Pierre Victorie

Pierre Victoire
5 Dean Street
London
W1D 3RQ
www.pierrevictoire.com
Date visited: Friday 12^th August 2011
Attendees: Myself, MBB and The Cheesemonger
Price of meal: approx £17 pp for 3 course set lunch menu, dessert and coffee

I had heard lots of good things about Pierre Victorie and as I had a money off voucher as it were and the Luncheon Club (as this little posse is lovingly known) were long overdue for a meeting; to Pierre Victorie we headed.

I arrived late and MBB and The Chessemonger were already seated at a decent sized table near the window in a very busy, buzzing but relaxed restaurant with a rustic French provincial bistro interior. The set menu is large and extensive, we were very pleased with it and as we gossiped and laughed a waiter came to take our order. I was most impressed with the speed and attention as we asked him to come back in 5 minutes as we were not ready to order and, top marks, he did despite it being a busy lunch time.

The bread basket (already started on)

There was already a generous basket of bread on the table with lots of little packets of butter. The bread was fresh and we didn’t need to order more as it wasn’t one piece per person carefully placed to make it look like more, there was actually a lot of it – top marks again.

Starters:
Myself: Haddock and crab cakes with pickled shredded vegetables salad
MBB: Boullabaise soup
The Cheesemonger: Chicken liver parfait

Haddock and crab cakes with sweet pickle salad

Boullabaise soup

Chicken liver parfait

The starters came in good time and we tucked into them. My haddock and crab cakes were small but tasty though I thought it was quite heavy on the pepper. The sweet pickled salad was a very good accompaniment to it. I enjoyed it lots and could have had more as a main course. MBB was very pleased with his boullabaise especially as it had decent sized chunks of seafood it in. The Cheesemonger enjoyed her starter too saying that “it might look like a mossy river bank but it’s actually very nice.”

Thumbs up all round and our plates were cleared away soon after we had finished.

Main Course:
Myself: Haddock gratin with spinach and hand cut chips
MBB: Beef bourguignon
The Cheesemonger: Roasted belly of pork with red cabbage and apples

Delicious but bad for the arteries haddock gratin and hand cut chips

Generous beef bourguignon with very green green beans

Generous roast pork loin

My haddock gratin came in a little dish saturated in a butter cheese sauce on a wooden platter with chips on the side. The haddock was perfectly cooked, moist and had lots of flavour. The spinach was underneath the haddock so try as hard as I might I could not avoid consuming copious amounts of butter and cheese and damn it tasted nice! The chips were very good too and freshly made. To balance out the copious amounts of butter and cheese (I had to eat the spinach, its vegetable!) I consumed MBB and The Cheesemonger helped me out with the chips. MBB was pleased with his beef bourguignon, there were lots and lots of beef chunks and even a few green beans to add some colour and it tasted great. The Cheesemonger had a huge chunk of pork, it looked great and it tasted great too according to the Cheesemonger and I can well believe her.

Our empty plates were cleared away swiftly again and we were asked if we wanted dessert. Well the food so far had been so good, of course we were going to have dessert and coffee.

Dessert and coffee:
Myself: Sticky toffee pudding with vanilla ice cream and filtered white coffee
MBB: Chocolate mousse and cappuccino
The Cheesemonger: Moist amaretto tiramisu and filtered white coffee

Not to big not too small but just right sized sticky toffee pudding

Glass of chocolate mousse

Trifle-esque tiramisu

There was a real dilemma for me whether I had banoffee pie or the sticky toffee pudding so I asked if I could see the banoffee pie to see if there was lots of cream it (I don’t like lots of cream). She brought it over and half of it was cream but it did look very tasty.

The sticky toffee pudding sponge was very light, not too sweet and very good. The vanilla ice cream was good and fairly standard. MBB’s chocolate mousse was very chocolaty and light and the Cheesemonger’s tiramisu’s was huge and tasted good and she enjoyed. Our coffees came soon after dessert with a little biscuit. Both were good thought I would have liked a bigger cup and I don’t think there was a difference between the cappuccino and filtered coffee.

The coffee and biscuit

Summary: I am definitely going to return to Pierre Victorie. The food is excellent and the portions are generous. Apart from the desserts it seemed mostly like genuine French bistro food. I can’t believe they are selling such great food for such low prices, no wonder it was packed at lunch and I bet it will be packed at dinner and be the same every day. The service is excellent; the staff are friendly, attentive and quick. This restaurant is close to perfect, perhaps even more so than the Michelin starred restaurants I’ve been to mainly because the service is so good.

UPDATE!!!

Dear reader,
It is with great sadness, a tear in my eyes and a heavy heart that I must report the following news…

I took The Quiff, Apple Geek, Apple Geek’s German cousin and the Cyclist to Pierre Victorie this evening as I thought they would really like it – this being the best restaurant I have been to and knowing it would suit all tastes and prices.

