Gazette - allez les bleus!

So tonight, as my son is away, my husband and I decided to have a little date night...


We were going to go to the very delicious French, family-run, Chez Manny in Battersea High St which we like a lot but decided at the last minute to try another French Battersea restaurant called Gazette, just off the river in Sherwood Court.




Firstly, obviously had to get dressed up - which was a little strange on a windy, rainy Monday night. I had bought a dress based on a blog post by The Londoner at the Tatler Restaurant Awards - this bodycon uber short black dress from Missguided.  A total bargain to boot.

I styled it with a belt and leggings as it was super cold out and only a Monday. Shoe wise - some platform black studded shoeboots. I combined all that with big eyelashes, messy hair and some metallic eye shadow. The photo is a bit blurry - its a super flattering dress though...

The restaurant is tucked away down by the river and is very unassuming. It is genuinely surprising how lovely the interiors are when you walk in - brushed concrete walls, some rendered cream, blackboard tables with chalk so you can draw on them and a big wooden bar.  There is a fantastic upstairs space too with a glass private room for up to 12 people.  They also had colouring books and kids chairs/kids menus for the smaller guests.

The atmosphere was pretty buzzy as they had been showing the England v France football match, and quite a few tables were still there. These included a super civilized bunch of French football fans, 5 blokes about 26-28 who after the match had stayed for a steak, red wine and cheese board. This was a far cry from the English fans you normally see who are drunk on beer and eating kebabs...

After a well earned Gordons N Tonic, we tucked into some seriously good classic French food - with some unusual twists in some dishes.

 

To start, we had a trio of terrines to share: Foie Gras, Campagne rustic and Pork Head - I was so excited about eating it that I forgot to take a picture til it was half eaten.  The Foie Gras was everything that you could hope for from it; rich, creamy and tasted slightly of honey, and was complemented by a pear chutney you can see top left in the picture.  The Pork head was set in aspic and was great to try and some of the meat was truly scrumptious but it wouldn't be my first choice if I were there again. To coin a phrase, I couldn't eat a whole one!  The Campagne terrine was another hit, tasting a little like the inside of a Toulouse sausage or a course Ardennes pate with lots of hers.  They served a generous portion of delicious bread and some seriously wonderful French butter as well.


Then to the mains... We both opted for Steaks. Me, a Rib Eye, medium rare. My husband, a fillet Chateaubriand cut, blue and made utterly decadent by the addition of a golden fried slide of Foie Gras. 2 portions of Foie Gras in one meal... the man is an addict! Fries with Bearnaise sauce and some delicious baby spinach with garlic finished up our feast. Mine was a tiny bit less rare than I like - I did ask for French rare but got more of a medium to be honest but it was perfectly seasoned.  The bearnaise and fries were home made and utter perfection - crispy, creamy and totally yummy.

To drink, we had a carafe of utterly fruity Bordeaux which was superbly reasonably priced and very, very smooth.  The staff were quite French and funny - sometimes humorous, and sometimes a little shirty, but I love that in a French restaurant! It doesn't feel authentic if the staff are all polite and British about things!  To finish up what was a pretty huge meal, we skipped dessert and just had a wonderful coffee before wandering home for a whiskey and  some music.  It was very much like what we used to do regularly before our son came along to make us sensible adults.

Definitely well worth a visit (they have a branch in Balham too), I would certainly recommend Gazette.  They also do Sunday Lunches that are to die for and have lots of special events like Moules Tuesdays, Bastille Day parties and crab season specials.  A real local Battersea hidden gem of a restaurant and bar, I will be back... regularly.