Overview
Location: Farringdon
Price per head: £65 – £85
Our opinion: Great food
Summary: A little bit of France in the middle of London. The place to go if you want wonderfully prepared French classics in the Capital.
Main article
We have had our eye on Bouchon Racine for a while. One of a surprisingly high number of top notch eateries in the Farringdon area (maybe we should do an episode on Farringdon soon?). It has been getting rave reviews, and is notoriously difficult to book. Bookings can be made up to 30 days in advance, and they go quick. We booked 30 days ahead and could only get a table at 18:30. No issue for us, any chance to eat here we would take.
It is located in, or technically above, The Three Compasses pub. You climb some narrow stairs, turn the corner and are immediately welcomed by a smiling member of staff. The room is split across 2 levels, with the lower portion sitting in a conservatory-esque exterior glass wall and ceiling. This delivers beautiful light to the restaurant as well as providing great views over the streets below. The rest of the restaurant feels very much like a French Bistro, with crisp white tablecloths, paneled walls covered in framed art, and candle light. All this sets the scene wonderfully for the fantastic French meal you are about to indulge in.
The staff here are great. Really great. We felt so welcomed from the moment we turned up. A particularly refreshing feature of the service was how un-pushy they were about us finishing up. In London it is not uncommon to be shuffled off your table after your allocated 90 minutes is up, but at Bouchon Racine nothing could be further from the truth. After finishing our mains our waiter came over and told us that we would talk to us about desserts a little later, but that for now we should just sit back, enjoy our drinks and let our food go down. At no point during the meal did we feel they wanted us out of there. Well done team.
There are no paper menus at the restaurant, just a single large blackboard that gets carried between tables by the waiter. They talk you through the entire thing, explaining what some of the less common French named dishes are, helping you decipher the handwriting and generally making sure you have all the information you need. The menu contains roughly a 50/50 split of signature dishes, which will remain on the menu long term, and specials, which are only served for a short amount of time. Choosing between the tried and tested classics, and specials is a hard choice to make, but to be honest I think you needn’t worry as everything is lip smackingly good.
The food itself is fabulous, and totally unapologetically French. Rich sauces, meat in every corner and dairy by the truckload, it had it all. Vegetarians will have a couple of choices, but probably won’t feel this is a menu designed for them, and vegans will struggle. That being said, the waiter did say that the chefs enjoy whipping up a vegan dish on the fly if requested, and I would wager that it would be pretty tasty given the kitchen skills on show at the restaurant.
I strongly recommend you try this place if you like traditional French cuisine, you won’t be disappointed.
Food
The menu is more traditional in its design, with starters mains and puddings rather than small sharing plates. That being said, there are a couple of larger mains on the menu which are designed to be shared between three or four people. Louise and I ordered 2 of each course and shared them between us because we wanted to try as much as possible.
Starters
Steak Tartare
So… this was actually our least favourite dish of the meal. The reason for this was that the tartare seemed to have a hint of horseradish running throughout it. It may have been mustard that we were tasting, but either way we didn’t love it. However, for those of you who do like your horseradish/mustard kicks then I reckon this is a dish for you. Beautiful tartare with capers, onion, and horseradish (I think), served alongside a couple of slices of toasted sourdough. There is no doubt this is made with fantastic ingredients and that a lot of people would love it.
Sarriette de Banon, pork confit, endive salad
The most French salad you could make. Crispy shredded confit pork, a great slab of goat’s cheese and chopped chicory with an oil and chopped anchovy dressing. Wow. Rich, indulgent and absolutely delicious. The crispy pork was perfect, the cheese was nice and creamy and the chiccovery added a nice bite to the whole dish. Some crispy bread added some great crunch to the dish. We both really enjoyed this plate of food.
Mains
Bavette, sauce Saint Marcellin
Now this was something special. I like my steak, but I like it even more when it comes with a sauce. I know some purists out there think it’s a sin, but I don’t care. Bavette steak I think goes particularly well with an accompanying sauce.
The sauce Saint Marcellin was astonishingly good. As the name suggests it is made of Saint Marcellin cheese, with cream and a few other ingredients (sometimes with extra cheese!). Whilst it might sound a little much it really wasn’t. It was not overpoweringly cheesy and had a nice smooth texture throughout even after cooling slightly.
The beef itself was cooked rare. They didn’t ask how we wanted it, and I loved that. IT was so soft, perfectly seasoned and was just all round divine.
This is one of the dishes that remains on the menu, and I can see why. Order this when you go.
Rabbit, mustard sauce, smoked bacon
One of the specials that day. As people who don’t often eat rabbit we were keen to take the opportunity to try it. We weren’t disappointed. A huge chunk of rabbit leg, served on top of a well balanced mustard sauce and green beans, covered in a couple of rashers of bacon.
The rabbit itself was tender and cooked to perfection. The mustard sauce was not overpoweringly strong and complemented the dish well, as did the smokeyness of the bacon. The beans were also nice, if only for the fact that they delivered some greenery to the meal!
A really yummy plate of food that has me wanting to eat rabbit more often!
Desserts
Pear and almond tart
Louise had had her eye on this dessert before we had even arrived. She had spotted it online and was praying that it was on the menu when we visited. Her prayers were answered with this divine tart. Thin and crispy pastry encased a spongy almond and pear filling. It was moits, it had crunch, it had peachy sweetness and it had depth of flavour from the almonds. It was simply great. Served with a dollop of creme fraiche which added further moisture but did nothing to overpower the flavour of the main event. A very well put together pud.
Petit pot au chocolat
The tart was good, don’t get me wrong, but in my opinion it was put to shame by the other dessert we shared. A tiny little pot arrived that seemingly had creme fraiche up to the brim. But dig into it with your teaspoon and reveal the chocolatey interior. But this is no ordinary chocolatey interior. I don’t think I have ever really noticed the quality of chocolate used to make a dessert as much as I did here. It was so rich and deeply flavoured, it had a lovely sweetness throughout, yet somehow it wasn’t sickly. The texture was smooth like velvet and whilst the pot looked small, it was big enough.
I want to go back to Bouchon Racine if only to try this one more time.
Wine
Now we were coming out of Dry Jan and we didn’t want to drink too much. We also wanted to try a couple of different wines. As a result of this we opted not to order a bottle, but have a couple of wines by the glass each.
The wine list is comprehensive, with bottles starting in the £30 range but moving all the way up to the £550 range. They have a selection of French wines as well as some from other regions too. Wines by the glass options are a little less comprehensive unfortunately, with only 4 options to choose from. The cheapest of these is £7.90 and the most expensive was around £14.
I think both from an economical standpoint, and merely to provide more options, going for a bottle is probably a better approach here. However, if like us you don’t want too much wine you can get by. Over the course of the evening we tried three of the reds by the glass.
Ventouch Rouge (£7.90)
The cheapest wine by the glass available. I didn’t love this to be honest, it lacked depth and was not particularly exciting. I think I would expect more from a wine costing this much.
Cote du Rhone (£9.15)
Much more enjoyable than the aforementioned. I have still had much better wine for the price in other places, but I could happily have had a couple of glasses of this.
Pinot Noir (£12.30)
Not a cheap glass at all, but noticeably better than the other 2. This was a lovely glass of wine and paired really nicely with the rabbit.
Conclusion
This is not a cheap restaurant and so you may want to save it for a special occasion, but when that occasion arrives please make sure you go. Fantastic French food, awesome staff and beautiful setting make for a very relaxed and enjoyable evening out. I will be taking my family here one day.
