by For the past 56 years it has been a symbol of the best fine dining, serving luxurious suissesse soufflé to hungry elites and earning three Michelin stars. According to the Telegraph’s restaurant critic, William Sitwell, he is “one of the greatest legacies of British gastronomy”. But in January, Le Gavroche will close for good.
A symbolic end to French food in the UK? Far from it. In fact, it is entering something of a golden age. Since the pandemic, London’s biggest openings have had a decidedly Gallic air. In August 2023, 64 Goodge Street opened to great fanfare, offering “French cooking from an outsider’s perspective”. In Spitalfields, the similarly named 65a serves onion soup and moules-frites.
Dalta, Planque and the recently opened Bistro Freddie promise modern grub and natural wines infused from France, while there’s Bébé Bob’s flog rotisserie chicken and Story Cellar. The Grand Midland Dining Room and Café Lapérouse offer luxe French fare, while L’Atelier Joël Robuchon is re-opening this year after a four-year absence. In Bristol, meanwhile, Littlefrench sticks to the continent’s impressive opening hours, serving modern French dishes between 12pm and 2.45pm and 5pm-9pm.
Nowhere is it more successful than Bouchon Racine. Opening in November 2022, the Henry Harris restaurant should not be a success: minimal marketing, a heavy menu, occupying a room above a nondescript pub in Farringdon. It was a huge hit, and the tables were sought after like Glastonbury tickets. At the Food & Travel Awards last month it wasn’t somewhere in West Africa, Mexico or Sri Lanka that won newcomer of the year. Bouchon Racine, serving an old art, beat everyone else to win the gong.
Inspired by bouchons, traditional Lyonnaise restaurants, it offers great food – classics like rabbit in mustard sauce alongside more challenging offal dishes including tete de veau and brain. It is unpretentious. Do you want a pint of Kronenbourg? You can have a pint of Kronenbourg.
George Pell, founder of The Suffolk in the French-inspired seaside town of Aldeburgh, is taking it down. “The first time I went it was like, imagine how good people are spending millions of quid on places no one goes to Mayfair, when [Henry Harris] it opens on the first floor of a pretty dingy pub and suddenly it’s the best restaurant in London.”
History of haute cuisine
A few years back, at the peak of Ottolenghi and sharing plates, it would have been difficult to imagine the achievement of Bouchon Racine but, in 2023, French restaurants are more popular than ever.
French cuisine has been excellent in the UK since the arrival of the Normans, with their Boeuf and Cistercian monks making quality cheese. Elizabeth Carter, editor The Good Food Guidehe remembers a time when the guide entries were “all French”.
But for a while, French was far from cool. Italian cuisine, lighter and fresher, replaced it in the early 1990s, and it wasn’t long before fusion, Southeast Asian, Japanese and Middle Eastern cuisine became much more fashionable. Rumors that restaurants in Paris had declined did not help his reputation. In 2019, a YouGov poll ranked French food below Italy, China, Japan and Thailand in terms of global tastes, with countries such as the US and Denmark regularly having more restaurants in the Top 50 list. in the world than France. The French was synonymous with Michelin stuffiness. Worse, it was boring.
Gallic influences
As a child Henry Harris, the founder of Bouchon Racine, holidayed regularly in France and his father owned a French restaurant in Brighton. Training as a chef in the 1980s, it was mostly high-end French cuisine. When he opened his first (very French) restaurant, Racine, in Knightsbridge in 2002, it became a firm favourite. After closing in 2015, he finally opened a new post-Covid location, and there was no doubt that it would be French.
There were already signs that French food was back. Carter sees it as a slow burn ready to explode at any moment. Restaurants like Frenchie in Covent Garden, which opened in 2016, showed how the modern French bistro could flourish but, since the pandemic, the trickle has become a tsunami. “It’s getting really big,” says Carter. “People want tasty food but are not challenged. They don’t want tasting menus, they want choice, delicious food. And French food is really delicious.”
This year The Good Food Guide named Les 2 Garçons in Crouch End, north London, as the best local restaurant in the capital. Opened in 2021 by chef Robert Reid and maître d’ Jean-Cristophe Slowik, both of whom have a long history in French restaurants, it has been packed ever since, even moving to a larger location. It’s definitely old school: perfect snails, steak tartare, the best tarte tatin I’ve had. “I think it’s very popular in these times of hardship, accessible, unpretentious dining with quality food,” says Reid when asked why his restaurant struck a chord.
