Rating
Appeals To
Francophiles and people looking for wonderfully legitimate French cuisine (but not haute cuisine)
Parisian expats, pissed off with ‘cuisine les rosbifs’
Seekers of mid range prices (for this particularly pricey part of London anyway…)
Cuisine
Unashamedly French
In A Word
French (what were you expecting?)
“Un jour sans vin est comme un jour sans soleil…”
Emma: If there are two things the French know well, it’s good wine and good food (Jack: they’re also good at having French accents and getting stroppy when you try to speak to them in their native tongue, but we digress…). La Brasserie in South Kensington did not disappoint on either front.
The restaurant itself oozes Parisian Chic – from the red leather booths to the delightfully charming maître d’ (J: his name is Caesar. AVE CAESAR).
E: Hearing of it’s elegance, Jack and I headed over to sample the French delights for ourselves.
The Starters
E: For starters we went as French as you can get, with frogs legs (Cuisses de Grenouilles) and snails (Escargots). Both were lathered in garlic butter and whilst fiddly to eat, were certainly worth the effort. I had the frogs legs – which, as cliche as it sounds, really did taste like very tender chicken. The garlic butter was the perfect accompaniment – especially dipped in bread – yum!
J: Here I had my first experience of tasty, tasty Escargots. The verdict? MAD TIGHT BRO but so much effort to eat. I wouldn’t have them again unless I could…
a. Improve my snail shelling technique so that it didn’t take me 2 minutes a go to get the bloody thing out of it’s shell.
b . Have someone shell them for me. Which would be emasculating. And kinda defeat the point.
The Mains
We both opted for the fillet steak (Filet de Boeuf Grillé) with peppercorn sauce. I’m a big fan of good steak, and this steak was delicious, cooked to perfection (I went medium rare, Jack opted for blue (J: because Jack is a CAVE MAN)) and the peppercorn sauce was creamy and rich….mmmm *drools*.
J: Just a fine steak here. Nothing much to report. Nothing special but up to acceptable (meaty delicious) standard. The odd thing about fillet is that you never really feel like you’re getting much as the cut’s lack of width is deceptive. The width is made up in depth though, so you definitely feel it in your stomach, though maybe less with your eyes.
E: Coupled with a good glass of vin rouge, it was the ultimate combination.
Desserts
A night of fine dining in a French restaurant wouldn’t be complete without a cheese board (Assiette de Fromage) (J: unless you’re allergic to cheese, huhuhu). And yes, we were treated to a selection of French cheeses – from blue cheeses to soft cheeses to hard cheeses. I was in cheese heaven, sadly the cheese defeated me (there was a lot of it!) and I couldn’t eat the whole thing. But it was the perfect end to a night of French cuisine.
J: Whilst Emma was busy with said cheese, I instigated a fight with La Brasserie’s crepes with berries and vanilla ice cream. I took you a picture as evidence:
The Verdict
E: All in all, Le Brasserie was a great experience – if you’re after good wine and good food, it a relaxed and authentic environment, then look no further!
J: I liked it too. I’d return. And probably eat different combinations of things. At the same time! Hooray for variety! ‘vive la France!