Test Driving Orrery by Pierre Minotti, well on its way to earning that Michelin star

The chef himself, Pierre Minotti

What can you tell us about Orrery?

Orrery, as a fine dining restaurant, was originally opened in Marylebone in 1997 by Sir Terence Conran (above the now-closed Conran Store). Later, it was run by D&D, which itself was recently bought and relaunched as the Evolv Group. They've been overhauling various D&D restaurants recently and now it's the turn of Orrery. For that, they've brought in chef Pierre Minotti for a complete relaunch of the restaurant. They've even changed the restaurant name to showcase his arrival.

So who is Pierre Minotti?

Minotti was previously Executive Chef at Alex Dilling's two-Michelin-starred restaurant at the Cafe Royal, and he's come to Orrery with very clear goals - to get it a Michelin star. The restaurant previously had one all the way back in 2008 (it was originally won by Chris Galvin) so its new owners clearly want to bring the restaurant back to its heyday. 

Where is it?

Juns in case you haven't come across the restaurant in the past (nearly) 30 years, it's at the top end of Marylebone High Street, with your best options for getting there either Regent's Park or Great Portland Street stations. 

While the building outside hasn't gone through too much of an overhaul (it really is one of the most striking in the area), inside there have been a lot of changes. The overall structure of the room remains - it's a long room, all on the first floor, flooded with light from the huge round windows and skylights. But the decor and layout has changed quite dramatically.

Gone is the hard flooring, replaced by luxurious blue carpet throughout. And gone too are most of the seats as the new Orrery only has room for 46 diners. In the quest for Michelin, it's taking the approach of many modern fine dining restaurants - focusing on a better overall experience for fewer diners.

This is the new look Orrery

But things don't start in the dining room?

No, your first port of call for dinner or lunch will be The Champagne Room. This used to be the bar and PDR, but now it's part of the whole experience. Right now, it's where you can have a glass of Champagne before the meal.

It's a great looking space, but we reckon they'd benefit from starting the meal with canapes here, instead of when you move into the restaurant. If they're looking for something to impress those Michelin inspectors, and frankly it will help the flow of the meal, we'd strongly recommend shifting more of the experience into that room. It's not a major issue at all right now, but it'll just help the restaurant aim a little higher.

The Champagne room, where it all starts. 

So then it's into the dining room for the main event. Here, you'll have a choice of two main menus along with one that's only available at lunch. There's the five-course version, which we had (£165), a seven-course version (£185) and a lunchtime three-course affair at £85. So we're definitely in Michelin territory, price-wise. Each of those options will have a few added extras (mainly canapes and petit fours) on top of the main event. 

You'll start off with canapes and a couple of dishes at the table:

Like a proper Michelin meal, it all starts with canapés. These are sea bream tartare on a sourdough tuile made from recycled bread waste (and apparently a tribute to Alex Dilling), a Torbay prawn cocktail and the most amazing ox cheek beignet. 

Then it's onto the main event, and for each of the following courses, there are two options available. Here's how the rest of the meal pans out:

This is a smoked eel jelly, with cured seabass and crispy potatoes, topped with smoked eel cream and finished off with a spoon of caviar. It comes with a potato tuille topped with smoked eel rillettes and topped with more caviar. It does cost (yikes) an additional £35. But it was easily our favourite dish of the meal, just outstanding. 

John Dory, steamed and frilled with shrimp farce, served with white crab in warm salted butter with peas and spring onion.

And then it's time for a trip to the end of the room for the Trou Normand course. AKA The Norman Hole, this is a tradition that's normally served as ice cream or sorbet with calvados (although here, they're using Chartreuse). It's intended to give you a small break in the meal so you can carry on eating more after. 

For this, you'll head to a bar, where they'll prepare and serve the course in front of you, giving you a choice of which Charteuse and sorbet mix you're going for, one that's citrus-led and the other that's lovage-led.  

Preparing the Trou Normand

This is the lovage version of the Trou Normand

We love little breaks and changes of scenery like this in a meal and find that it's a little touch that really helps to elevate the whole experience. After that, it's back to the table for the final courses. 

Roasted Creedy Carver duck, glazed with English honey and with a black pudding sauce and confit grelot onions, The honey and red wine vinegar sauce that comes with this is divine. 

Their take on a chocolate opera cake.

The above covers the five courses of the menu (petit fours excepted) but, because there are two of us, we also tried most of the other options. Both the galette and guinea fowl options are worthy choices, but we're going to give a special mention to the other dessert that's available. 

Fraise Gariguette - Gariguette Strawberries with elderflower jelly, strawberry sorbet, French meringue and cheesecake “Chantilly”. That chantilly, which they give you a whole bowl of, is fantastic. The cheesecake flavour gives it a great little punch and if they'd put a second bowl down, we absolutely would have had that too...

What about drinks?

There are lots of options on the wine tasting front, with classic and premium options available (£90 and £120 each for the five-course menu). Alternatively, there's also a cocktail pairing for £70 (we really like the sound of the Bread and Butter Royal on that menu) and there's also a non-alcoholic cocktail pairing. As for the main list, we are firmly in Michelin territory with many bottles heading into the £100s, although there is a bottle of Alcase white for £50, which really isn't a bad entry point at all. 

And if you really want to celebrate, there's this table in the centre of the room to tempt you:

Annoyingly, this photo doesn't quite show just how massive these bottles are. But trust us, it'll take them a while to get through that bottle of port...

Anything else?

If you've visited Orrery before, you'll know about their amazing hidden terrace. There are plans to open this imminently, where they'll have a separate tapas-style menu. Look out for more details on that soon. 

The terrace at Orrery

Overall thoughts

Having already set out his stall as gunning for a Michelin star, we'd say that Pierre Minotti is well on his way with this major makeover of Orrery. It's long been one of the best looking restaurant in Marylebone and now it has a chef, menu and experience to match. There are a few things to tighten up here and there, but overall, this is well on its way to becoming one of London's great high-end restaurants, and very much worth trying out.