Evening Standard
The first reviews have been published for Claude Bosi’s highly anticipated follow-up to last year’s smash hit Josephine Bouchon – and so far, it’s a split decision.
David Ellis was unconvinced by it, declaring that the new place “looks good, but is light on feeling; Café Rouge with a bit of lippy on”. Noting that the Lyonnais ‘bouchon’ (a traditional restaurant for the city’s silk-weavers) has been dropped from the name, David felt the “heart” of the original was also missing (even if the cooking was generally “okay”).
“This is the first step of Bosi following the money. And fair’s fair, it would have been remiss of him not to. The man already has credentials … so why not chase the cash? This is a chain waiting to happen. It will not have escaped Bosi’s attention that the Ivy group is on the market, yours for a billion quid.”
David Ellis - 2025-05-18The Times
Giles Coren agreed with David (see above) that Claude Bosi’s Marylebone opening heralds the launch of a new chain, but took a very different view of it. “I think it’s marvellous news. The more of these precious pearls that can be strung together across Britain the better. God, how they could use a couple up north. And out west. And down south. And right here.”
He heaped praise on its “great cooking, serious staff, top-class looks and real personality. Which is why it is going to be such a terrific chain, possibly the best we have ever had. And it is going to be a chain, so don’t bother saying it’s not. I would even go so far as to say that it already is one, if a chain can have only two links, and I don’t see why it can’t.
Giles also noted that the word “bouchon” has now been quietly dropped from the Chelsea original, so both describe themselves as ‘bistros’: “The differences between the two menus are small, by the way. The new bistro is a little more Parisian than the former.”
Giles Coren - 2025-05-18The Daily Telegraph
William Sitwell drooled over the second edition of Claude Bosi’s classic French bistro, whose “hearty, gorgeous, life-enhancing, un-bastardised, fully-fledged, bold and authentic” cooking should be a “clarion call” to chefs: “put down your tweezers… this is what food is, or should be, in 2025.”
Even the baguettes are “miraculously as fine as fresh ones in Paris, sounding as good to break as they are to taste”.
As for the rest of us, “You must hope he does a Joséphine near you”.
William Sitwell - 2025-07-01Daily Mail
Tom Parker Bowles had nothing but praise for the food at the second iteration of this bistro from “the great Claude Bosi” – a place “as handsome as you’d expect, all Belle Époque whimsy”, whose “menu eats just as well as it reads”.
Oysters, Dorset snails “(the best)”, pâté en croute (“an elegant, meaty mosaic surrounded by tremulous jelly…we fight over the last bite”), soufflé au Camembert (“light as a whim, and gently oozing”), whole roast Landes Black Leg chicken served in a cast iron pot, and a chocolate mousse “that wafts across the tongue” all hit the spot – “Joséphine is not a place for the calorie averse.”
But Tom had stern words for the harsh evening lighting, which should “should flatter and cosset, smooth away wrinkles and bathe a rather battered visage in sweet, sympathetic tones. Hell, I need it. Here, it’s too bright by half.”
Tom Parker Bowles - 2025-08-24
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