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. 

 

Brasserie Zedel

I’ve long wanted to try Brasserie Zedel, not least because of the praising reviews I’ve read, but because I simply love the French classics and the menu just looked so reasonable – it’s been on my list for a while. I tried to get a walk-in table recently with a couple of friends on a Friday evening and failed due to the popularity and having made my way down and viewed the rather opulent looking space that was once The Regent Palace Hotel, my interest was further piqued.

I finally got to try it out one cold Thursday evening in January with my friend Jade and I certainly wasn’t disappointed.

Having viewed the menu online during the day I was determined to try the unbelievably priced, £11.25 set menu. However once we arrived and saw other dishes flying by I couldn’t resist trying some of the other delicious sounding dishes on the menu. I will return to try the much-lauded steak hache dish though, that is a certainty.

The brasserie area is simply huge with high ceilings and a busy, buzzing atmosphere, the constant sound of companionable chatter filled the room and it couldn’t help but put you in a good mood.

Once seated, we selected a bottle of the house Sauvignon Pays D’oc, a light, refreshing and crisp white – this helped with our decision-making.

It took a lot of deliberation over the menu, as there just wasn’t a dish on there that didn’t sound good. It’s a fairly short and simple menu, but one with lots of fantastically classic and delicious sounding dishes. Finally I selected the ham hock and parsley terrine as my ‘entrée’. Served with a basket of warm white bread, the terrine was lovely. Made up of coarse chunks of fantastically salty ham surrounded by the tell-tale jelly of a terrine. With vivid green parsley hues throughout, it was a pretty plate of food and was just as pleasing on the eye as it was on the mouth. 

Jade opted for French onion soup, which is the best I have tried in the UK for sure. Fragrant, soothing and with an almost addictive flavour, I would highly recommend this dish. And considering the location of the restaurant in the middle of Piccadilly Circus, an absolute bargain at only £2.25 a bowl. Served with cheesy croutons that were inhaled rather rapidly by Jade, we were both impressed and looking forward to the main event.

We both selected truly classic dishes, Jade the Boeuf Bourguignon, and I the Confit de Canard. The slow-cooked beef Bourguignon had the most tender, stewed beef, combined with an irresistible flavour of red wine. Served on a bed of the creamiest pureed potatoes this was a little plate of heaven – real comforting, solace food.

My confit duck was quite frankly glorious - crispy, fatty and utterly delicious at the skin, with a soft and tender, melt-in-the-mouth meat centre, that just fell straight off of the bone – an absolute sensation. The duck was served on a bed of white beans in a simple tomato sauce which made for the perfect accompaniment for the knock-out duck.

We also ordered the creamed spinach as a side and were both surprised when it arrived as it looked like a little pot of pesto, however it tasted fabulous. Buttery spinach with a hint of garlic and creamed to perfection. Each dish was served on a white plate with the signature red trim and the 'Zedel' name on which I thought was quite a nice touch too.

We couldn’t manage dessert but we were in such a good mood we couldn’t resist trying one of the Champagne cocktails to sit and enjoy the ambience of the restaurant. We both had a classic Kir Royale which was the ultimate finale to an evening of perfectly executed French food.

The service throughout the meal was faultless, our waitress was attentive, knowledgable and very patient with my French pronunciation. I have to say she was also incredibly tolerant of a very rude male couple seated beside us who were clearly after a free meal. They sat and enjoyed a full rib of beef, and after Jade and I had endured watching them both literally gnawing at the bones, at the very last bite one of the men proclaimed to have found a hair that had completely put them both off of their meal. He kicked off at the waitress and then, in turn the maitre d’ and they handled this rude pair excellently. You would think this kind of spectacle could put a dampener on the end of our meal but it simply added to our voyeuristic entertainment.

We paid around £75 including service and every penny was money well spent.

If you haven’t yet made the trip to Brasserie Zedel, make a booking now, I urge you!

Bistro du Vin Clerkenwell

I was recently invited to dine at Clerkenwell's relatively new Bistro du Vin courtesy of the lovely people at The Cullinary Guide. This is one of the newest members of the popular Hotel du Vin family so I was keen to see how it matched up and what it had to offer.

I took the boy again and as it was just over a week since we'd been to Les Deux Salons, I was slightly worried he wouldn't be keen on more French fare. I need not have worried though he'll try anything and luckilly he had a very enjoyable meal.

