Les 110 de Taillevent

110 Wines by the Glass, and a Meal Built Around Them

The name is the architecture. At Les 110 de Taillevent on Cavendish Square, the 110 wines available by the glass are not a marketing figure, they are the organising logic of the entire dining experience. Every dish on the menu arrives with four suggested pairings, each sitting in a different price bracket, each offered in both 70ml and 125ml measures. That grid-based pairing system gives the meal a structural clarity that most prix fixe restaurants only approximate: here, the wine component of your evening is as deliberately sequenced as the food courses themselves.

This approach positions the restaurant in a distinct sub-tier of London French dining. At Pétrus by Gordon Ramsay or Le Gavroche, wine lists are deep and sommelier-guided, but the pairing experience is consultative rather than systematic. At Les 110, the framework is built into the menu itself: you receive a grid, you make choices, and a sommelier is present to assist if the options feel overwhelming. For a diner who wants genuine engagement with wine without the opacity of a long verbal recitation, this is a more accessible and arguably more educational format.

The Room: A Former Bank Turned Brasserie

The site itself carries weight before the first glass is poured. The building was previously a Coutts bank branch, and the conversion has retained the spatial generosity of that original use: ornate high ceilings, deep green banquettes, and a striking bottle display behind the bar that operates as both design statement and inventory signal. The aesthetic sits at the formal end of the brasserie register without tipping into austerity. The overall effect, glossy and plush, but with a relaxed service tempo, is a recognisable formula for upper-middle French dining in London, executed here with the institutional confidence of a Parisian parent house.

That parent house is Le Taillevent, one of Paris's most established fine dining addresses. The London interpretation is, by design, more food-orientated than the Paris original, and operates at a different price point: the £££ bracket places it below the ££££ tier occupied by Galvin La Chapelle and Sketch's Lecture Room. That positioning is deliberate, this is a wine-led brasserie with serious cooking, not a tasting-menu destination.

The Cooking: French Familiarity, Executed with Precision

The kitchen operates in a mode that is neither aggressively modern nor nostalgically classical. Sauces carry the most editorial weight in the cooking: a light, complex bonne femme accompanying mushroom-stuffed Cornish turbot, a glossy coffee-tinged reduction with roasted venison loin. These are preparations that reward the kind of attention a structured pairing format encourages. The lobster dish, built around a foaming bisque with claw and leg meat, pickled pumpkin discs, poached tail slices, and orange, reflects a kitchen working at a level of technical precision.

The list's depth extends well beyond the by-the-glass programme. Château Lafite Rothschild back to 1897 and Château d'Yquem back to 1924 appear on the cellar list, situating Les 110 alongside wine programmes at addresses like Chez Bruce in terms of list seriousness, though the formats differ significantly. Where Chez Bruce's wine offer rewards the browser, Les 110's grid is designed for the guided drinker.

Award Recognition and Peer Context

Star Wine List has ranked Les 110 de Taillevent across multiple categories every year from 2021 through 2025, a sustained pattern of recognition that reflects the consistency of the wine programme rather than a single standout vintage. The Opinionated About Dining Casual Europe ranking (ranked 563rd in 2024, recommended in 2023) places it in the broader casual-fine European dining conversation, a comparable set that includes serious brasseries and wine-focused restaurants across the continent rather than tasting-menu destinations.

For context on where this sits in the London French spectrum: the ££££ bracket, Galvin La Chapelle, Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, Sketch's Lecture Room, operates in a different register of investment and occasion. Les 110 occupies a more accessible tier, one where the wine programme does a significant portion of the experiential work that a long tasting menu might do elsewhere. The Google rating of 4.5 from 417 reviews suggests consistent delivery rather than polarised reception.

For those willing to travel beyond London for French cooking at a higher pitch, Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons in Great Milton or Gidleigh Park in Chagford represent the country house end of that tradition. At the international level, Hotel de Ville Crissier in Crissier and Sézanne in Tokyo show how the French fine dining format travels. Within central London, 64 Goodge Street sits nearby as a point of comparison in the neighbourhood's dining cluster.

Planning Your Visit

Les 110 de Taillevent is at 16 Cavendish Square, W1G 9DD, on the corner of Harley Street and Cavendish Square, a short walk from Oxford Circus. The location puts it within reach of Marylebone and Fitzrovia's broader dining concentration.

For British fine dining further afield, see The Fat Duck in Bray, L'Enclume in Cartmel, Moor Hall in Aughton, and Hand and Flowers in Marlow.