Restaurants

By Guy Dimond

Bouchon Breton is one of the new breed of chain restaurants inhabiting Old Spitalfields Market, as a new branch of long-established Battersea bistro Bouchon Bordelais. The wine list is clearly aimed at City money, and you need to choose carefully to find a bottle costing less than £25. But this list is as extensive as it is expensive, with nearly 700 bins on the list, most of them top-class. Our wine waiter took his job very seriously, decanting even our relatively cheapo bottle of Minervois (£29), carefully tasting it himself before pouring a splash for the guest to try; it was an excellent drop of its type.

The menu is a deeply traditional brasserie menu, serving the kind of French dishes that are evocative of Edith Piaf (playing in the background) and waiters in black jackets and crisp shirts (ditto). It’s so traditional that it’s almost a parody, with a seafood selection, snacks and everything else all together on a two-sided carte of dishes that wouldn’t look out of place in a French costume drama.

Our dishes were adequate, but not a single dish from the ten we tried really impressed. Fish soup wasn’t especially Breton – despite the restaurant’s name, there were few Breton influences on this menu – but was rich, full-flavoured and served with the right garnishes. Frogs’ legs were the first real disappointment, deep-fried and blander than chicken. The choucroute dish, originally from Alsace, contained saveloy-style sausages among the more appealling cuts of meat; daube of beef was nicely braised, but the red wine stock was nothing extraordinary. But the prune clafoutis was most disappointing: it’s a simple dish that costs pennies to make, but we paid £7.50 for a sweaty, chilled sliver.

Bouchon Breton does some things right, such as the attentive, enthusiastic service, and it really knows its wine. However, the prefab feel of the place is disguised with French clichés (pewter bar, black-and-white tiled floor, banquettes) that are merely a substitute for real atmosphere, while the dishes and especially the wines are prohibitively priced – unless you’re one of the minority still able to dine out on expenses.

Time Out September 2008