Evening Standard
David Ellis welcomed the latest incarnation of an old red-brick pub, most recently called Smokehouse, now reimagined by owners Noble Inns (with minimal expenditure) as a classic French bistro with “no flashiness, but plenty of personality”.
The menu earns no points for originality – Coquille Saint-Jacques, pâté en croûte, moules marinière, confit duck, crème brûlée – but that was fine by David: “I could eat it all”. Perhaps, he wondered, comforting French classics is just what we need in “shitshow 2025”.
Apart from a lacklustre steak tartare, every dish he tasted hit the spot. The French onion soup did more than that, coming closer than any he has tried recently (including half a dozen in France) to what he remembers tasting as a child – a concoction “tangy with Worcestershire sauce, stock and sweet onions”.
David Ellis - 2025-11-23
