If you’ve ever dreamed of ducking into a side street in Le Marais and stumbling upon a bistro so charming it feels like you’ve wandered into someone’s très chic Parisian townhouse – then allow me to introduce Chez Lui, the newest love letter to French dining landing in Notting Hill this June.
The debut venture from La Bistrot Collection – a fresh concept from the Bagatelle Group (yes, the same jet-set legends responsible for party-brunches that border on legendary) – Chez Lui is less “flashbulbs and fizz” and more “linen napkins and candlelit whispers.” Think old-school elegance, but make it effortlessly modern.
Your Parisian Friend’s Dream Home (With a Better Wine Cellar)
From the outside, Chez Lui might look like another darling W11 storefront. But step inside, and you’re transported. Designed in collaboration with interiors wizard Sam Baron (whose work with Dior Maison and Diptyque basically guarantees visual poetry), the space oozes curated nonchalance.
Upstairs is an intimate 60-square-foot bistro dressed in aubergine velvet and warm brick, while the downstairs lounge – 70-square-feet of pure mood – is the kind of place where you can sip your Negroni and pretend you’re brooding about life in Saint-Germain-des-Prés. Mirrors are antique, tables are linen-clad, and curios line the walls like souvenirs from a well-travelled aesthete’s life. It’s French, but not fussy. Elegant, but not staged. You’ll half-expect someone to offer you a Gauloise and start quoting Camus.
The Kitchen: A Power Trio of Culinary Greats
At the helm of the kitchen? No less than three gastronomic rockstars. Leading the charge is Rocco Seminara, a man who’s cooked alongside Alain Ducasse and collects accolades like most people collect Nectar points. He’s joined by Manon Santini, whose desserts look like they belong on the walls of the Louvre (but taste even better), and Pablo Segovia, a culinary nomad whose globe-trotting palate brings flair and imagination to every dish.
Together, they’ve created a menu that reinterprets French classics with a sense of both reverence and rebellion. Expect dishes that respect tradition, then gently nudge it out the door.
What to Order
Start with purple artichokes fried to a crisp and kissed with celery pesto and trout roe vinaigrette, or a beef tartare that’s been given a zippy makeover via chimichurri. Then there’s that chicken: brined for three days, slow-cooked in herb butter, and finally roasted to golden crisp perfection. It’s the sort of thing that could make a rotisserie bird rethink its career choices.
For pudding? The apple tarte Tatin is pure comfort, the chocolate mousse dark and devastating, and the rum baba – flamboyantly tropical with pineapple compote and vanilla cream – sits somewhere between dessert and theatre.
And of course, the wine list sings in fluent French, with everything from Sancerre to Côtes du Rhône, plus a selection of cocktails that includes not one, not two, but three Negroni variations. The Paloma’s got enough flair to justify its own Instagram page.
Oui to Afternoon Pause
True to its roots, Chez Lui also embraces le goûter – that very civilised French tradition of a mid-afternoon pause. Whether you opt for a coffee, a matcha (this is Notting Hill, after all), or just a moment to enjoy some warm gougères while watching the world float by, this is a place where time slows just a touch.
Chez Lui isn’t trying to be the flashiest new opening of the year – and that’s entirely the point. It’s warm, it’s poised, and it’s designed to feel like home. If your home were designed by someone with impeccable taste and a penchant for 72-hour-brined poultry.
Set to open its doors on 16th June, Chez Lui is that rare kind of restaurant: quietly confident, subtly spectacular, and destined to become a beloved local haunt for anyone who’s ever wished for a bit of Parisian magic west of Hyde Park.
I suggest booking a table. And then another. Just in case.
184A Kensington Park Rd, London W11 2ES
