We can’t talk about Bonheur, chef Matt Abe’s solo debut, without first talking about La Gavroche. First opened by brothers Albert and Michel Roux sr. in 1987, the restaurant occupied this space on London’s Upper Brook Street for 43 years (and on Lower Sloane Street for 14 years before that). It remains an icon in British restaurant history as the country’s first to achieve three Michelin stars.
So, when La Gavroche’s closure was announced in 2024, a big question mark sat above the space. Who would be brave enough to occupy it? Was it destined for flats or offices or retail? Fortunately, Gordon Ramsay stepped in and took over the lease, announcing that his long term protege Matt Abe was stepping up.
The Ramsay-Gavroche-Abe lore runs deep. Ramsay underwent early training at La Gavroche, and was mentored by the Roux brothers – uncle and father, respectively, to Michel Roux Jr, who took over and ran La Gavroche from 1991 until its closure. Still following? The restaurant industry is an intertwined one, for sure.
In early November, nearly a year since news broke that Ramsay had taken on the site, Bonheur opened its doors to a serious amount of anticipation. Despite the history, Abe is making it his own, with confidence. “It’s a massive honor and a massive responsibility,” he told Elite Traveler a few weeks before opening. “It’s about carrying on the legacy of the building, and continuing the nurturing of talented, amazing people. It all links back to that support Gordon has given to me.”
And, like its predecessor, is Bonheur going for three stars, too? A grin and a coy look down to the table is Abe’s only answer to that one.
Must order:
Get the three-course a la carte if you’re in a hurry and the Dream menu if time is no object.
What to drink:
Have a martini in the lounge to start, then let the sommelier team do the choosing for you.
Best seat in the house:
Make sure you’re in a booth on the back wall to get a full view of the restaurant.
Chef
Australia-born Abe (now only with a hint of an accent) began his culinary career in his native Sydney, but relocated to London in 2007 to join the Gordon Ramsay Restaurant group. He trained under Clare Smyth (who, one of Bonheur’s waiting staff told me, dined at the restaurant in its first few days, and said it was “one of the best soft launches she’d been to”) at the three-Michelin-starred Restaurant Gordon Ramsay in Chelsea. Abe rose through the ranks, eventually becoming chef de cuisine – a role he held for eight years.
Menu
Abe has kindly given his dinners a fair amount of choice. Instead of a one-size-fits-all offering, there’s two tasting menus (‘Journey’ with five courses; ‘Dream’ with seven) and a three-course a la carte. “People are time-poor and it was really important to me that guests had options and didn’t feel pigeon-holed into a menu that wasn’t right for them,” Abe says.
The pace of the restaurant helps. At just a week in, dishes flow out quickly and confidently. A succinct trio of canapes arrive first (whether you’re journeying, dreaming or a la carting): a crispy little buckwheat tart holding Bluefin tuna, ginger and wasabi is the best of the lot.
Other stars: a nori-frosted fillet of turbot, finished with tangy dots of black garlic sauce, and a generous pour of hollandaise and lobster jus; and a rare hunk of Northamptonshire fallow deer, with, in Abe’s own words, a sticky, sweet, “sort-of HP-like sauce.”
Although he’s come from under the shadow of one of the world’s most famous chefs, Abe clearly isn’t afraid to push the boat out. Some experiments, notably a vegetable broth laced with lip-coatingly silky rendered beef fat and wincingly sharp citrus jelly petit four, I would happily eat on repeat.
Others, a including a brandy-washed French Époisses so pongy, you’d be stopped at border control if you tried to import it yourself and a goat’s cheese s’mores-type dessert, won’t be for everyone. But, as someone who has worked under chef Ramsay for the majority of their career, Matt Abe clearly knows you can’t please everyone.
Interior
Amid a busy schedule, the impossibly in-demand Russell Sage Studio (other recent projects include The Goring Hotel’s restaurant renovation and all-new Ardbeg House on Islay) was brought in to create Bonheur’s subterranean dining room and its upstairs cocktail lounge.
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“La Gavroche was very dark and quite a moody environment – it was very dimly lit,” Abe says. “We wanted the polar opposite.” The brief was to inject warmth and color, as well as honor Abe’s Australian heritage.
“We’re obviously not having kangaroo on the menu, but I wanted the color palette to reflect the Australian landscape,” he adds. Across the L-shaped basement dining room, the result is a creamy color scheme, accented with hits of rust and orange. Interesting textures are dotted about the space, from horsehair wallpaper to yellow leather tabletops.