Caractère in Notting Hill will offer guests the opportunity to bring their own wine for lunch on a Tuesday or Wednesday, whether it’s “a rare white Châteauneuf-du-Pape or a bottle from your local supermarket”.
Husband and wife team, Emily Roux and Diego Ferrari, launched their debut restaurant Caractère in 2018 with Roux leading the front of house and Ferrari heading the kitchen.
On launching Caractère, Emily Roux became the third generation of the Anglo-French Roux family to open a restaurant in the U.K., with her grandfather Albert and father Michel Jr running Le Gavroche in Mayfair, the first restaurant in the U.K. to be awarded three Michelin stars.
Roux and Ferrari met in the kitchens of Alain Ducasse’s Le Louis XV in Monaco. With the chefs’ experience in both French and Italian kitchens, Caractère brings together elements of both cuisines.
The restaurant’s Bring Your Own Wine concept gives guests the opportunity to provide their own wine to accompany the restaurant’s three-course ‘Spontaneous Lunch Menu’, with a corkage of £10 per bottle or £20 per magnum.
Reflecting the restaurant’s name, Caractère, the menu is divided into six character traits with up to three dishes to choose from in each section: curious – small plates; subtle – small plates; delicate – fish; robust – meat; strong – cheese; greedy – dessert.
At £39 per person, the ‘Spontaneous Lunch Menu’ offers guests the opportunity to choose three of the six ‘traits’, with a dish from each trait selected for you.
The menu will feature dishes such as a saffron-aged rice or “Acquarello” risotto, golden enoki mushrooms and black garlic; slow-cooked ox cheek ravioli, kabocha, pumpkin, flower sprout and barbucine; and one Roux’s personal favourites: a chocolate cake with pecan praline, salted caramel sauce and mascarpone ice cream.
The offer will be available for Tuesday and Wednesday lunch service.
To view the Wine List Confidential entry for Caractère, please click here. Please note that official scores for the 2019 guide will be published in May.
