On this site used to be one of my regular restaurants, Caffe Uno. This has now been changed (just like many others) to the French restaurant Brasserie Chez Gerard.

The food here was average and I wouldn’t call it outstanding. I had the seasonal vegetables tagine which I would give full marks for presentation but not for flavour. The taste of the spices didn’t really come through. I was expecting it be more of a tomato based tagine. This Moroccan dish was cooked with chickpeas, spinach and baby carrots. It came with a good portion of couscous.

The actual restaurant decor is nice with a range of seating, from window seats to wicker chairs and normal dining tables and chairs.

The staff were friendly although the service was slow at times. We were waiting for quite a while to get the attention of the waiter, so that we could order desserts. By the time we managed to get his attention, we weren’t even sure that we wanted to order anything else.

The warm almond and cherry tart was a huge disappointment. It tasted like it had been microwaved and the pastry had become too soft. The only upside to this was that the coffee ice cream (that came with the tart) had a good flavour.

Maybe I should have opted for my friend’s choice of the warm Belgian waffle with chocolate sauce and ice cream. That looked of a better quality!

Brasserie Chez Gerard, 9 Kensington High Street, London, W8 5NP

Rating:

We went to this French restaurant for a friend’s birthday! On entering this restaurant, one of the first things that I noticed was that it was a lot more spacious than what I would have expected and the lighting was just right for an evening setting.

We started off with the goat’s cheese with walnut bread and date chutney. The goat’s cheese was of the perfect consistency and the date chutney had the right sweetness. The battered fried squid was not over cooked. The bread was really fresh too.

For the mains, we had the aubergine parmigiana and the steak frites. The aubergine and the tomato sauce went perfectly together; I could taste the sweetness of the tomatoes. The steak was Aberdeen Angus rib-eye steak and the au bleu (blue cheese) sauce worked well with the steak. The frites were really thin and great!

My friends had the sea bream and the roast rack of lamb. The dishes were all very well presented and the food was of the highest quality. The whole dinner was sublime!

We had room for dessert and so we opted for the honeycomb ice cream with white chocolate sauce. This didn’t disappoint us in any way as well.

We didn’t feel at all rushed with our meal. The service was fantastic. The staff were really friendly and efficient.

My friend’s were VIP members at Bistro Aix (this can be done for free on their website)! As we were dining at this restaurant for a birthday and we had notified the waiters about this, at the end of the meal, we were given complimentary champagne and cake.

We expected the cake just to be a slice for the birthday boy, but it was for all of us. There was even enough to be taken home! This cake was so delicious. It was a fresh berry layered sponge cake covered in meringue. The meringue was just gooey enough!  

Bistro Aix, 54 Topsfield Parade, Tottenham Lane, Crouch End, London, N8 8PT

Rating:

When we asked a local where we could go for good crepes, they told us about this place and said we wouldn’t be disappointed. How right they were!

It was a little creperie hidden away on one of the side streets. The tables were close together but we didn’t mind that. There was something so inviting about this restaurant and it really made us feel that we had discovered a place that was loved by the locals.

There only seemed to be two members of staff-one waiter and one chef. Both were very friendly with us and when we returned a couple of days later, they greeted us like they knew us well!

The kitchen area was along one side which overlooked the tables. This meant that customers could chat to the chef while he was making the food.

We were given a small green salad for a starter which was a nice touch. On our first visit, we had both savoury and sweet crepes. One of the savoury ones was egg, cheese and ham and the second one was mashed tomatoes and mushrooms. The tomatoes were so tasty and both crepes were thoroughly enjoyed. Our dessert was an apple, caramel and almond crepe. Just perfect to complete the meal.

Our second visit included two of the chef’s specials, La Potagere and La Rustique. La Potagere was a vegetarian buckwheat pancake with mashed tomatoes, leeks, mushrooms and carrot puree. This was not the usual crepe but more like a dense bread pattie. It was different but all the same really delicious.

La Rustique was a thin crepe with smoked bacon, egg, goat’s cheese and mashed tomatoes. There was just the right amount of all the toppings and you could tell that the goat’s cheese was of good quality.

The thing that we liked about the crepes here was that they weren’t folded into triangles like you would get at the other creperies. This meant that you could actually taste the plain crepe. The toppings were put on separate areas of the crepe, so that it was up to you what combination you created.

I would avoid all the other street stall crepe places and make a worthwhile visit to Chez Imogene. Just a note, this creperie is closed on Sundays.

Chez Imogene Creperie, rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud, Paris

Rating: