Caterham, French Restaurant Guide

2022 Review: The French cuisine may not be cutting-edge, but it is both consistent and highly accomplished at this ten-year-old restaurant with rooms in north Surrey. Chef owners Laurent Pacaud and Martin Bradley ran the business as a catering company for ten years before that.

2021 Review: This September 2019 yearling in the heart of the town (occupying a former NatWest bank, hence the name) is notable for its owner: Stuart Gillies is the former CEO of Gordon Ramsay's restaurant group, and has launched this venture with the help of wife Cecilia. Previously a chef, Gillies has devised a ‘European small plates’ menu for the two-floor wine bar.

2022 Review: ‘A taste of rural France on the Fulham Road’ is the promise at this ‘gourmet traiteur’ in Chelsea: an early 2020 newcomer where dishes (to go or for delivery within 4 miles) are designed for reheating at home and prepared by Chris Hill, who most recently worked as a senior sous chef at The Ritz. It’s owned by Dimitri and Mira Plaquet, of a high-quality Belgian food group called La Villa Lorraine. They must be doing something right, as in mid 2021 they launched a second store in Wimbledon.

Converted from a Victorian laundry by Brixton Market – this “friendly local with tasty small plates, an appropriate wine list and the bustle of Brixton life” has a distinctly Antipodean flavour – owner Melanie Brown founded the New Zealand and Australian Cellars, while exec chef Samantha Harvey hails from Sydney. It has a “great outdoor space for lunch”, too.

With its “consistent no-frills French cooking” – charcuterie; “characterful small plates” and sharing dishes; plus a handful of modern French main plates – this rustic Battersea Rise fixture is always a “good bet” for an interesting meal and glass of wine. Founded by the team behind Les Caves de Pyrène, it drew attention for its small plate and natural wines formula a decade ago, although this is less of a stand-out combo now than it was back in the day.

“Yes, just a local pub – but owned by José Pizarro”, godfather of Spanish cuisine in the UK. Unsurprisingly, the maestro’s first gastroboozer-with-rooms (and first venture outside the Big Smoke) is “mainly tapas” and by most reports it’s “well worth a detour” to the Surrey ‘burbs, with “very good outdoor spaces” a further boon. Top Menu Tip – “especially good pork rib paella”.

This “great sharing-plates restaurant with very accommodating staff” – and a “good wine selection”, its primary focus – has been a linchpin in the emergence of Peckham’s going-out scene (“I’ve never had a bad meal here: in principle I’m not a fan of small plates but here it all works”).

“Correct Gallic fare where comfort rather than wow is the name of the game” sums up this “good-value French bistro” group, which has a flagship in Battersea and branches in Putney, Wandsworth Common, the City and at the Institut Français in South Kensington. Sceptics judge it “rather run-of-the-mill”, but more commonly it’s seen as a useful standby and continues to garner a voluminous amount of feedback. In particular, fans say, it’s a “favourite place for steak & chips because they do it the French way”.

“Correct Gallic fare where comfort rather than wow is the name of the game” sums up this “good-value French bistro” group, which has a flagship in Battersea and branches in Putney, Wandsworth Common, the City and at the Institut Français in South Kensington. Sceptics judge it “rather run-of-the-mill”, but more commonly it’s seen as a useful standby and continues to garner a voluminous amount of feedback. In particular, fans say, it’s a “favourite place for steak & chips because they do it the French way”.

2022 Review: This “good breakfast spot” in Walworth morphs into an evening hang-out with DJs, biodynamic and natural wines, cocktails and “top-class” chef residencies to keep the crowd fed and entertained.

“This hidden French gem” – “on Battersea Bridge Road of all places” – “doesn’t look like much from outside, but the food is marvellous”. Patron Franck Raymond “exceeds expectations” with cuisine from his hometown of Evian in the French Alps, served in a “modest” but “calm and civilised” setting.

There’s no doubting the “fantastic location” of this link in Raymond Blanc’s Heartwood Inns collection – a nook and cranny-filled boozer on pretty Downside Common with a heated outdoor tent and beer garden for added measure. Its victuals aren’t fancy but are “generally good” by common consensus, and continue to be of note for their moderate price tags (especially now they’ve relaunched their bargainous seasonal set menus).

Inspired by Art Deco Paris, this wood-panelled Gallic brasserie south of Elephant & Castle provides a “wonderful atmosphere”, a menu of “food you want to eat” and “Meteor à la pression” – better still, there’s a jazz club upstairs. Les patrons, brothers Noland & Florent Regent, grew up next door in the Lobster Pot – another Francophile’s delight, run by their parents for 25 years until 2016.

The ‘f-word’ is increasingly applied to the bills here, as well as the famous TV show that created the celebrity of the world’s most famous chef, of which this “unassuming door in a quaint little Chelsea street” is the original flagship. “You might mistake the venue itself for a townhouse: the dining room is actually quite small and intimate”: nitpickers would also say “the decor is a bit dull” and “looking a bit dated”; and with “an ambience bordering on stilted”. Feedback on service likewise ran the whole gamut this year – from “impeccable”… to “perfect, but without displaying any personality”… to “ice-cold and robotic”. Perceptions of the cooking are also very varied, and hard to isolate from both the expectations raised by three Michelin stars and the “eye-watering prices”. Fans say it’s “the treat of the year” with “fabulous” cuisine: be it from the three-course à la carte for £180 per person, the longer ‘Menu Prestige’ for £210 per person; or the ‘Carte Blanche’ surprise menu for £260 per person. But dishes can also seem “pretty but over-engineered”; and even some who think the food here is “enjoyable” sometimes acknowledge “it doesn’t merit three Michelin stars”. Real doomsters just find the restaurant’s ongoing renown “baffling – if this was a new restaurant I don’t think it would even get one star”. And then there is the cost. Even diehard fans say “the pricing is the top end of the top end” (and that “you do get stung on the drinks”). And those who consider it “the most overrated place ever” just say: “don’t waste your money!”

In Old Church Street, Chelsea, the first pub from the Gladwin brothers opened in mid 2024 – the latest addition to their ‘Local & Wild’ stable of restaurants supplied by the family farm in West Sussex (which includes Rabbit just up the King’s Road). The grand late-Victorian tavern on a corner site was lavishly renovated as recently as 2021, when it was known as ‘The Chelsea Pig’.

2022 Review: ‘A taste of rural France on the Fulham Road’ is the promise at this ‘gourmet traiteur’ in Chelsea: an early 2020 newcomer where dishes (to go or for delivery within 4 miles) are designed for reheating at home and prepared by Chris Hill, who most recently worked as a senior sous chef at The Ritz. It’s owned by Dimitri and Mira Plaquet, of a high-quality Belgian food group called La Villa Lorraine. They must be doing something right, as in mid 2021 they launched a second store in Wimbledon.

“There’s a real feeling of a French Brasserie in the centre of London” at this Wolseley Group operation, whose ideal situation – on a corner of Sloane Square – makes it an ideal meeting place. “There’s always a great buzz, especially in the bar”, the menu of brasserie staples “suits all spectrums of the age range” and it’s “reasonably priced” too, especially for this glossy bit of town. There’s been “no drop in standards since C&K’s departure” from the group – indeed ratings here have strengthened across the board.

“Just like being in Paris” – this “classic French brasserie” in a Chelsea backstreet is “a perennial favourite”, run by “a strong core team who have been here for ages”, with patron “Didier Garnier keeping a close eye on things”. It’s “always full with many locals”, and is also a “great place to dine with business colleagues – good food and service guarantee you can concentrate on the business at hand”. A key feature is “possibly the best-value wine list in London, especially if you are a fan of Rhone and/or Claret” (and with “a good selection of half bottles”).