Short & Sweet: Frenchie
Wednesday, November 1, 2017 at 8:07AM 
Style: Modern French with a focus on seasonal produce.
Budget: Expensive, though the lunch menu is quite reasonable (£26 for 2 courses, £29 for 3 courses) and taken straight from the a la carte menu.
Venue and atmosphere: Classy and elegant like the food. Ask for a seat at the back of the restaurant near the windows.
Service: A bit too eager and then not eager enough; trying to hurry us at the beginning, but then nowhere to be found when we actually wanted something and not disguising the fact that they found us a pain. Admittedly, we were being quite demanding, but we also ordered everything on the menu (really) so… be nice to us.
Food:
Where to start? We visited Frenchie at lunch, when they offer a set menu with 3 options for starters, 3 mains, 2 desserts and some nibbles and cheeses to add if you fancy it. We invited our imaginary friend along and had the set menu for three, all the nibbles and all the cheeses.
The best of the starters was the Salsify, Wild Mushrooms, Keen’s Cheddar Sauce & Smoked Egg Yolk. 3 varieties of mushrooms, each cooked gently and individually so that their unique flavours and textures were distinguishable, paired with earthy salsify - roasted and crisps. The creamy cheese sauce and egg yolk brought the dish together. Luxurious, balanced, tasteful.
Heritage Tomato Salad, Redcurrants, Croutons & Tomato Water was much better than it sounds. Tomato water turned out to be the liquid expelled if you salt a tomato and leave it to macerate. Add to that big chunks of plump Cuore del Vesuvio tomatoes, dense and buttery croutons, sweet pickled red onion and basil oil and you have an intensely powerful salad.
Honey Roasted Duck, Aubergine & Miso, Hazelnuts & Plums was as good as it sounds. The sweet and salty, crispy duck skin gave way to tender meat, silky from the rendered fat, and smoky aubergine and umami-rich miso made great partners in crime.
Homemade Ravioli, Ricotta, Delica Pumpkin & Pancetta Crumble was a nice contrast to the other dishes – more delicate. Mild and creamy ricotta was understated, letting the Delica pumpkin take centre stage. The addition of roasted pumpkin, as well as puree, emphasised its best characteristics – sweet, nutty and caramelised. Pancetta and toasted pumpkin seeds brought salt and crunch.
I’m not usually one for desserts, but Black Figs, White Balsamic Caramel, Rosemary & Honey Yogurt was fantastic. My cousin described the combination of buttery shortbread crumble and thick honey yoghurt as a ‘deconstructed cheesecake’ and she was spot on.
The only disappointments were the Sea Bream Tartare, which was pretty but plain and under-seasoned, and the Banoffee, Nutmeg, Banana & Caramelised Pecan, which looked impressive but was too cold (partly frozen) in the middle.
Drink: A huge range of everything to choose from. We had several cocktails (understatement) and a carafe each of wine. I highly recommend the espresso martini, which was not too sweet (more vodka, less Kahlua) and packed a caffeine-fuelled punch.
In a nutshell: Not just style over substance: elegant and artful presentation translates into well-balanced and refined dishes. Now they just need to refine their waiting staff.
Out of 10: 7 (would have been an 8 or 9 with better service)
Frenchie: 6 Henrietta St, London, WC2E 8QH; +44 (0)20 7836 4422; reservations@frenchiecoventgarden.com
Reader Comments (1)
I loved reading this write up after you had told me the tale . What an inspired idea taking an imaginary friend to a restaurant so you can have extra helpings. As opposed to the miserable imaginary friend who was regularly invited by my Mother to our dining table at home when I was little . She was called Miss Manners. We always had to leave the last cake or the last biscuit for Miss Manners. We hated her !