Gastro, Clapham, London

Lovely food and very French. The staff and lovely (and French) and it’s got a lovely, rustic feel. I do tend to go for the 'old faithful” of steak and chips but they’re soo good. My friends are more adventurous and I’m annoying in always being that guest who wants what they’re having. Great little place this

Good atmosphere, shabby French chic! Feels authentic and casual, and good for steak.

good place near clapham picture house. I tend to go for movies after having nice diner at Gastro. French like the francais likes it. Says it all.

Very nice ambience - feels like being in France. Steaks and tarte tatin are great, not sure about the rest. Expensive.

Good food, very tasty especially if you like garlic.

But for what it is, it’s quite overpriced. And the staff are not the friendliest.

That said if you’re after a great steak and frites or oysters then it’s worth a visit.

Good venue for post-cinema dinner if you don’t mind the big communal table out the back.

One of my favourite restaurants in London, I’ve had a completely different experience to the first reviewer. A bustling, atmospheric and intimate setting, especially if you sit in the diner-style booths near the front. Every time we’ve gone, the food and service has been impeccable. The last time we were there, we were given drinks on the house after our meal by our lovely (and not at all arrogant) waitress.

I hate Clapham, but tonight thanks to some Qype mobile help, I managed to find this cute restaurant for a nice meal. You might not notice Gastro from the outside ('cept for the neon sign) but it’s a small French place which is very expensive for it’s location and unassumingness!

However the food we had was nice. After some comp french bread, we (2) shared a huge bowl of mussels to start. They were nice, but perhaps a little bland. Then we both went for the steak which was huge and offered with a choice of either peppercorn or Bearnaise sauce & some very tasty fries.

With just fruit juice to drink the bill came in at about £60. I can imagine it would be a great place to go with a large group of friends, because there is a massive table at the back of the room. It’s also the type of place you’d like to eat french bread & jams for breakfast, and at the other end of the day has handy opening hours, open till midnight!

‘Inconsistent. Bad service. Over-priced.’ Just a few of the comments I’ve heard bandied about describing the most authentic French restaurant south of the river.

Yes, the service can be slightly ‘french-sullen’, but isn’t that part of its charm. And the waiter even gave me some moule-eating tips, which is better service than I get most places. And yes the food can be occasionally inconsistent, but for the most part it’s excellent, and to this day it has provided me with my finest ever steak frites. And over-priced? Not really, considering the area and the quality of food. Let’s stop French bashing, shall we, and just enjoy an eaterie which isn’t owned by pizza express plc.

Gastro is a lovely place - the food is amazing and the décor very charming.
On the up side it is very authentically French, the food is delicious and the staff are friendly.
However, it gets quite busy and when I went there it took quite a while for us to be served our food, which is quite pricey for what it is.
It’s not somewhere you’d want to frequent very often as the food is very rich and I’m no millionaire, but for a romantic night out or a special occasion its great!

Gastro serves a pretty good breakfast (okay, petit dejeuner), it must be said.

But in the evening this place becomes a crowded, sloppy, arrogant restaurant that thinks it is a lot better than it actually is.
On our last visit, last month, the service was painfully slow - more than 45 minutes for the starters; nearly an hour between starters and mains. Items were delivered late (side dishes arriving well after the mains) or missed off the order altogether.

On a previous visit we tried to order a bottle of wine, which was priced at £20. We were told it wasn’t available but a new wine, not on the list, would make the ideal replacement, so we took the waiter’s advice. There was no mention of price, and we assumed it would be roughly the same as the out-of-stock bottle. We enjoyed the wine (and ordered a second) but were rather taken aback when the bill arrived at the end of the night: the “replacement” wine was nearly £45 a bottle - more than twice what we had intended to pay.

The food is average to good (hardly exceptional), but be aware that you will get poor service, plenty of attitude and a bill that is higher than it deserves to be (and that’s without taking the waiter’s wine recommendation!)

Now that my link to Paris is no longer a stone’s throw from Clapham, I get my Frenchie fix from Gastro - a quintessential brasserie just off Clapham High Street. We popped in for a glass of “Vin Rouge” on route to the Clapham Picture House which is just across the road. The service is as you would expect in any French brasserie - imperfect and non-ingratiating - but somehow just right. The wine is rustic and pleasingly served in a down to earth tumbler, accompanied by a bowl of proper French bread. Gastro is always packed, but if you can’t get a table it’s more fun to sit at the bar and practice GCSE French with the waiters.