Brasserie Zédel: Paris comes to London

If you love Paris and classic French brasserie food, then you will love Brasserie Zédel. You'd need to really, as it's practically a Parisian theme park. It's certainly right up my street (or boulevard) and, given how busy it was when we visited recently one Friday evening, it's clearly a crowd pleaser.

I'm sure the location helps Zédel's popularity, being seconds away from Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square in the basement of the Regent Palace Hotel, the same premises of the old The Atlantic Bar and Grill. The main restaurant is big and buzzy in a grand fin de siècle style and there is a more chic and intimate art deco Bar Américain for cocktails. Brasserie Zédel opened in 2012 courtesy of Chris Corbin and Jeremy King, the slick team behind The Wolseley, The Delaunay and now also Colbert on the old Oriel site in Sloane Square.

As we hadn't booked, we had to wait a while for a table, but, once seated, we were immediately impressed by the quality of the food and service. Given the enormous scale of the place, this is quite an achievement. We really enjoyed our starters – spinach tart (£4.25) and egg mayonnaise (£3.25). The tart had a beautifully thin, crisp crust and the eggs ticked all the right retro boxes. My husband enjoyed his seafood with saffron sauce main course (Friday's dish of the day, £12.75) and my hanger steak with shallots and red wine sauce was particularly good (£10.95 including fries). We finished by sharing some nougat glacé which had an interesting, seasonal garnish of poached cranberries (£3.95). This was all great value for money – especially the steak. Presumably prices need to be reasonable to keep pulling in the punters. It's a huge space to fill. Wine isn't such an obvious bargain, but, helpfully, all but two of the 28 bottles on the nicely edited French list are also available by the glass and carafe. What's more, there are some keenly priced quirky French apéritifs including one my favourites, Pineau des Charentes.

Une très bonne adresse!

Brasserie Zédel
20 Sherwood Street
London
W1F 7ED
020 7734 4888

Le Ribouldingue (Paris)

This restaurant really caught my eye as it specialises in offal and other off-cuts. We ate ravioli of pig's trotter and ear with a light, foaming foie gras sauce and lamb's tongue salad. Our main courses were veal kidney poêlé and a suberb ox cheek dish – like the best casseroled beef you've ever had! We kept things simple (as our blowout at Senderens was to follow the next evening – see separate review) and stuck to a bottle of nicely maturing, farmyardy Côtes de Provence red which went excellently with the earthy flavours and strange textures of the food. I can't remember Nathan's pudding because I was so blown away by the 'special' – pain perdu with caramel and fleur de sel ice cream. Exquisite!

(Visited November 2007)

10, Rue Saint-Julien-le-Pauvre; 75005 Paris

Senderens (Paris)

Our meal at Senderens began with an amuse-bouche of pumpkin purée which had a sprinkling of crunchy grains of rice fluffed up like 'rice crispies'. The first glass of wine included in the 'menu dégustation' hadn’t arrived at this point, but the elegant soup was satisfying enough on its own.

The first course (scallops with ravioli of swiss chard, foam of Jerusalem artichoke, served with a finger of toast with caper butter and thin slices of raw chestnuts) was accompanied by Côtes de Provence, Domaine Pinchinat 2006 (Rolle and Clairette). The wine’s 'mineralité saline', as described in the menu notes, was a pleasing match for the scallop and had enough breadth of fruit, floral notes and fresh acidity to handle the range of flavours and textures of the dish (even the slightly tangy, crunchy raw chestnuts). This versatile wine might also have worked nicely with the amuse-bouche.

The second course (roasted foie gras with a salad of fresh figs, powdered liquorice and slivers of almond) was served with Porto Rozès White Reserve which had been aged in oak for seven years in a 'tawny' style. This was an interesting and daring partnership – the semi-sweet, spiciness of the port working well with the foie gras, fruit and medicinal spice (on the corner of the plate into which you dip the liver). The broad texture of the port stood up to the richness of the dish, but the alcohol was a little too warm and dominant. About halfway through our meal the sommelier asked us what we thought of the wines chosen for the set menu and agreed that the port might have been a touch too overwhelming, particularly as the foie gras was roasted and then cut into slices, so not as caramelised as it might otherwise have been. He did seem genuinely interested in what we thought, something you wouldn’t necessarily expect in such a 'destination' restaurant.

The main course was roast Spanish milk-fed lamb with pequillo peppers and 'cocos de Paimpol'. The meat was served in three ways – quickly cooked for a pink and juicy result, meltingly slow-cooked and tender and, thirdly, the pepper had been stuffed with loosely minced lamb. The dish had been garnished with fine crispy slices of garlic with a puffed texture like 'Quaver' snacks, and deglazed pan juices were poured over the lamb at the table. Gauby’s Côtes de Roussillon Villages 'Les Calcinaires' 2006 was a particularly successful match. This blend of Grenache, Carignan, Mourvèdre and Syrah is a sleek, polished wine with layers of complex dark fruit, spice and stony minerality. These aromas and the wine’s intensity and length were delicious alongside the lamb (slightly sweet), pepper, garlic and creamy beans. The elegant structure of the wine, with its fine-grained tannins and freshly balanced acidity worked seamlessly with the lamb’s delicate texture and slight fattiness.

Our little pre-dessert was iced curry mousse with a thin slice of chocolate: a gently spicy 'pick-me-up' that we enjoyed with a few more sips of the white port that we had left over from earlier on.

The spicy theme continued with the dessert proper – Szechuan pepper meringue served with crystallised lemon marmalade and ginger ice cream. This kaleidoscope of distinct, bold flavours and textures was enthusiastically embraced by Sauternes Doisy Daëne 2002, with its rich, waxy texture, luscious candied fruit and spicy vanilla oak.

We also really enjoyed finishing off the Sauternes with the petits fours and it was particularly mouth-watering with some pink grapefruit dipped in white chocolate: a memorable conclusion to a delicious meal in a very stylish restaurant that seemed to really care.

(Visited November 2007)

Menu 150 Euros incl wines

Menu 110 Euros excl wines

9 Place de la Madeleine; 75008 Paris; tel +33 (0) 1 42 65 22 90 http://www.senderens.fr

This review also appears on matchingfoodandwine.com