That same year one of London’s long-time favourites, L’Escargot, opened an event, L’Escargot sur-Mer, in Aldeburgh. It was planned as a summer pop-up, although the stays were very long, a permanent location was needed soon. Pell, director at L’Escargot, soon relaunched as The Suffolk. L’Escargot is a classic take on French cuisine, but The Suffolk is modern: fish grilled over charcoal, sometimes with Champagne sauce or beurre blanc.
“Classic French food but with east Suffolk produce,” says Pell, inspired by London’s Francophile wine bars such as Planque and Dalta. “There’s a very exciting change in terms of quality cooking but it’s not as demanding,” he says. “Super elegant, chic, but quite sexy and cool and current.”
From the 1990s onwards, the bistronomy scene in Paris offered a more imaginative and less situational version of the French bistro. Global influences hit – soy sauce! ginger! – and were interested in natural wines, a restaurant formula that will be recognizable to anyone who has visited a trendy UK urban neighborhood recently.
However, French restaurants are also thriving, and not just in Britain. In New York, La Marchande, a new French brasserie, is in love with the Wall Street Hotel, while the miniscule Le French Diner is arguably the hottest ticket in town. Washington DC and the Bay Area have seen booms in French restaurants.
France is the future
On this side of the Atlantic there is no sign of slowing down. In January, Claude Bosi, who already runs Bibendum, Socca and Brooklands in London, is opening his own bouchon, Josephine in Fulham, perhaps inspired by Bouchon Racine.
Soon after, Bavette will open in Horsforth, Leeds. Run by chef Sandy Jarvis, who worked for Harris at the original Racine, and Clément Cousin, who grew up on a family vineyard in the Loire Valley, Bavette will serve classically inspired bistro fare: think paté en croute, shellfish bisque and côte de boeuf . Jarvis was directly inspired by Harris – “he has a lot to do with [the French restaurant revival] than anyone else”.
French food never really left. Larger restaurants such as L’Escargot, The Ritz, even Brasserie Zédel are even better. Chez Bruce in Wandsworth is regularly cited as one of the best restaurants in London. Côte is still there.
But fashion is cyclical. Harris remembers the opening of Racine in 2002 when he heralded the rebirth of French food. Later restaurants such as Terroirs, now closed, were very popular. “Almost every country has great food, but I think I’ve helped people remember [French] one of the best cooking in the world. I know opening [the original] Racine put French cooking back in people’s minds.” Two decades later, Harris has done it again.
5 French restaurants to book
Chez Jules, Edinburgh
Almost affordable (a three-course lunch costs just £12.90), Chez Jules has bags of Gallic humor and a menu full of all the classics.
What to order: French onion soup, coq au vin, mousse au chocolat
Book here
Stretford Canteen, Manchester
Linked to the much-missed Beaujolais in central Manchester, Stretford Canteen is an unpretentious bistro that offers a lively atmosphere, plenty of wine and classic dishes.
What to order: The menu changes, but the short ribs with pommes dauphinoise if they’re on.
Book here
Pompette, Oxford
According to food writer Ben McCormack, Pompette (also run by a Racine alumnus) is “the best thing to happen to the Oxford food scene since Frank Cooper added Seville oranges to marmalade”.
What to order: Poulet frites (Wednesday night only)
Book here
Folkestone Wine Company, Folkestone
“Like the French bistros you look for in Paris but never find,” says Elizabeth Carter of this Folkestone favourite, which opened in 2017.
What to order: The menu varies, but halibut with bouillabaisse sauce and aioli if it’s on.
Book here
Ophelia, Gosforth
Carter is also a fan of Ophelia’s modern take on the French bistro, which opened this year. “It’s a first class French bistro, but it’s modern. There’s a tomato and roasted garlic sourdough tart, and a lovely roast chicken with loads of chips and two sweet sauces. Béarnaise because of France, and gravy because of Newcastle.”
What to order: Lyonnaise potato pithivier with girolle mushrooms and beurre blanc.
Book here
