and a dining room built with the long run in mind.

Best for:

Pristinely sourced seafood
French wines
Private dining room for 12

Value: 92, Size: 93, Range: 93, Originality: 92, Experience: 96; Total: 93.2

Mazarine – 22 Hanover Square, London, W1S 1JA; 020 3750 0599; [email protected]; mazarinerestaurant.com