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.

Japanese food - the best food in the world?

This lunchtime I was lucky enough to go for a fantastic meal at Roka on Charlotte St, London, from the same family as Zuma.  I love Charlotte St - despite being so close to Tottenham Court Road, it feels like a little village and is stuffed full of great restaurants, bars and hotels and close enough to Soho etc if you need anything else!

Soft shell crab sushi rolls from Roka

Roka itself is a rotuba grill take on Japanese food so is perfect if you need something that also caters to the non sushi eaters in a group, but also does a mean line in all the items one would associate with Japanese cuisine like sashimi, rolls etc.

As it was a work function, rather than faff about with ordering things off the menu, someone took charge and just ordered a tasting selection backed up with a few additional dishes to make things interesting.

Safe to say that the food was delicious and I can also thoroughly recommend lychee juice and soda water as a brilliant (made up by myself I might add) refreshing drink to have when you want something tasty but not wine!

Roka Lamb Cutlets ©London Eater

A colleague had been raving about the lamb cutlets and they were gorgeous; juicy, full of flavour and not what I would have expected of lamb in a Japanese restaurant at all! Thoroughly scrumptious.

I now need to prise myself back to work but can't help wondering if, given all the fantastic Japanese restaurants in London, is Japanese food the best cuisine in the world?

For me it is certainly up there! The amazing flavours, the clean-ness of the food as there is not much dairy in it and the freshness demanded of the produce, is just delicious. I love the complexity, but ultimate simplicity that comes with the food and how delicately it is prepared. Japan is a nation of people who seem to take their food seriously and believe that if something is worth doing, it is worth doing PERFECTLY! But it doesn't often seem pretentious - that mainly comes from the venue rather than the food!

Crispy Squid from Zuma © Epicurious

I remember going to Zuma with my husband where we both fell in love with their crispy squid with green chilli and salt - we ordered about 4 dishes of the stuff and when we came to order our 5th, were told they had sold out. It's that good! It is worth going there for drinks, just to have it as a bar snack!! They also do a stonkingly good selection of cocktails and sake...

Generally I would say I adore all food, there isn't much I won't eat, and I love the way the Japanese prepare, plate and flavour their food. I have some qualms about some of their ideas such as whaling, eating endangered Tuna and other endangered species that could probably use a break from being hunted. Therefore, would people saying it is the greatest cuisine in the world just make it seem acceptable for them to carry on pillaging nature as they do?

I suppose I can love the method of the cuisine while still wishing they could be more sustainable about their ingredients and methods? This isn't meant to be a high horse rant about Japanese food - I am sure that they would also point to a lot of Western methods of food production that are hideous (I give you trans fats).

Anyway - my lunch was pure deliciousness and I can't wait to eat it all again soon!