Well we arrived at 6pm, when the table was booked. I didn’t think it would be busy as it was early. It was busy but not heaving, our table was waiting and a fresh and generous bread basket as I knew there would be. Anyway, the waiter came twice for our order but we weren’t ready. By the third attempt we were. Only 3 of us where having starters and these came in good time and were delicious as expected. We had all ordered mains and this is where the problems began. IT took too long for our mains to come and Apple Geek did not appreciate this. And with a heavy heart I must, in all honesty agree. It was too long to wait and I guess it was also more noticable as we were on a time budget (The Quiff, Apple Geek and the German cousin had a train to catch) and Apple Geek didn’t have a starter. The waiter did come up eventually, probably because he could see we were agitated, to apologise and tell us our food was coming. When the food did come it was delicious and a good size portion as expected. BUT oh! the 2 beef bourguignon mains we had did not have french beans as MBB’s had when I first dining at the restaurant!

We then order dessert. There should have been enough time to get dessert and not rush to the station. But alas, it took a while for the waiter to come and take our order and a while for it to come. The coffee never arrived and so we cancelled it and got the bill.

Oh dear  – the service was one of the best things about Pierre Victorie and the service is still good – they are still friendly and good, it was just the food took too long to come. To defend my favourite restaurant, I think the wait wasn’t too long, we just felt it more because we were on a time budget. Just like the time we were at The Terrace restaurant, but that really was a long wait and no apology!

Summary: I will definitely be back, the slight wait has not put me off, everything else was still excellent!

The Square

The Square
6 – 10 Bruton Street
London
W1J 6PU
http://www.squarerestaurant.com
Date visited: Friday 8th October 2010
Attendees: Myself and MBB
Price of meal: 3 course set lunch @ £25pp, meal total £105.75 with water, 2 glasses wine, coffee and service

The Square has held 2 Michelin Stars since 1998 and Chef owner Philip Howard is a man of flavours, invention and actually cooks in his kitchen all of which, in my personal opinion, are thumbs up.

For the first time I arrived before MBB I am greeted, my jacket is taken and I am shown to our table and order a still water from a lovely smiley male waiter. The restaurant is smaller and more intimate than I thought and something I quite like. MBB turns up soon after, greetings are exchanged, menus handed out and I pop to the loo for an inspection. They are compact and of a different decor of the restaurant. Dark wood, small burnt orange glass tiles and then some dark brown wall paper with silver swirls – I suspect MBB would use the term ‘Naff’ to describe it as he did to similar pattern in Babylon. White flannel hand towels and Molten Brown products, which I personally don’t like.

Tiny bread roll

Mounds of butter

 

 

 

 

 

 
Back to the table and after a reasonable wait our order is taken by Ben Crofton the new general manager. MBB orders a glass of Catalan wine and tells me he is most impressed with the wine list which feature wines from small estates in France and is very extensive. We are offered a petit bread roll from a selection kept in what looks like a hunk of tree and two mounts of butter (salted and unsalted) are placed on the table. Now I am quite sure I have mentioned before, MBB has a thing about bread which he has persuaded me to. We both have the raisin roll which is warm and tastes good but after we have eaten our rolls we are not offered more. This doesn’t bother me so much as one is usually enough for me but I totally take MBB’s point that a good restaurant should keep you topped up with bread – it’s cheap to do so why not? Especially at The Square which give you so much butter that it would be wasted if they didn’t give you the bread to go with it.

Amuse bouche:
White onion soup with a layer of mushroom sauce and onion foam with a truffled mushroom roulade

White onion soup

The female waiter mumbles through what the amuse bouche so quickly that I don’t really catch what it is but this is my guess from my taste of it. I don’t like strong onion flavours but this was very pleasant. The sweetness of the onion really shone through and I am sure the mushroom layer added something subtle but I couldn’t quite tell what. The truffle roulade was very nice too and a nice delicate savoury contrast.

We dissected the labour leadership and shadow cabinet amongst other things as we ate.

Starter:
Myself: Salt cod bavarois and beignet with langoustine claws and preserved lemon
MBB: Veloute of ceps with a truffled mushroom roulade

Salt cod and langoustine

Cappucino cep voloute

The starters arrive in good time and MBB’s starter looks like a creamy cappuccino but he tells me it tastes good and seems to enjoy it. My starter was very good and I remember the menu mentioned salt cod and langoustine but not much else. What I got was salt cod croquettes which was light, crispy and you could really feel the flaky texture and had excellent flavour. The langoustine claws were fresh and flavoursome but I did get some shell. The bavarois was onion-y and not salt cod-y but tasted very nice and I must have missed the preserved lemon if it was there at all and not a sign of the beignet but seemed to have got a selection of fresh peeled shrimps instead. Whether what I got was what was written on the menu or not it was very nice and fresh.

