Test Driving Le Café LPM, bringing a taste of the original Mayfair hit to Knightsbridge

Looking into Le Café LPM. If you've been to the original, you'll see touches of it here. 

So, there's a new LPM in town?

That's right, after 18 years in Mayfair, LPM have expanded to Knightsbridge with a spin-off called Le Café LPM. For this, they've teamed up with The Lanesborough and taken over a prefabricated space that's outside the back of the hotel, with a new menu and new cocktails to boot. 

So how do we find the new café? 

There's a long way and an easy way. If you're coming in from the front of the hotel, it's a bit of a winding route to get there, down some stairs, through a few corridors. Honestly, if you're going that way, you're best off asking for directions. However, if you approach it from the back of the hotel, it's much easier to find. Directly opposite their neighbour, The Peninsula, you'll see this:

If you're looking for the easiest route in, directly opposite Peninsula London, you'll see this at the back of The Lanesborough - this is Le Café LPM. 

The Café (or Le Café to be precise) is taking over a space that was used to house the hotel's cigar room, while the main cigar room was undergoing renovations. Rather than losing the space, they've decided to move it in a different direction, which has seen LPM take it over for a year. There's also a pretty decent terrace space here, with a big retractable roof, meaning it'll get plenty of use even as we head into the cooler months. 

The terrace space in Le Café. If there's space, you can just pop in here for a coffee or drink. 

What's on the menu here?

As befits the "café" name, there's a much shorter menu here than you'll find at the main LPM, although it still has the same southern France influences throughout. There's a short collection of small plates, and a few larger dishes, all of which seem best for a lunchtime visit. As you'll see below, it can be pretty pricey. 

We visited during its first week, and at this point, some of the dishes were more successful than others. Here's what we had:

Smoked aubergine, tomato, red onion, chives (£18)

Crispy fried squid, saffron aioli (£27) - a well-made dish and a generous portion, but it is what we'd consider to be a starter and that's quite a price as a result. 

Sirloin steak sandwich, house-made chips (£39) - note that even though they say chips they actually mean crisps. 

Caesar salad, baby gem lettuce, Parmesan, croutons (£28) - The one outright miss of our meal; this was let down by an extremely light hand on the Caesar sauce.

Crème caramel (£18) - While this was a triumph - an exceptionally well-made and just-set crème caramel. 

What about drinks?

LPM is known for two main things on the drinks front: rosé and their Tomatini. There's plenty of the former on offer here, with glasses starting at £19. However, you won't find a Tomatini here. Instead, they've stuck with tomatoes and created a brand new cocktail. It's great, and you should definitely have one of those:

Tomato & olive oil sour (Ketel One vodka, vermouth blend, cherry tomato, lemon & olive oil, £24). A great cocktail and very well made. This is a must-have.

Overall thoughts

We did like the look of the little slice of southern France that they've created at the back of The Lanesborough with Le Cafe LPM. It really comes into its own on a sunny day and given that we've been having such a warm September, they ought to get some good use out of that terrace. The staff are also lovely and properly on-it. However, it is noticeably pricey on the food front and at that level, a little more consistency is going to be needed, particularly considering how great the original has always been. So it's a place with potential, but it does need some finessing.