I love discovering a new-to-me restaurant doing classic French food. French food done right is one of my favourite luxurious meals to go out for so when an email popped into my inbox inviting me to check out Brasserie Gustave in Chelsea/South Kensington I was intrigued as I'd never even heard of it. But I had a sneaky peek at the menu online and it looked like it had a lot of potential so accepted said invite and headed there a couple of weeks ago.
Arriving outside Brasserie Gustave you'd hardly even know it was there from the street, but then you go inside and the place is so light and bright and airy. There's a huge skylight window at the back the of the room, the walls are painted a pretty light yellow and there are (nice) fake plants everywhere. We took a corner seat excited for what was to come - I could smell the garlic and we'd already seen a crepe suzette trolley wheeled out for a family to have their pudding cooked in front of them.
After a glass of the house champagne we chose a bottle of rose from Aix en Provence which was light and dry and perfect for a kind of warm "summer" evening. Before we even arrived I knew I was going to have the snails so ordered half a dozen of them. They came shell-less and absolutely swimming in parsley garlic butter. Cooked to perfection and topped with a crunchy crouton and a piece of tomato they were really excellent. And beautifully presented with the little puff pastry snail on top!
My lovely dinner date had the roast bone marrow and toast to start which was almost as good as the snails.... Rich bone marrow scraped out of the bone and onto toast with a parsley and gherkin salad and red wine sauce to go with it. Really good, but not as good as my snails!!
For mains I think he won though - choosing the Bouillabaisse - which came with red and grey mullet, monkfish and huge mussels in their shell and was topped with the Marseilles fish soup at the table. The smells were heavenly and it tasted even better. I may have had a little food envy... not because my main was bad, just because his was SO good.
My "Agneau" dish was different cuts of lamb cooked various ways - Welsh lamb shoulder, cutlet and sweetbread. Each element was expertly cooked and it was so tasty. The early summer broad beans just what the dish needed to lift it to the next level.
Our starters were £8 and £11 and the mains £22 and £24 which I think is great value for the quality of ingredients and expertise of cooking you get at Brasserie Gustave. It's absolutely my new favourite French restaurant in London and I'm so happy it's now on my radar!
Arriving outside Brasserie Gustave you'd hardly even know it was there from the street, but then you go inside and the place is so light and bright and airy. There's a huge skylight window at the back the of the room, the walls are painted a pretty light yellow and there are (nice) fake plants everywhere. We took a corner seat excited for what was to come - I could smell the garlic and we'd already seen a crepe suzette trolley wheeled out for a family to have their pudding cooked in front of them.
After a glass of the house champagne we chose a bottle of rose from Aix en Provence which was light and dry and perfect for a kind of warm "summer" evening. Before we even arrived I knew I was going to have the snails so ordered half a dozen of them. They came shell-less and absolutely swimming in parsley garlic butter. Cooked to perfection and topped with a crunchy crouton and a piece of tomato they were really excellent. And beautifully presented with the little puff pastry snail on top!
My lovely dinner date had the roast bone marrow and toast to start which was almost as good as the snails.... Rich bone marrow scraped out of the bone and onto toast with a parsley and gherkin salad and red wine sauce to go with it. Really good, but not as good as my snails!!
For mains I think he won though - choosing the Bouillabaisse - which came with red and grey mullet, monkfish and huge mussels in their shell and was topped with the Marseilles fish soup at the table. The smells were heavenly and it tasted even better. I may have had a little food envy... not because my main was bad, just because his was SO good.
My "Agneau" dish was different cuts of lamb cooked various ways - Welsh lamb shoulder, cutlet and sweetbread. Each element was expertly cooked and it was so tasty. The early summer broad beans just what the dish needed to lift it to the next level.
Our starters were £8 and £11 and the mains £22 and £24 which I think is great value for the quality of ingredients and expertise of cooking you get at Brasserie Gustave. It's absolutely my new favourite French restaurant in London and I'm so happy it's now on my radar!
I've been there, the food is really excellent!
ReplyDeleteIsn't good Angie. So happy to find it!
DeleteRosie xx
I really loved the snails and the bouillabaisse! =)
ReplyDeleteHoney x The Girl Next Shore
I know - such good traditional French food done so right.
DeleteRosie xx