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Starry Eyed Chef Will Open a Soigné AF Michelin Magnet in Piccadilly

Expect all things fine, fancy, and flash from Alex Dilling’s eponymous restaurant at Hotel Cafe Royal

A slice of chicken with a chicken mousseline, cep farce.
Alex Dilling’s “Hunter’s” chicken.
The Greenhouse

A chef who adores all things soigné is opening his first standalone restaurant in London, after his last stint in the city met an ignominious end. Alex Dilling will open a guaranteed Michelin magnet at Hotel Cafe Royal later this summer, steeped in fine ingredients; French technique; minimalist plating; and an abundance of caviar and truffle.

His cuisine is informed by time leading a duo of two-Michelin-starred London restaurants: Hélène Darroze at the Connaught and the Greenhouse, both in Mayfair. It was at the latter that he most clearly developed his own ideas — including a memorably jet black “oeuf noir,” glazed with black truffle fumaison, and a “Hunter’s” chicken made with a Landes bird, ceps, chicken mousseline, sauce Albufuera, and white truffle. The restaurant was forced to close in 2020, during both the COVID-19 pandemic and the fall-out from the mismanagement and collapse of its parent group, Marlon Abela’s MARC. The company was wound up still owing HMRC almost £500,000 in taxes.

Dilling returns to London after a series of residencies, most recently in Malta.

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