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Welcome to

MAISON ROUGE

DINNER & BAR

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Our story

Welcome to MAISON ROUGE

At Maison Rouge, we embrace the art of modern French dining, serving up a menu that captures the rich flavors and traditions of France while adding our own contemporary twist. Nestled in the heart of London, our restaurant invites you to indulge in a culinary journey that celebrates seasonal ingredients and innovative techniques. From our fresh RAW BAR offerings to the comforting warmth of our seasonal plates, every dish is crafted with passion and precision. Join us for an unforgettable dining experience where every meal is a celebration of taste and togetherness.

— The MAISON ROUGE team
The kitchen

Classical in the bones, local in the buying

Stocks reduced for two days, sauces mounted with butter, a menu that changes when the market changes rather than when the season is announced. That part is old-fashioned on purpose.

What is not old-fashioned is the buying. Almost everything green comes from within ninety miles of the M25, the fish comes up from Brixham on the Tuesday and Friday van, and the cheese is aged three streets away by a man who will tell you at length why you are wrong about Comté.

We are not trying to be the most talked-about restaurant in London. We are trying to be the one you come back to in February.

Milestones

A short history

Year one
MAISON ROUGE opens its doors in the neighbourhood.
Since
A garden, a cellar and a team take shape.
Today
Still cooking close to the source.
The people

Our team

Head chef
Head chef
Kitchen
Sous chef
Sous chef
Kitchen
Host
Host
Front of house
We only cook two hundred covers a week. That is the whole business plan. If we cooked four hundred I would have to buy differently, and then it would be a different restaurant.
Camille Arnaud, chef-patron

Eighteen tarts a night, and Idris tastes the first one

In conversation

Three questions for Idris

Idris Okonkwo has run the pass at Maison Rouge since 2022.

What is the hardest dish on the menu?
The tarte fine, and it looks like the easiest. It is four ingredients and no hiding place — if the pastry is ten seconds long it is a biscuit, and if the apple is a day early it is sour. We make eighteen a night and I taste the first one every single service.
What changed when you moved to one sitting a night?
Everything got slower in the right way. We stopped cooking against a clock at nine o clock, so the sauces got better because nobody was rushing a reduction. Turnover went down and repeat bookings went up. It took about four months before that showed in the numbers.
What is the most underrated thing in the kitchen?
The dairy outside Sevenoaks. We buy cream from them twice a week and it is the difference between a decent sauce and one people remember. Nobody has ever ordered a dish because of the cream, but it is doing half the work.
Sourcing

Where it comes from

Six suppliers account for most of what arrives at the door. We name them because they are the reason the food tastes the way it does.

Trelawney Day Boats

Brixham, Devon

Line-caught fish on the Tuesday and Friday van. What they land is what we write on the card that afternoon.

Wealden Market Garden

Kent

Leaves, roots and soft fruit from March to November. Twenty-six varieties of tomato in a good August.

Hazelbrook Dairy

near Sevenoaks

Cream, butter and a raw-milk curd we use for the tart. Delivered twice a week in returnable churns.

Rennet & Rind

three streets away

The cheese board, aged in Soho. Ask for the Comté and set aside ten minutes for the explanation.

Pelleas Frères

Rungis, Paris

The things Britain cannot grow well — salsify, proper shallots, Agen prunes. One pallet a fortnight.

Ashcombe Estate

Wiltshire

Rare-breed pork and the game that appears on the card from October.