The Ledbury is a restaurant located on Ledbury Road,

Notting Hill Notting Hill is a district of West London, England, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Notting Hill is known for being a cosmopolitan and multicultural neighbourhood, hosting the annual Notting Hill Carnival and Portobello Road Ma ...

, London, England. It held two

Michelin stars The Michelin Guides ( ) are a series of guide books that have been published by the French tyre company Michelin since 1900. The Guide awards up to three Michelin stars for excellence to a select few establishments. The acquisition or loss of a ...

from 2010 until 2020, when it lost them as they shut due to Covid-19 restrictions being impractical for the restaurant, making it ineligible for assessment by Michelin inspectors. It has also been featured in S.Pellegrino World's 50 Best Restaurants. The head chef is

Brett Graham Brett Graham (born 1967) is a New Zealand sculptor who creates large scale artworks and installations that explore indigenous histories, politics and philosophies. ''Snitch'' from 2014, in the collection of the Honolulu Museum of Art, refer ...

, and he has been received favorably by critics. The restaurant reopened in February 2022, after being closed for almost 2 years.

History

The restaurant opened in 2005, under head chef

. It is the sister restaurant of The Square, a two-Michelin-starred restaurant in Mayfair, London, with the same backers investing in both restaurants. The new restaurant gained a Michelin star within a year of opening, but sales only increased by 2009. A second Michelin star followed in 2010. Also in 2010, it was awarded the Square Meal BMW Restaurant of the Year Award. Amid the ongoing

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

, Graham announced in June 2020 that the restaurant would remain closed indefinitely, citing one-metre

social distancing In public health, social distancing, also called physical distancing, (NB. Regula Venske is president of the PEN Centre Germany.) is a set of non-pharmaceutical interventions or measures intended to prevent the spread of a contagious dis ...

measures Measure may refer to: * Measurement, the assignment of a number to a characteristic of an object or event Law * Ballot measure, proposed legislation in the United States * Church of England Measure, legislation of the Church of England * Measu ...

in place as impractical to keep staff and customers safe. Due to its closure, The Ledbury lost its Michelin stars in January 2021. The Ledbury was refurbished and then reopened to the public in early February 2022. Its seating capacity was reduced from 55 to 45 in favor of a centre table to be used by the serving staff.

Reception

Giles Coren Giles Robin Patrick Coren (born 29 July 1969) is a British columnist, food writer, and television and radio presenter. He has been a restaurant critic for ''The Times'' newspaper since 2002, and was named Food and Drink Writer of the Year at the ...

visited the restaurant for ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...

shortly after it opened. He described it as having a "hushed, moneyed feel" Terry Durack also reviewed the restaurant during 2005, for ''

The Independent on Sunday ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was published ...

''. He described the restaurant as "seriously good", and thought it was off to a "very good start". In 2008, Matthew Norman, writing in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', commented on its "recession-resistant prices" and gave it 9.25 out of 10. Jasper Gerard ate at the restaurant for ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...

'' in 2010, describing some courses as "scrumptious", but he felt that the dessert options were a let down compared to the rest of the dishes on offer. ''

Harden's ''Harden's'' is a UK restaurant guide, publishing print, online and mobile reviews and ratings for both London and UK restaurants. Like New York's Zagat Survey (which no longer has a London edition), the ratings and reviews are based on the result ...

'' restaurant guide describes the food at The Ledbury as "genius" and scores the food as a one, service as a one and ambience as a two. It uses a scale of one to five, where one is high and five is low.

Awards

* The Ledbury became 2014 one of the Top Ten Restaurants in S.Pellegrino World's 50 Best Restaurants. * The restaurant held two stars in the

Michelin Guide The Michelin Guides ( ) are a series of guide books that have been published by the French tyre company Michelin since 1900. The Guide awards up to three Michelin stars for excellence to a select few establishments. The acquisition or loss of ...

until 2020. *2012, S.Pellegrino World's 50 Best Restaurants in its second year listed, and was the highest climber on the list. * In both 2010 and 2011 The Ledbury was voted the UK's top restaurant in ''Restaurant Magazine's'' 'National Restaurant Awards'. * In 2011, it was also voted the best restaurant in London by ''

Zagat The ''Zagat Survey'', commonly referred to as Zagat (stylized in all caps; , ) and established by Tim and Nina Zagat in 1979, is an organization which collects and correlates the ratings of restaurants by diners. For their first guide, coverin ...

'', ''Harden's'' and the ''Sunday Times''.

Chef and co-restaurateur

The restaurant's

chef de cuisine A chef de cuisine (, French for ''head of kitchen'') or head chef is a chef that leads and manages the kitchen and chefs of a restaurant or hotel A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities ...

Brett Graham was born in

Newcastle, New South Wales Newcastle ( ; Awabakal: ) is a metropolitan area and the second most populated city in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It includes the Newcastle and Lake Macquarie local government areas, and is the hub of the Greater Newcastle area ...

, in 1979. He worked as an apprentice of a fish restaurant Scratchleys. Then at age 18, he moved to a Sydney restaurant Banc. He immigrated to London in early 2000s after winning the Josephine Pignolet Young Chef of the Year Award in Sydney. He had previously worked at The Square as a sous chef for three and a half years under its chef de cuisine, Phil Howard. Graham won the Young Chef of the Year in 2002 from the Restaurant Association.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ledbury 2005 establishments in the United Kingdom 2020 disestablishments in the United Kingdom 2022 establishments in the United Kingdom Buildings and structures in Notting Hill Michelin Guide starred restaurants in the United Kingdom Restaurants disestablished during the COVID-19 pandemic Restaurants disestablished in 2020 Restaurants established in 2005 Restaurants established in 2022 Restaurants in London