LONDON, French Restaurant Guide

“Signs of returning normality with a full Coq!”. This “purring” D&D London operation sits on the top floor of No 1 Poultry – with leafy roof terraces in sight of the Bank of England – and is a well-established linchpin of the Square Mile lunching scene. For foodies, it can seem a disappointing experience, but for those packing corporate plastic it’s valued as a “great location in the heart of the City for a pricey-but-decent business lunch serving upmarket staples with a French twist”. Top Tip – “good for breakfast in the summer on the outside terrace”.

“So long as you don’t mind queuing and the fact that there’s just one item on the menu” – “entrecôte, salad, secret sauce and sublime frites” – this Gallic duo in Marylebone and the City can offer “a wonderful evening of no-frills dining”, and it’s an “obsession” to more ardent fans . “The only pressing question is ‘house red or Bordeaux’” – while the “hugger-mugger seating and bustle is all part of the charm”. The original Paris branch opened 60 years ago in a bankrupt Italian restaurant – hence the name.

The ‘Press for Champagne’ button has become an Instagram classic – made famous by the original Soho branch of Leonid Shutov’s decadent diners, which provide luxurious treats like caviar and beef Wellington all served in a sumptuous environment, whose dark wood and polished surfaces evoke the deco glam of a trip on the Orient Express. “A fun place for a celebration” or romance, they are also notably “overpriced” – a factor harder to overlook in the era of straitened post-Covid expense accounts, when splashy business dining (for which they are a favourite) has been reined in. Perhaps that’s why the renamed ‘Bob Bob Cité’ – a “nightclub-like space” occupying a floor of the City’s Cheesegrater – has failed to make waves, and generates very few (albeit positive) reports. In August 2023, the group (celebrating its fifteenth year) started a new, 56-seat spin-off, a few doors down from the original, called ‘Bébé Bob’: the offering here will shoehorn champagne and caviar into a more dressed-down offering, alongside rotisserie chicken as the main event.