Comptoir Gascon, 13th February

There is nothing like rich, moist, fatty duck with which to celebrate, even a minor occasion such as Valentine’s Day. And duck happens to be a speciality for Comptoir Gascon so of course we availed ourselves of it, twice over for me!

Comptoir Gascon is a French bistro in Clerkenwell, the more casual, much cheaper sibling to Club Gascon over the road. Stephen and I wanted to do our usual of going out for a nice meal pre-Valentine’s but we didn’t want to go overboard on the spending this year. Comptoir Gascon perfectly fit the bill, and we had a really delicious, hearty meal. 

We started with a glass of bubbly, and then rather greedily ordered a whole bottle of juicy red wine as well. We weren’t sure we would be able to finish it all in the time it took to eat our meal but we needn’t have worried – it was so easy to drink we polished it off without much effort.

To start, I had the duck rilletes which came with sourdough toasts. This was gloriously fatty, shredded duck which I was happy to plough into on its own, as well as piling it upon the bread. More bread would have been nice but eating it on its own was no chore, especially with some crunchy cornichons to lighten it a little. 

Stephen had the ‘piggy treats', which I warned him didn’t come with any bread. He said he wouldn’t need any but then regretted he had none for his pates. Still, it was quite filling so from that point of view bread was probably unnecessary. There was so much there I can't quite remember it all - charcuterie, pancetta, terrine, black pudding - even pigs' ears. A treat indeed (maybe not so much the ears, still find them weird). 

Stephen had the cassoulet and I had the confit duck with garbure. My vibrant sauce was very garlicky and salty and I very much enjoyed swishing my melt-in-the-mouth duck with its crispy skin in it. The veg was a waste of space and not particularly nice – they could have been canned potatoes and carrots for all they added, slightly too mushy to be pleasant.I know garbure is traditionally a veg stew but I say ditch them and just keep the soup!

Stephen’s cassoulet was a thing of stodgy, meaty, juicy beauty. The duck was every bit as good as mine, and the sausage added some earthiness to it. Beans were perfectly cooked. Food coma was induced.

Almost literally – after waddling out of here I went straight home and slept the meal off before I went out for the night – we didn't even have dessert! of course, we had also shared a portion of chips - these regularly appear on 'best chips' lists and it's easy to see why. They were obviously freshly made in-house, with duck fat (more duck!) and 'crazy salt' which just seemed to be salt with a bit of spice to it. Anyway, they were delicious and moreish, though I let stephen eat the majority as I was so stuffed from my food. What a meal!

Chez Elles, 14th August

Chez Elles couldn’t be more charmingly French if it tried. It already looks delightful from the outside but inside it gets even better, with a little boutique parlour feel to the place and French touches everywhere, complete with a little stack of books by the stairs which of course includes Asterix.

The ‘Elles’ of the place are indeed French and it seemed we weren’t the only ones in the place happy to converse with them in their native tongue (except me, I’m too shy). We kept things light – having just a main and some bread with our picpoul de pinet. The food here is classic French so not as 'exciting' as some restaurants that offer fusion foods or a lot of exotic spices. Appetisers include a lot of charcuterie and cheeses, and the mains have such things as steak tartare, confit duck and moules mariniere. I was very tempted by the duck but I have it so often I thought I’d go a little leftfield and ordered the lamb steak, which came breaded a la escalope and served with parmesan lemon, rosemary and a vierge sauce. Alison had the moules mariniere which came with frites but also some more bread to soak up the creamy, garlicky sauce that the mussels were wading in.

The lamb was cooked very well, tender and pink in the middle and while I enjoyed my meal I can’t say I was too excited by it. But it’s nice just to have a cute little, no frills, no fuss meal and if you’re ever hankering after a bijou French experience then head here without delay. And while we didn’t have dessert, from the front it looks as if they do some lovely patisserie which would be worth dropping by for.

After this we went up Brick Lane and ended up in Monty’s Bar where they have a happy hour until 10 pm! This means 2 cocktails for £12 instead of the £17 they would normally cost. I’ve always thought the place looked kind of cool from the outside, but actually, in comparison to the many other places in this area, I would say it really isn’t, which might explain why there were very few people in there. The music was pretty good though – they were playing a lot of R n B and hip hop.

Le Mercury, 11th April

Le Mercury makes its name by being cheap and cheerful. Well, not exactly cheerful, more romantic. You see, the whole place is lighted by candles rather than artificial light which makes it a perfect place for a date. In my case, a girl date with my best friend.

Everyone who knows Le Mercury knows it has a reputation for doing decent food at really cheap prices. I mean, really cheap. ALL main courses are a mere £9.95, and ALL starters are just shy of £5. That's right. Want rib-eye steak? £10. Want fillet of sea bass? £10. It's quite ridiculous.

At these prices of course it is silly not to get a starter and a main (and you should probably get dessert too, as they're only £3.45, although we didn't). For our starters I had the Terrine de Jambonneau - ham hock terrine with piccalilli and toast and my friend had Ravioli de la Mer - crayfish and lobster with spinach and a shellfish sauce.

Ok, my terrine was not amazing, and terrines are something I have much experience of. It came out resembling a patty and wasn't as course and chunky, or well, meaty, as I'd like. And the piccalilli was pretty lacklustre compared to other homemade versions I've been served. This was watery and I suspect came out of a jar. But I didn't really mind - it was only a fiver!

