However, luckily for me, the publishing house I work for, Headline, have published a new book KEW ON A PLATE which is written by the French epic, the legend, that is RAYMOND BLANC. Wowzer. So I thought, hey, Will (the birthday boy) like French food, Raymond Blanc is French and owns a small chain of bistros in London and the UK... well, let's go there then!
You know me by now, I'm dubious of chains. I have had some horrible dates in chains, I have had some seriously mediocre food in chains, and the atmosphere is generally pretty crappy in chains. Brasserie Blanc really bucks this trend - it feels like a high end, sumptuous, dare I say, posh, establishment - not like a bog standard Pizza Express or something. You walk in and it is fancy pants. The lovely lady at the door took our coats (cue me whispering "oh my god this is such a novelty"), we were shown to a very lovingly dressed table, while I'm gawking about at the other tables which have railway carriage racks above them. I feel like I have stepped into art-deco France. Swanky.
Service? Impeccable. Attentive. Catering to our every need. Checking that we were okay at regular intervals. Just bang on. And thank the lord, service charge wasn't included - I hate the obligatory tip, but needless to say, I left a generous tip of my own!
Food? In-sane. What was really nice about Brasserie Blanc was that, yes, okay, there was quite a lot of meat on the menu. My friend got the confit duck, a French staple. But I opted for the delicious baked cod (£15.50), with braised leeks, mussels, clams, samphire and new potato. You know what? Delicious. Absolutely delicious, and pretty as a picture!
Can I rave about this meal enough? Not really. I could go on and on and on about how delicious this was. It completely changed my mind on French food. It's not all stodge, meat and wine. It can be light, dainty and fresh too.
And, obviously, I had to get a snap of the beautiful books which were scattered around the place, looking absolutely fantastic!