Brasserie Zedel - The ONLY French restaurant in London

This is rather late in the writing but better late than never!  Whilst there are many French restaurants in London – some heavy on the butter, some service-poor, some vastly overpriced – none except Brasserie Zedel will actually make you feel as if you’re dining on the rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré in the heart of Paris.  I lived in the City of Light for six glorious months and I often have periods of craving the food, the booze and the je ne sais quoi - it was the most wonderful thing to find it right here in London, without the cost of a Eurostar ticket. 

Brasserie Zedel’s main restaurant is reached down several flights of stairs.  Walk through the little café at the entrance, a secret nod to the woman behind the bar  - as if you’re in on some kind of clandestine code, the key to the party – and then walk into the maroon and gold covered corridor, down the stairs, past the cabaret room and the coat check into the high ceilinged restaurant of what to all intents and purposes is a buzzy Parisian brasserie circa 1950.  I took my dad along for this one as he had real life experience of a buzzy Parisian brasserie circa 1950 and could confirm authenticity – which he duly did.

We arrived on a Thursday lunchtime to find the place busy – very busy – but we were seated straight away at a white clothed table, complete sparkling glassware and good, heavy cutlery.  Immediately two glasses of champagne arrived ‘from the chef’ – a great start.  The menu here is a single, unwieldy card -  simple and oh so French.  The quality of the food is such that if you pick the cheapest option on the menu – the two course pre fix – what you have will still be tastier and more satisfying than you would get in most ‘above average’ chains. 

We started with the Carottes Râpées (£2.95) – a perfect French carrot salad, tart, crispy and dressed to perfection - and Filets de Hareng, Pommes à l’Huile (£3.75) (herring) which lasted around three minutes.  Next, the most picture perfect plate of Bœuf Bourguignon (£9.75), with achingly tender beef, smoky bacon flavour and gorgeous curved scoop of mash, whilst on the other side of the table there was Choucroute Alsacienne (£11.95), a wonderfully rustic dish of potatoes, onions, smoked belly of pork and a big, comedy frankenfurter.  At this point we were wavering a little on the pudding front, but our wills were strong.  So to finish, we had Crème Brûlée (£3.50) (the crack was there, the creaminess was there, the vanilla was there – it was all there) and Pêche Melba (£4.25) with fresh peaches and clotted cream.  After that we had to go for a long walk.

What you might not be expecting from the flowery and over the top way I have raved about Brasserie Zedel is that it is cheap.  I mean, it’s not 99p or anything like that but you can get a two course meal for £8.75 and feel like it should have cost you £20 – and that doesn’t often happen.  Despite the fact that it’s a French restaurant in London, it’s unpretentious, straightforward and honest in its cooking and pricing.  They don’t try and recoup the lower cost by charging for the bread or doubling the price of the puddings and even something like champagne is within reach, without settling for something sparkling but sickly.  In the middle of a recession, when all you really want is to not feel like you’re not watching every penny, when you do want to treat yourself occasionally and you don’t want to pay over the top for the privilege, Brasserie Zedel has really hit the nail on the head.  They’ll feed you like a king, treat you like a queen and best of all they’ll bill you like a pauper.

The Booking Office Bar at The Renaissance Hotel St Pancras

If you haven't yet visited the new St Pancras Renaissance Hotel in what was formerly part of the St Pancras station building then I would suggest you get down there quick smart before the secret gets out.  Whilst Londoners might write this place off as a transient location for those coming through, to and from the city, thanks to the unique site and distinctive internal structure, the 207 rooms and three restaurants/lounges here have a lot more going for them than your average journey hotel. My specific experience was with the Booking Office Bar, a loftily ceilinged room lined on one side with a smart 29m long marble bar top and on the other with enormous windows looking out into the station.  This was the station's former booking office for trains to the north but the atmosphere in here is of a grandiose New York hotel, with bucket deep leather chairs that could have come straight from a gentleman's club, dark walnut wood and the original 19th century brickwork.  No too shabby at all.

I went to the Booking Office for Sunday brunch with a friend and to be honest it was not a great start when I arrived for the table I had specially booked for brunch at 11 and was told that breakfast finished at 11. However, my friend has a bona fide gift of the gab and we managed to get them to accept our order despite the fact that it was 11.07. For me, it was corned beef hash with a specifically requested non-runny egg (I know it's not the done thing but sometimes I can't stomach a liquid yolk) and for him eggs Florentine.

(Top: Corned beef hash Bottom: Eggs Florentine)

We chatted our way through quickly served coffees and a watermelon smoothie, watching the Eurostar hustle and bustle through the enormous Booking Office windows and feeling pleasantly secluded. When the food came, my hash was minuscule - served on an enormous plate! - but when I tasted it I could see why it was dished up small, as it was very rich. It was also utterly delicious, with a punchy hollandaise and meaty hash (complete with that specifically requested hard yolk) and some iron rich spinach that was well drained. My only criticism would be that the hash lacked the crunch that I was expecting. I wonder if this was the bowl nature of the plate (see above), which would have encouraged moistness…

(Top: Apple and rhubarb crumble  Bottom:  Sticky toffee pudding)

This brunch took place with the friend of mine who always has to do desert with brunch, and so despite feeling pretty full we perused the puddings. I allowed myself to be steamrollered into a sticky toffee pudding, rich with an unctuous sugary sauce and spongy, moist cakey consistency and an enormous bowl of clotted cream.  For my friend, an apple and rhubarb crumble. It was all delicious but too much - but that was our own fault.

The Booking Office is a good spot for brunch – not amazing as it’s more of a hotel breakfast feel place than a real brunch spot – but good food, unhurried service and a fantastic setting.  At £25 ish each for the food it did fall on the expensive side, but it wasn’t ludicrous for what we had and I didn't feel stung.  Having also spent a few very pleasurable hours drinking cocktails there a few weeks before – the kind that make you flush up and giggle lots and are served with a napkin and a little ornate tin of snacks – I’d say that if you want to be bowled over by the Booking Office then go at a time you can work your way through the cocktail list.  And then maybe do breakfast the next morning.