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Recently I visited one of the London dining scene’s undeniable stalwarts ofPicture classic French cuisine: L’Escargot in Soho. This restaurant has been around since 1927 and has weathered the phases of foodie trends, tastes and chefs with even the hands of Marco Pierre White gracing its stoves at one point. It’s been and continues to be a celebrity hang out, seeing Coco Chanel, Mick Jagger, Elton John and the late Princess Diana visit in its time. Now it’s had a refresh and the upper rooms of the quirky Georgian house it is part of have been converted into a quirky club, recently crowned as London’s Most Eccentric!

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When invited down to try out the Laurent-Perrier Rose Champagne Menu, put on during the London Restaurant Festival at £55 for three courses (obviously accompanied by the drink itself), I was understandably excited.
I expected the venue to be quirky, yet even so was impressed. Despite the menu’s clear classic orientation, the space is cool to the extreme. Almost baroque, French grandeur is contrasted with contemporary, brightly coloured touches and the upstairs club rooms continue this theme. Art clings to every surface and each room has a theme, including a ‘naughty’ room upstairs decorated in tomes of reds and velvet. The atmosphere was bustling and the various rooms and restaurant were doing thriving trade – unsurprisingly as this place would make a very cool event space.
 
 
 
 
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We cracked on with the menu, pausing only for some of those iconic Laurent-Perrier bubbles, pretty in pink. First up; half a dozen escargot, of course, with deeply garlicy butter that I mopped up with excellent french stick bread. The snails, I am told, are from Hertfordshire and were plump and moist, bursting out of their little snail shells. Others at my table (The Lex Chapter and Alexandra from the champagne house)    tried a burrata salad with tomato and chilli crab with pickled cucumber. Anyone who follows my blog with even half an eye open KNOWS I love burrata and this starter didn’t disprove my obsession – delightful.
 
 
PictureMains continued along the same vein of, for want of a better word, extreme yumminess (and what, Oxford Dictionary?! Shoot me.). I tried a beefy, tender chateaubriand with rich, luxurious dauphinoise potatoes (my absolute favourite way of eating potatoes). You can’t mess up a chateaubriand (well…you can but it’s liable to make me call loudly for a firing squad) and this was a great one. A generously sized lobster, basted in garlic butter (are you noticing a trend here?) and cooked on point, made it rapidly down my ravenous gullet too.
Desserts never thrill me as much as savoury things but one exception here was L’Escargot’s creme brulee. If anywhere was going to do one properly it was going to be here and indeed, it was perfection. That thick, vanilla sodden custard so thick it stands up on your spoon, that crisp and slightly bitter sugar crust: there’s a reason it’s one of the world’s best desserts and L’Escargot made me remember why.
 
 
 
 

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So, Francophiles, Champagne-Swiggers and Eccentrics alike, visit L’Escargot – I assure you, you’ll enjoy it. Places in this turbulent city of revolving restaurants stand the test of time only if they are, simply put, excellent. L’Escargot is one of these places.

9/10
www.lescargot.co.uk/
48 Greek St, London W1D 4EF
020 7439 7474

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