Alison's ravioli was actually a raviolo - one big pocket of seafood. It certainly looked good, and my friend said she really liked it but I didn't try it myself as I didn't want to deprive her of her sole piece.

The mains, however, totally won me over. They were of a much higher quality than I was expecting for the price. I had the roast saddle of lamb with grilled courgettes and rosemary jus (how good does that sound? Rosemary jus!) and Alison had the rib-eye. Well, someone had to at that price. We got some chips to share but it turned out my lamb came with pomme puree anyway.

And the meat was great. I'm not pretending it was organic, hung for however-many-days, grass fed and massaged with beer, but it was juicy, tender and flavoursome and cooked to our preference.

I can see why this place has the reputation it does and why it rapidly filled as we ate. What a great place to eat without breaking the bank.

Blanchette and & Co, 28th January

& Co

Having heard of the bar '&Co' underneath Central & Co just after Christmas, I was pleased to notice on Saturday that it is just opposite my friend's office and so would make the ideal place to go for a drink before having dinner. So we were a little disappointed when we walked in just before 6pm and the rope barring the downstairs bar was blocking the way. We enquired as to what time it opened and the girl upstairs was kind enough to go down and see if the bartender down there was ready to open up. He apparently was, and we went down and proceeded to have the whole place to ourselves almost up until we left to go eat. If we felt a little guilty about making Chris, the bartender get behind the bar when no one else was there, we felt even worse after he kindly explained the menu to us and the idea behind all the tasting notes and in the end all we did was order wine. (The original concept was to have only unbranded spirits, and you choose based on the tasting notes but this proved unpopular so they're gradually moving towards brands as per every other bar, which I think is a total shame.) We promised to come back and try something stronger later. 

I had a mascalese from Sicily, a red wine I'd never heard of before but which was deep and juicy. Alison may have had a picpoul but don't hold me to that. Every wine was priced at £5.80 which I liked as you felt like you could take a gamble and order a wine you didn't know without paying more for the privelege. 

We then dashed off so we wouldn't be late for dinner...

Blanchette

Blanchette feels a bit like a little country cottage - with little wooden tables, slightly distressed cabinets, and the water even comes in a cute little pottery jug. It was all very cosy. Perhaps a little too cosy - serving 'small plates' means bringing quite a lot of them to the table. We barely had room for all of ours at once and we only ordered four. And the tables are quite close together - I nearly swept someone's food off their plate as I tried to negotiate the space between tables as I was leaving.

Apart from that, Blanchette was a lovely little place to eat. My friend and I were mainly using it as a backdrop to our conversation, rather than it being the main event - we wanted a few nice things to eat while we conversed and that is what we had. We chose one thing from each category - fish, meat and vegetables, plus a cheese, and some bread and butter. The bread came in a brown bag to keep it warm and was served with a pat of deliciously salty butter - so much butter that we didn't get through it all with our bread. Often it seems to be the other way around in restaurants and you have to calculate how much butter to take per piece of bread to ensure it doesn't run out before the bread does.

Next out came the Camembert supplied with three crispbreads, some chutney and some lovely herbs - chives and perhaps cress and parsley in a light dressing. The Camembert was at a perfect temperature making it creamy and easy to spread. The crispbreads were lovely but it did cross my mind that three was a strange number to provide considering everything is supposed to be shareable. We were glad we still had a bit of the bread to put the rest of the camembert on.

Our jerusalem artichoke and potato gratin rebluchon had a nice thin crunchy topping and a lovely firm texture with a cheesiness and creaminess that was just right - not too rich or overpowering. This came with the gurnard with capers, brown butter and braised cabbage that we'd ordered. Lemon provided a lovely zingy dressing to the dish. 

We were asked then if we wanted to order any more dishes, which gave away the fact that they had forgotten we had ordered the onglet with snails and salsify chips. This was very quickly rectified and was a delicious dish (though no, I couldn't bring myself to eat the snails) but also a very dainty dish, especially when sharing between two. The onglet was almost wafer thin, sticky and sweet - delicious. The two shards of salsify chips were had a crunch but were also quite fluffy. I desperately wished there had been a little more of it simply because it was so good. 

We ordered the cheapest bottle of wine on the menu - a vermentino which was only £18.50! Amazing to see a wine at that price on the list. And it was just lovely to drink.

Blanchette was a charming little place - perfect for a few light bites, and the prices were a joy as well - our meal came to about £25 a head.

I notice on the website that they mention the soundtrack to your meal and it is worthy of mentioning! It was definitely something we remarked upon as we found ourselves listening to a laid-back reggae version of Regulate, and a bit of Arrested Development.

& Co (again)

True to our word, after that we headed back to Central & Co, for our stronger drink. For once I let myself order a slightly heavier, sweeter drink - a Chocolate Flip, which was a liquid dessert, that went straight to your head (in a good way). Alison also went for a slightly sweet option - the Great Grapefruit, which smelled of candied grapefruit and was gorgeous. They both were. 

Central & Co is a stylish, spacious bar upstairs, but if you want someplace that is a bit more intimate and feels a little more exclusive then go to the smaller, darker '&Co' bar downstairs. And if you like the idea of being a little adventurous with your spirits, and having them served out of some beautiful decanters, then go quickly, before they have phased out this idiosyncracy.