Studio Gauthier

A Film Institute Address, Two Different Restaurants

The ground floor of the British Film Institute's Fitzrovia headquarters on Stephen Street is not the obvious address for one of London's more serious plant-based dining propositions. The street itself sits just off Tottenham Court Road, removed enough from the Soho rush to feel deliberate rather than convenient. That quietness is part of the point. Studio Gauthier occupies a space that operates, functionally, as two different restaurants depending on the hour, a West Coast-inflected fast-food and sushi counter through the afternoon, and a focused evening tasting format once the light drops. The shift is architectural in its logic: the same kitchen, the same sourcing commitments, different intentions.

London's plant-based fine dining has expanded considerably since the early days of novelty menus and apologetic substitutions. The tier now includes serious operators working with genuine technique, seasonal produce, and alt-protein innovations. Studio Gauthier sits within that movement, shaped by Alexis Gauthier's public and definitive pivot away from animal products at his Soho flagship in 2021, a decision that repositioned his entire culinary identity rather than simply adding a menu section. For context on the wider London dining scene, the city's classical fine-dining tier includes venues like CORE by Clare Smyth and Alain Ducasse at The Dorchester.

The Daytime Format: Sushi, Fast Food, and the Bakery Counter

Before the evening program takes hold, Studio Gauthier runs a casual plant-based sushi operation. The daytime offer combines a vegan bakery and café with a menu of nigiri, maki rolls, and fast-food plates that draw on California's plant-forward food culture rather than traditional Japanese precision. The register is deliberately accessible: a colourful counter, plates designed for quick decisions, and a format that sits outside the reservation-required bracket.The Clove Club or Ikoyi.

The vegan nigiri and maki rolls are part of Gauthier's sustained exploration of alt-protein and plant-based technique. The daytime menu reflects that laboratory-minded approach applied to accessible formats. The California cheeseburger functions as a proof of concept as much as a menu item: a coarsely ground patty with enough savoury depth to hold attention, melting vegan cheese, a properly constructed bun, and accompaniments that replicate the structural logic of the original. It is the kind of dish that advances an argument rather than simply feeding a preference.

After Dark: The Five-Course Arc

The transition to evening changes both the rhythm and the register. Alexia Dellaca-Minot oversees a creative, seasonal five-course tasting menu that operates in a different mode from the daytime counter. Where the afternoon format is horizontal, browse, choose, eat, the tasting menu is sequential, each course designed to build on what came before. This kind of progression has become the standard format for London's serious tasting-menu operators, and Studio Gauthier's evening program positions itself within that bracket while maintaining its plant-based commitment throughout.

Five-course structure suits plant-based cooking particularly well. Without the anchoring proteins that organise most classical tasting menus, the kitchen works with texture, temperature, and seasonal produce to create the sense of momentum that drives a good meal forward. The seasonal emphasis is not decorative, it is structural. A menu built around what is available changes the dish logic course by course in ways that an ingredient-stable menu cannot.

Progression closes with a dessert that carries some biographical weight: the 'Louis XV' chocolate, hazelnut, and praline course takes its name from the Monaco restaurant where Gauthier trained. Alain Ducasse's Louis XV in Monaco is one of the Mediterranean's most significant fine-dining addresses, and the reference places the restaurant's evening ambitions within a specific French classical lineage, even as the kitchen has formally abandoned the animal-product base that lineage typically requires. The dessert itself is modest but calibrated to finish rather than overwhelm. At a five-course tasting menu, that restraint is the right call. Gauthier's classical training at that level sits in the same tradition as restaurants like Waterside Inn in Bray, though the philosophical direction has moved considerably further from that origin point.

The Wine List and Cocktail Program

Drinks program reflects the kitchen's commitments. The wine list is vegan throughout, leaning on European bottles with a reasonable proportion available by the glass, a practical choice for a format that asks guests to match across five courses. The list is described as perfunctory rather than exhaustive, which is an honest calibration for a restaurant that has not positioned wine as a primary identity. For a meal built around alt-protein innovation and plant-based technique, a clean and functional vegan wine selection is sufficient evidence of kitchen-floor coherence.

The cocktail list takes a different approach: each drink is dedicated to a British screen icon, which ties neatly to the BFI building address. The fun is in the concept as much as the glass. Visitors interested in exploring London's broader bar scene can find more in our full London bars guide.

Where Studio Gauthier Sits in London's Plant-Based Tier

London's fine-dining plant-based operators now form a recognisable tier, distinct from the vegetarian restaurants that preceded them in both technique and ambition. The restaurant belongs to that tier's more serious end, shaped by Gauthier's classical training, the Louis XV reference is not incidental, and by the kitchen's ongoing engagement with alt-protein science. The dual-format structure, running fast-food by day and tasting menus by night, places it in a small category of London restaurants that deliberately serve two different audiences from the same address.

For comparison, the city's classical fine-dining operators, The Ledbury, CORE, Alain Ducasse at The Dorchester, work within entirely different ingredient and format assumptions. The plant-based commitment at the restaurant is not a constraint on ambition but a redefinition of it. The restaurant is where that direction has been developed into a hybrid format with its own internal logic.

Other notable UK tasting-menu destinations include Moor Hall in Aughton, L'Enclume in Cartmel, and Gidleigh Park in Chagford, each positioned around landscape and provenance in ways that contrast with the restaurant's urban, alt-protein focus. The Hand and Flowers in Marlow and hide and fox in Saltwood represent a different regional tradition again. Internationally, the classical fine-dining reference point Gauthier's training connects to is closer to Le Bernardin in New York City than to anything in the plant-based category.

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