The French House

The French House dates back to 1891, when it was a pub called the York Minster. Once popular with writers including Dylan Thomas and Francis Bacon, it was renamed The French House in 1984. The small upstairs dining room with seven tables was opened in 1992 by Fergus and Margot Henderson before they opened St John in Smithfield. The current head chef is Neil Borthwick, who happens to be the husband of Angela Hartnett. Mr Neil Borthwick has worked at restaurants including Amaryllis in Glasgow, Michel Bras in Laguiole and Pic in Valence. Here is focusing on more rustic French cooking, but his strong background in classical cooking shows.

There is no menu on the restaurant website, just a hand-written short daily menu that is posted on their Instagram account. It favours robust French country cooking. The dining room has just seven tables with capacity for around eighteen diners. It was nice to see proper tablecloths for a change. The handwritten menu changes each day and there are also specials written up on a board behind the bar.

The wine list had 28 labels and ranged in price from £50 to £150, with a median price of £60 and an average markup to retail price of 2.7 times,w which is kindly by London standards. Sample references were Cremant de Loire Langlois NV at £50 for a bottle that you can find in the high street for £19, Jean-Luc Colombo Crozes Hermitages 2021 at £80 compared to its retail price of £29, and Chateau Talbot 2015 at £150 for a wine that will set you back £83 in the high street. There are some sloppy touches on the wine list: “Sauternes” is not an adequate description for a dessert wine (it turns out to be Chateau Roumieu 2019). “Clos des Mouches” is a vineyard in Burgundy, not a wne. It could be from Drouhin, or Chanson Pere et Fils, or Domaine Berthelemot or others, all of which are at wildly different prices. This is not the only ambiguity, and is easy enough to fix.

Foie gras and chicken liver parfait (£12) came with toasted brioche apple chutney that had been made from scratch in the kitchen. The parfait was silt in texture and had deep flavour, the acidity of the apple providing balance (14/20). Confit duck leg (£26) was served with Tuscan lentils and frisée lettuce. The duck was from HG Walter. This was a lovely, hearty dish, the duck very tender and nicely complemented by the salad and the earthy flavour of the excellent green lentils (15/20). 

Chocolate and Cointreau mousse (£12) was served on a spoon and made with chocolate from Madagascar. This had smooth texture and plenty of chocolate flavour, the orange from the Cointreau working well with the chocolate. This was a rich but enjoyable dessert (14/20). Incidentally, I really liked the dessert that my dining companion ordered, a caramelised vanilla tart with Yorkshire rhubarb (£10), which had a particularly good tart. Coffee was just Nespresso capsules. There is nothing wrong with capsules, which make a lot of sense for a restaurant environment due to their consistency, but it would be a simple matter to upgrade to a much better coffee for just a few pence more in terms of cost price.

Service was very friendly and the bill came to £79 per person with just a glass of wine each. If you shared a modest bottle between two then a typical cost per person might be around £85. The French House is charming, serving appealing rustic French food in a friendly, relaxed environment. Michelin has ignored this restaurant, yet the food here is better than most bib gourmands, and indeed on a par with a number of one-star places. No wonder it is so popular.