South Kensington, French - Restaurant Guide

“Reliable, comforting French fare” and a predominantly Gallic wine list keep well-heeled locals comfortably fed and watered at this “candle-lit and romantic” wine bar and restaurant on the border between Earls Court and Kensington.

2022 Review: ‘A taste of rural France on the Fulham Road’ is the promise at this ‘gourmet traiteur’ in Chelsea: an early 2020 newcomer where dishes (to go or for delivery within 4 miles) are designed for reheating at home and prepared by Chris Hill, who most recently worked as a senior sous chef at The Ritz. It’s owned by Dimitri and Mira Plaquet, of a high-quality Belgian food group called La Villa Lorraine. They must be doing something right, as in mid 2021 they launched a second store in Wimbledon.

“A love letter to Claude Bosi’s Lyonnaise grandmother” – this “Francophile’s dream” near the Chelsea & Westminster Hospital is not just “a great addition to the neighbourhood” but also one of London’s most commented-on and best-liked venues in our annual diners’ poll. At heart, it’s a “classic French bistro” and fans adore its “quite, quite dreamy combination of to-die-for food, attentive and cordial service”, all at “sensible prices that won’t shock you”: so “ideal as a regular haunt, if you’re well-heeled [as, indeed, most of the customers appear to be]”. That much of the menu is “heavy and calorific” is “heartwarming” for its huge fanbase (although one or two spoilsports “don’t get it”). Fans do admit that “tables are too close together” and that it’s “noisy” (“it feels like you can’t have a private conversation even if you whisper”), but they just don’t care, such is the “real buzz”. See also Josephine, Marylebone. Top Menu Tip – “French onion soup to die for”.