I think it was after the starters talk went on to Olympic legacy, political desires for citizens of this country to work in the retail sector as their greatest of their aspirations and the affect of the loss of manufacture on this country…

Main Course:
Myself and MBB: Roast suckling pig with crushed root vegetables, savoy cabbage and quince

Kitchen staff hold large silver trays with your dishes on them near the entrance to the kitchen until they a waiter is ready to dish out. I enjoy the decadent feeling and MBB certainly mentions his approval of this.

The most amazing suckling pig

There were three different cuts of the meat I don’t know what they were but the kitchen really did bring out the most amazing flavours from it. It was like magic. I don’t know how else to describe it – let’s just say that I found myself thinking about it and wanting to eat it when I got home that evening. Then I found myself think about it when I got up the following day and I am still thinking about it a few hours later as I write this. My mumma cooks damn good roast pork but not even the years of mumma’s homely love could win against this roast suckling pig – magic simply magic! The crackling was stripped of its fat, crispy and tasty, even though I am not experienced enough to work out what the individual vegetables were in the crush the flavour of each was distinct, the savoy cabbage was (in the words of MBB) ‘punching above its weight’. The quince puree (which I kept calling apple as I forgot what was on the menu – how embarrassing, if you know I am wrong MBB please correct me!) was tart, fresh and a great compliment to the meat. The gravy also stood on its own and was a perfect glazed consistency and delicious. I said to MBB that I don’t like mixing the fruity quince with the savoury gravy and I think I generally still don’t like this as any restaurant less capable than The Square would confuse the flavours and make a hash of it. But the sheer ability and skill of the kitchen at The Square meant that it all fitted perfectly and had any ingredient been missing the dish would not have been as wonderful as it was.

As we ate our mains a sulky female waitress refills our glasses without care and it splashes to the point where MBB and I both look up from our food. After she empties the bottle she then brings another without even asking if we wanted it. I was in half a mind to tell her to take it away just because she was so moody.

It took the waiting staff a while to clear our plates and give us the dessert menus but the sulky female waiter was at least competent at using the crumb brush. Where was my happy smiley male French waiter? Oh at least he took our dessert order.

Dessert:
Myself: Warm chocolate mess with 100s and 1000s, milk ice cream and a cocoa cream
MBB: Brillat-Savarin cheesecake with currents

Intensely chocolaty non-mess

Brillat savarin cheesecake slice

I had seen the warm chocolate mess and it looked great so I went for that and MBB nearly paid £5 more for the cheese selection having seen the impressive selection on the wooden trolley. I had a taste of MBB’s cheesecake and it was very smooth, satisfying and had a kick of lemon which made it refreshing for a cheesecake. My chocolate mess was very indulgent and fun. The milk ice cream had a marshmallow consistency, then there was a layer of what seemed like chocolate jelly that was dense in flavour then there were brittle chocolate brownies a contrasted with the other elements of the dessert such as the cocoa cream which was thick and so intensely chocolaty it hurt my throat! Then there were sprinkles of honey comb, chocolate balls, nuts and fizz pop. It was delicious and again I find myself thinking about it the day after.

Lunch was a leisurely luxury so when the lovely smiley waiter asks if we want tea or coffee how could we say no!
Myself: Fresh mint tea
MBB: filter coffee
Petit Four: Freshly nougat

Freshly made nougat

The mint leaves were certainly good ones, not a single old or damaged one in the pot and MBB appreciated the fact his coffee came in a pot so it stayed warm and he could help himself rather than just getting a cup. The nougat was very soft, gooey and a little too sweet for me. After my chocolate fest I could not eat much of it but it was very good and contained a good mixture of different nuts.

We discussed the decor of the restaurant which seemed confused. There were elements that harked back to another era but we couldn’t work out which, there was modern art on the walls which didn’t seem to blend in correctly and the pattern on the decoration plates looked like something from an eighties album cover. There was a heavy under cloth on the tables that we both felt the presence of which MBB described as a “horse blanket” and announced that “if one closed ones eyes, one would image one were on the deck of the Titanic with a blanket over ones legs!” I concurred with “yes, my legs are rather warm”.

Summary: The Square is a lovely intimate space though a bit confused with its decor. The service is hit and miss depending on who you get but generally a bit slow and not attentive enough (especially for a 2 Michelin Star restaurant) – if is was not for me needing a new glass (which were like cute gold fish bowls and I had to use two hands like a child to pick it up safely) because there was a bit of fluff in mine, allowing MBB to ask for another glass of wine, we doubt anyone would have asked if he wanted more wine. Oh but Oh! the food is amazing, it is magic and leaves you smiling all day. It is precise, considered, an experience mind conceived it, a skilful hand put it together, it was bursting with so much flavour that I continue to think about it the next day wondering is it possible that food can have that much flavour and taste so good? When we left the restaurant I felt it only deserved 1 Michelin Star but on reflection, if I am still thinking about how amazing that Suckling pig was a few days later then … Yes MBB and I both agree the food deserves 2 Michelin Stars. Philip Howard we salute you! But please sort out the service.