Gazette

Firstly the location, don't come here unless you like parking at the back of a dodgy industrial estate and hunting for the restaurant amongst blocks of flats. We arrived for our meal and were told there was no record of our booking despite booking by phone at lunchtime that day. It turned out that someone at the restaurant had booked us in for the wrong time on the wrong day. Thankfully it was a Wednesday and not too busy so there was room for us. In the course of sitting down and being offered drinks we were spoken to by three different waiters and rushed in to ordering wine. Having ordered the steak we were kept waiting 45 minutes as all waiters that night (under-staffed) were serving two large groups. There is no excuse for this as a large group would have booked in advance so the restaurant should have laid on more staff. When our meals turned up I was thoroughly disappointed - sitting next to some limp salad with a vinegar dressing was a piece of over-cooked tough steak. Having asked for it to be cooked 'rare' this was not acceptable. Neither was the fact that the waiter ommitted to provide us with steak knives. Accompanying this was a horrid old saucepan with a burnt handle containing some over-cooked, over-salted and greasy chips. We just wanted to leave but found it impossible to get any waiters attention due to their focus on the two large groups. Eventually I asked a waitress for the bill and she never brought it - 10 minutes later I asked again and it came. Upon payment the card machine could not get any signal and had to try another time. When I asked for a receipt to say the previous transaction had been cancelled I got a short response from the waiter saying that it would not be possible but that if he had wanted to steal money from me he wouldn't do it in such an obvious way. I can honestly say that this was the worst dining experience I have ever had in London - the atmosphere was non-existent and the play on 'French rustic' decor is poor.

Avoid at all costs!

I absolutely love this place! Never had a dinner there, but we popped in for brunch, coffee tea couple of times and all was fantastic- just look at the full french breakfast picture!:) Has a very french feel to it- I actually feel like I am away from England. Very relaxed and warm atmosphere. Decently priced too!

Good value French bistro with a ‘local’ atmosphere near the river (Thames) between Wandsworth and Battersea bridges. A large terrace catches the evening sun for a while as the main room fills up - even on a Monday night - signifying a loyal crowd of French and other nationalities from the surrounding anonymous blocks that have sprung up here in the last ten years.

Good fresh bread, a lovely creamy calamari risotto and a tasty chicken and pea casserole lacked only lots of coarse ground black pepper (stangely never forthcoming). A well-made chocolate souffle put the finishing touch on a spur-of-the-moment supper that we’ll happily repeat whenever the mood turns French.