Like Les Deux Salons this place had the buzzing atmosphere that I think is essential to any French bistro-style venue in London. What I thought gave Bistro du Vin the edge was the fact it's slightly more compact therefore created a very intimate setting. Overhearing the chatter from the neighbouring tables does, for me, put me in mind of a French restaurant. It was very busy with a mixed bag of diners and there was just a genuinely good vibe about the place. Also the decor is very chic and stylish, I was suitably impressed.

The menu has a good selection, but not an overbearingly long list and it didn't take me long to opt for a fishy feast. I chose the potted crab to start and it was sublime. Simple but perfect. A delicious round of white, dressed crab meat topped with an amost paste-like brown crab meat and served with delicious, crispy, lightly grilled sourdough slices which tasted as though they had been rubbed all over with garlic, salt and pepper - it was lovely. A little large for one person perhaps, but this turned out to be a blessing.

The boy chose the lamb sweetbreads - like the snails the week before, this offal dish is something he'd never tried before. They were fantastic, well seasoned, cooked to tender perfection, full of delicious flavour in a sticky berry jus and topped with a little coriander. Once again this was a large portion for an entree, however for the boy with his larger appetite, this was not a problem.

For his main the boy went for a sirloin of steak cooked medium rare and I have to say it was truly cooked beautifully. Flavoured with a subtle hint of garlic and with an almost crust of salt on the outside it was melt-in-the-mouth gorgeous. He had some chips on the side, which were good, and which I naturally stole a few of.

My main course was, unfortunately, a bit of a let-down to an otherwise excellent meal. I'd ordered the Sole Veronique, which promised to be sole cooked in a creamy white wine sauce with mushrooms, clams and mussels. The sole was cooked well and did have a lovely fresh flavour, taking in all of the contributing flavours from the sauce and the shellfish and the sprigs of parsley that were plentiful. So far, so good. I'd ordered some new potatoes and a mixed leaf salad which were also good, the salad was dressed in a nice, simple oil.

The disappointment came when I first tried a clam. I'd had probably the best clams I've ever tasted a couple of weeks earlier at Fino, but these would probably have still been as good, as the flavours seemed fine, however as I took a bite, my mouth was filled with gritty bits of sand. Not good. I would have been willing to put this down as a bad one that had slipped through the net, but I tried another and once again my teeth came down on sand, very, very unpleasant. The realisation that these hadn't been cleaned properly didn't fill me with joy.

I tried to persevere as the sole really was very good, and after a few enjoyable mouthfuls I plucked up the courage to try one of the mussels. These were the same as the clams and unfortunately it was the final nail in the coffin for this dish for me. I was beyond put-off. Clearly you don't ever want to take a chance with shellfish anyway and I was suprised that a restaurant of this standing could fail in such a basic way.

At least I had room for pudding (every cloud and all that). To be frank the dessert I chose was alone worth visiting the restaurant for. It was gorgeous - a valrhona chocolate tart with honeycomb and a vanilla chantilly cream. The pastry was the best I've ever tasted in England by a mile sweet, light and delicate with a filling to die for. The chocolate was creamy, rich and almost velvetty - it literally had me making 'mmm' sounds out loud about three times. The cream and delicious, crunchy honeycomb were the perfect partners for this chocolate perfection.

The boy had a strawberry and cream affair which was nice, but not a patch on mine.

Aside from the main course of mine, we enjoyed a great meal and I can see Bistro du Vin's Clerkenwell joint going from strength to strength. They were bursting at the seams and as I mentioned they really had a great atmosphere.

The presentation wasn't amazing. It was good and all looked appetising, but as they say on their website they're not trying to be pretentious, merely provide wholesome, hearty food and I think they have achieved this well - with a few adjustments in the kitchen (especially where cleaning out clams and mussels are concerned) I think this will become a front-runner on the London restaurant scene.

What I think makes this superior from other bistro-style restaurants I've visited in London is the centre-point open plan kitchen with bar-style seating. Diners are able to take their dinner at the bar and enjoy the theatre of watching their dinner being cooked - wonderful.

Service on the whole was good throughout - the head waiter in particular took his time to welcome us. Also the wine waiter was very attentive and good at explaining what would make a good pairing to various parts of the meal, which I found impressive. Towards the end of the meal we did find we had to fight for attention a little bit and certainly we waited a while for our empty dessert plates to be taken away. But to be fair to the staff it was very busy in the restaurant at this time - I'd put this down as a teething problem.

Bistro du Vin's Soho sister is due to open shortly and I for one will definitely be booking a table to see how this matches up - although I may give shellfish dishes a miss!

For more information or to book a table please visit the website at:

http://www.bistroduvinandbar.com/