Who knew there was a little group of rustic French restaurants tucked away just on the other side of Smithfield Market? Not me! I was led over here by my Director for a team dinner in lieu of a proper Christmas party. I work for a bank, 3Q was bad, and thus "cost-cutting" takes effect . Le Grenier is part of the Café Du Marche group and is the upstairs one that focuses more on grilled foods.
Anyways, this restaurant turned out to be fantastic. I loved the décor with exposed wood beams, brick walls, and that smell of freshly baked bread. So when said bread made it to the table I demolished the first basket with my manager. He's a triathlete. I'm just a glutton. Ah well.
First course was snails on toast with morel mushrooms. My one issue with the dish was that there wasn't much garlic and the snails were out of their shells. Okay so that was two things but garlic is essential (for both snails and warding off vamps) and the delicate process of deshelling a snail is half the fun! Still, flavour wise it was alright and a good started.
My main course of pheasant, chestnuts, cranberry sauce, and jus was delicious. The pheasant was juicy and tender and just on the right side of rare. My only complaint was that there wasn't more of it! The chestnuts were roasted with creamy nutty insides and tasted delicious with the cranberry sauce. I definitely wiped my plate clean using the bread to sop up the jus as well so all in all a winning dish.
Dessert came in the form of a chocolate pot. As the French do, this pot was rich and decadent and I might have been the only person to finish mine. I was tempted to ask if I could finish off the others but we're not that close a team...not yet at least.
Wine list was not extensive but carried plenty of choice. The font made it tricky to read (not that I knew half of them) and the waitstaff strangely didn't seem to have much in the way of suggestions. Still, the house white was just fine by me as it was a buttery sauvignon blanc I believe.
Overall, yep I'd go back and at £42 for food (not including wine) it's a bit pricey but well with a fine dining budget. read more