The view from the pink marble Chef’s Table at Hélène Darroze at The Connaught.
The news earlier this year that the legendary Le Gavroche was closing may have sounded like the death knell for old-school French cuisine in London, but in fact it has undergone something of a revival recently. Not only are many new restaurants choosing to give themselves a French name – sometimes without much by way of a typically French offering – but some exciting new restaurants are opening up that wouldn’t be out of place in Paris or Lyon.
Leaving aside Hélène Darroze and Joséphine, the new restaurant of chef Claude Bosi (of famed Michelin two-star Bibendum at the top of the Fulham Road, SW3), most are run by English chefs with a longstanding passion for French food and wine, and doing it every bit as well as their colleagues on the other side of the Channel. And while they’re not always priced as low as they are in la belle France, you at least save the cost – and hassle – of a trip on the Eurostar. Take your pick.
Hélène Darroze at the Connaught
£££££
Carlos Place, Mayfair W1K 2AL
Hélène Darroze at The Connaught. Credit: Jerome Galland
There’s a word for top-flight restaurants in Paris – ‘palace’ – and Hélène Darroze at The Connaught is indubitably a palace. The food is of course superb, but it’s everything around it that makes it special. The service – they greet you at the door as if you’re their best customer – the decor, much warmer, softer and less imposing than in the past, and above all the wine. The restaurant has any of the big-name wines you ever wanted to drink housed in verticals in a cellar downstairs with its own small private dining room.
This is a chef at the top of her game, utterly tuned in to the way we want to eat now: elegant, light, seasonal food executed with a talent that has deservedly been recognised in the restaurant’s three Michelin stars. A dish of lobster from the Isle of Mull served with tandoori spices, carrot, citrus and coriander was just dazzling. Wine and Armagnac pairings – the latter with Darroze’s famous ‘signature’ baba, which is also anointed with the same spirit – are impeccably sure-footed.
The downside, of course, is the price. While this is probably not the best place to visit if cash is limited, that being the case, your best bet is to go for the £125 set-price lunch (for which you need to ask ahead) and order wine by the glass – but maybe not the DRC Echezeaux at £1,250. A place for a very special treat.
Camille
££ – £££
2-3 Stoney Street, Southwark SE1 9AA
Camille
Camille is the kind of cool natural wine bar you expect to find in Shoreditch rather than bustling, touristy Borough Market, but is all the more welcome for that. Opened by the talented team behind Ducksoup in Soho and Emilia in Ashburton, Devon, it serves the sort of food – and wine – you’d find in one of the more fashionable Parisian arrondissements. The largely small plates menu changes all the time, but typical dishes would be their great take on devilled eggs (topped with smoked eel), crispy pig’s ear with green beans and shallots, and a stellar skate wing schnitzel. The wine list will gratify or annoy depending on where you stand on the natural wine issue, but it has a regularly changing list of impeccably sourced wines by the glass. The best way to enjoy it is as a wine bar. Sit at the bar with a refreshing glass of pét-nat, have a dish, then carry on with your food shopping.
Bouchon Racine
££££
66 Cowcross Street, Farringdon EC1M 6BP
Henry Harris. Credit: Drakes
There was much relief when ardent francophile Henry Harris opened his own place, Bouchon Racine, in 2022 after having closed the original Racine in Knightsbridge back in 2015 and working for other people during the intervening years. It’s an unabashed love letter to France – you’ll generally find French bistro classics such as jambon de Bayonne with céleri rémoulade, salade…
Source : https://www.decanter.com.master.public.keystone-prod-eks-euw1.futureplc.engineering/learn/food/recipes/food-and-wine/londons-best-french-restaurants-for-wine-lovers-540763/
