Fantômas, a new restaurant in Chelsea, is named after one of France’s most famous fictional antiheroes: think the Scarlet Pimpernel meets Dexter with a large dose of James Bond baddie. Or at least that’s what I gather – to the British ear, the name just sounds archly gothic. And that’s quite in keeping with this capacious, glamorous and sparsely lit joint, where the music is loud (tribal house, or thereabouts, in case you’re wondering) and a statuesque beauty in a tailored leather gown walks you from the front curtain to your table, before handing you over to a server. Well, make that servers plural, because they are legion here.
This place is a collaboration between chef Chris Denney, formerly of Fiend and 108 Garage, and George Bukhov-Weinstein and Ilya Demichev, the pair who in 2014 caused chaos on the London dining scene when they opened Beast, a similarly Bram Stoker-ish spot in a crypt that served only gigantic king crab, steak and chunks of aged parmesan with rocket. Prices started at about £100 a head, which at the time felt like a lot for surf, turf and some cheese with the devil’s lettuce. Little did we know back then that £100 would be roughly the bill for a minor blowout at Pret nowadays.
