Category: French

Les Deux Salons: French is back in vogue.

Les Deux Salons is into week 3 of operation, as of this visit, and I am glad to say that the kinks from the soft launch, crucially to do with service & speed, have been thoroughly worked out of the system. But thank goodness, this…

Gauthier Soho : Truffle Extravaganza.

I’m dreaming. This is a radical fantasy, the food is beyond excellent, the filtered water is free, a rainbow assortment of bread flows (freely too) all night long, with the startling choice of salted and unsalted Normandy butter on the table. All hail the new…

Eastside Inn: Love just ain’t enough.

Having to update my list of favourites is the least of my worries, and this is probably the only time, in my time as a blogger, that I feel devastated enough to compel me to write a few words about the closing of a restaurant,…

28-50 : Drunken memories

From the creators of the sleeper hit of the century, the Icelandic inspired, macaron-winning, Texture, comes Rousset & Sverrisson’s next high octane, vinely-charged collaboration, titled 28-50. The name is a geographical tip of the hat to all the world’s vineyards, most

Restaurant Michael Nadra: Neighbourly Gem

“You sound surprised.” Michael’s response to my initial thoughts about his food. I blurted “Yeah. It was great.” with bulging eyeballs. Indeed I couldn’t hide my instinctual outburst. This was a restaurant that had mostly flown under my radar until now. Full report after the…

Bar Boulud: Everything but the burger.

Daniel Boulud. Three Michelin Stars. Twelve restaurants. French. Celebrated. Now in London. We were all witnesses when the internet welcomed the meritable chef’s European debut with open arms. Time for us to consider Bar Boulud.

Eastside Inn : My favourite restaurant.

This will be my third visit to Eastside Inn, which is hands down my favourite restaurant in London. There is much fire in Bjorn van der Horst’s sauces. Though the restaurant’s history is short, it has undergone significant changes of late changing from a Restaurant-with-a-Bistro…

The Wallace Restaurant : What a beautiful sun roof.

I never had confidence in museum mess halls. Having memories only of torrid experiences both locally and abroad. It is the logical thing to do, after taking in centuries of culture, to then breathe in stereotypical food. Of course, that was until I became a…

Le P’tit Normand : Modestly flamboyant.

One of the major themes of my restaurant collecting this year involves expanding the catchment area. It occured to me last year when I felt like a tourist in Liverpool street station; circling it many times until I eventually found out that Andaz was just…

Pétrus : Redeeming Gordon Ramsay.

There was a time when Gordon Ramsay was the darling of the nation, the once protege who displaced his mentor, then the king of British gastronomy, Marco Pierre White. Like his mentor, he has achieved three stars and so much more. I remember my first…

Le Relais de Venise L’Entrecote : Buttered Frites

Only the most romantic of cities could have given birth to the L’Entrecote restaurants. It has remained firmly a family business for the better half of the 20th century. The legacy belongs to the family of Paul Gineste de Saurs, the founder, who was then…

Bistrot Bruno Loubet : He’s back?

The last time Bruno Loubet was cooking professionally in London, I was apparently on scene to try his much praise innovative yet traditionally grounded French cooking. On that occasion, he was a guest chef for Pierre Koffman’s superbly successful Selfridges pop-up, which in 2009, had…