L'Escargot

I recently visited Marco Pierre Whites’ L’Escargot with my one and only French friend, Estelle.

My first visit to L’Escargot was also with Estelle celebrating a mutual friend’s engagement and Estelle has since returned several times, each time reporting good reviews, so I was glad to return and try out more of the menu.

We decided to bypass the appetisers to ensure we could fit in dessert and I chose a duck dish for my main which was very impressive for the £20.50 price tag.

The beautifully seasoned honey-glazed duck breast was cooked exactly how I like it, crisp and flavourful on the outside with the perfect amount of crispy fat and tender, rare and melt-in-the-mouth meat in the centre.

The bird came with some crushed new potatoes that had a delicious crunch to them from some kind of coarse salt, some just-cooked pak choi and a colourful and tasty port jus. The whole dish was neatly and attractively presented and I enjoyed every last mouthful. 

Estelle selected a salmon dish, and once again it was well-received. The salmon fillet had been pan-fried, and so just like my duck, it had that delicious, well-seasoned crust on the outside and was cooked to perfection, with just a touch of rareness in the centre. Served on a bed of couscous flavoured with sweet peppers and surrounded by a gazpacho style sauce, this was another well-presented dish with the taste matching up to the style. 

We decided to share on the dessert front and happily opted for a chocolate dessert and the cheese board as the pair of us are absolutely obsessed with both. And me being with an absolute connoisseur of French cheese I was happy to take Estelle’s lead.

Our cheese board consisted of Comté which is a favourite for both of us, and three other cheeses, two of which I had yet to try and am now converted to. The Fromage de Chevre Cendré is a rich goats cheese that is flavoured with ash, and so predictably had a smoky, deliciousness about it. The Reblochon is a seriously smelly cheese that has a similar texture and appearance to Brie, but a much stronger, nuttier flavour. Our shared favourite cheese was the Fourme D’Ambert – an unctuous blue cheese, which gives my favoured English Stilton a run for its money – perfection. Grapes, celery and a few small crackers came with, but we asked for some more bread to enjoy with our dairy feast – very, very satisfying. 

For our final, sweet treat we chose the chocolate fondant, which is always a pleasure when done well as it was done at L’Escargot. With the firm, crumbly almost chocolate crust on the outside and the oozing dark chocolate centre this was truly heavenly. It came with a scoop of milk ice cream, which in reality tasted of pure vanilla, but nevertheless was superb, and a thin, curved sweet tuille or wafer biscuit which added to the, once again, fantastic presentation. 

We spent around £45 each here for a very good meal with no complaints whatsoever so I’ll certainly return again. The value of the food coupled with the exceptional quality and service is what sets this place apart from others in the Soho area.

L’Escargot is the ultimate in classic yet contemporary food so if you haven’t already – definitely give it a try, my prediction is that this will be around for years to come - unlike the few different Soho burger joints Estelle and I tried to get a table at beforehand and weren't willing to wait 2 hours for. 

 

Fox and Anchor

Last year I was invited along to spend the evening at The Fox & Anchor with a number of other bloggers to celebrate the launch of their ‘Best of British’ menu. I am incredibly overdue in writing this post, and although some of the items on the menu have now changed in accordance with seasonality – the ethos remains the same and so I am keen to share my experience.

Firstly I must say Charterhouse Street located The Fox & Anchor is steeped in old-worldly charm - it is, what I would describe as a ‘boozer’, they have an impressive array of beverages and pride themselves on being a ‘great British pub’, which I think they pull off well. 

I arrived on a cold, wet and windy evening and the first thought on arrival was how lovely and warm it was and how this place reminded me of cosy country pubs far away from the hum of London, a great start.

I joined a group of bloggers, and was lucky enough to be seated beside May of Slow Food Kitchen and Tori from Eat Tori and as well as enjoying the food, it was great to catch up with like-minded women who made for fabulous company too and shared some of their top London eating spots – which is always good.

We were welcomed with some sparkling wine and whilst making our menu choices were invited to sample some classic pub snacks, Scotch eggs, pork pies, sausage rolls, piccalilli and, of course, pork scratchings. The sausage rolls were lovely, filled with a quality, herby sausage and surrounded by delicious flaky pastry. The pickle was also good, but the pork scratchings were my favourite. These had the brilliance of those served at Pitt Cue and proved to be like Pringles, once I’d popped I couldn’t stop.

I decided to go for the crab rarebit to start, which comprised brown crabmeat spread onto a slice of rye bread, topped with Cheddar and a little Worcester Sauce, then grilled. As is often the case, although this was simplicity itself – it was perfection. A few ingredients done well and seasoned beautifully for a deliciously light start. 

For the main I was torn between so many of the dishes, I am such a great lover of hearty British cookery and this menu screams of childhood favourites. I finally opted for one of the pies, a speciality of The Fox & Anchor, after careful consideration and confirming that I could try somebody else’s ham hock, which had also caught my attention.

My pie wasn’t traditional, its ‘crust’ was made up of brioche and the filling was slow cooked duck, in a sweet and almost sticky sauce or gravy. It was fantastic and different to anything I’ve tried before. Used to having duck pink, I was surprised at how tender and flavoursome the meat was, it had remained slightly sweet and the sweetness was enhanced by the brioche exterior.

We shared a selection of all of the sides and standout ones for me, were the creamy mash, champ and honey glazed carrots – again great British classics, but executed very well. 

I tried the ham hock, which was exceptional, it was literally falling off of the bone and full of the irresistibly salty flavours I remember from childhood family dinners – I would certainly opt for this if I went again.

I must mention though that both the duck pie and the ham hock were absolutely huge portions – I struggled to finish half, and I’m not shy when shovelling in food. I would suggest if you have a smaller appetite sharing a main course as it can be a little overwhelming to be presented with such a large dish. Perfect for bigger appetites – dare I say it, these are ‘man-sized’ portions, which is almost suitable for such a venue.

We were persuaded into trying a dessert, which I have to say I felt guilty about as I only managed a little spoonful of mine. I chose the traditional apple pie with vanilla custard, which was gorgeous and had that delicious caramel filling that makes each mouthful a joy – a winner, but disappointing that I couldn’t finish it. 

We had a number of different wines throughout the evening and really had a fantastic time. I couldn’t fault any of the dishes I tried on flavour at all, presentation was also good for this style of cooking and my only slight niggle would be the size of the mains, but better to be too big than too small I suppose. As we were guests of the restaurant, I didn’t pay on this occasion, however the menu is very reasonable with mains all under £16 and they have a number of mid-week deals such as ‘Pie and a Pint’ Tuesdays for £12.95 and the like so it is certainly an affordable venue.

If you are looking for traditional British food, served in comfortable old-English style surroundings without an extortionate price tag then The Fox & Anchor is the place for you.