Bibendum’s celebratory dinner

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A spruce-up and a knees-up for the London restaurant icon

After 30 years in business, it’s a change of gear at Bibendum, the iconic London restaurant situated in the former headquarters of French tyre company Michelin.  

Founding partner Terence Conran has refurbished the first-floor dining room personally – wooden framed Scottish leather chairs now stand on plush slate carpet, while a sole tan aniline leather chair is reserved for Conran at his favourite corner table – and Peter Robinson, formerly of the Hotel Tresanton, has been appointed head chef.  

“I celebrated my 70th birthday at the Tresanton, and after the meal I asked to see the head chef – and it was Peter,” says Conran. “I gave him my business card and said: ‘Call me when you open your own place’. Here we are 13 years later. Peter’s cooking embodies all that Bibendum stands for.”

All good reasons for a one-off celebratory dinner (£150 a head, including wine), which is being held on Thursday May 14 and hosted by polymath Stephen Fry and the founding chef of Bibendum, Simon Hopkinson.

Robinson will be connecting with the restaurant’s heritage by cooking a menu of favourites from the founding chef’s recipe book, Simon Hopkinson Cooks. Champagne accompanied by tiny fennel and salami sandwiches will start the evening off with effervescence, while a prawn cocktail starter is surely a perfect choice for a fish restaurant that opened in 1985. Asparagus with black-truffle vinaigrette will then accompany the main course of roast lamb with anchovy, rosemary and garlic, and gratin de Jabron – followed by a dessert of blackcurrant jelly with crème Chantilly.

Curating the evening’s wine – from Bibendum’s selection of over 800 bins – is wine writer Matthew Jukes, with the selection including 2013 Sancerre Monts Damnés, Gérard Boulay and 2008 Vosne Romanée aux Réas, Domaine AF Gros.

When coffee is served, the Michelin Man mascot will have his moment in the spotlight in the form of a newly commissioned porcelain sugar bowl topped with his likeness. One will be available for each diner to take home. But before then, there’s a lively question and answer session with Fry and Hopkinson…