London, French Restaurant Guide

This “swish rooftop restaurant in the City” from D&D London is “always an impressive venue to take people, with good food and great views”. It sits at the top of No 1 Poultry, a dramatic modern building that featured in the James Bond sequence during the London Olympics opening ceremony, and has a “great outdoor space for warm evenings”. But beware: what’s “great for a good business lunch” – “mainly corporate credit cards” – can be a shock for the self-funded: “didn’t check to see if there was a set lunch… painful!”.

“If you like steak-frites, Relais de Venise can’t be beaten”, say fans of this vieille école French steakhouse chain, where a set menu (including second helpings) of walnut salad, frites, and sliced entrecôte beef with a ‘secret’ sauce has been served in Paris since 1959. “Still a good place to eat, and I’ve been going to their restaurants for over 40 years.” A London branch opened in Marylebone 15 years ago, followed by Soho and the City. There’s a choice of desserts, with sticky toffee pudding added as a concession to les Rosbifs.

An “ever-changing menu” mining the culinary delights of southwest France has kept Pascal Aussignac and Vincent Labeyrie’s Smithfield institution at the forefront of London’s dining scene for more than 20 years. Hugely influential, they pioneered the now ubiquitous small tasting plates and focus on regional cuisines. “We’ve been coming for years and are rarely disappointed” is a typical comment. They serve very well-chosen regional wines, too, and “did brilliant take-away during lockdown”.

2018 Review: What was ‘Cellar Gascon’ next to Club Gascon has recently rebranded and re-launched with a more modish new look, serving Gascon ‘Frapas’ (French tapas) alongside ‘hand-crafted’ cocktails.