La Trouvaille

We visited this restaurant for my girlfriend's birthday on Saturday - we had a booking for 9 people.

Overall, I would say that its a very nice restaurant - the food was, in the main, very good. My starter of snails was nice without being outstanding whereas my main course of ox tail was superb. I had the chocolate fondant for dessert which, again, was nice without being fantastic.

The downsides, in my opinion, were the service - which was slow and unresponsive (no side plates for bread, despite asking for one), the temperature of the restaurant which is very high and the prices which, once you've all had a cocktail or two and some wine (or quite a lot of wine, when you're not served for long periods at a time!) can be almost double the price of the set menu. They even complained that they were missing £3 of their service charge on a £700+ bill!

Overall, worth a visit, certainly.
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Bodger
Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 4 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 6
Sunday, May 18, 2008

Reading the reviews below seems like a have been to a different place~ I did enjoy it!

I went with my friends and had salmon to start followed by rabbit both very good ....finished with chocolat fondue and a glass of Pacheranc Doux - all very good quality. good selection of boutique wines form South of France...

relaxed attentive service - Only would add a side plate for bread and perhaps some sort of cooling system as it can get hot inside.

definitely 7+ there is space for improvement
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MS
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Monday, May 12, 2008

I went here for lunch after reading the reviews - have to say I was disappointed. Went for my husband's birthday - as parents we don't get out much and I reckon are quite easy to please - but it was very mediocre food. Bland soup, steak covered in ratatouille that tasted as though it came from a tin, stuffed guinea fowl that was dry with a sauce that verged on the unpleasant. Very nice young French waiter, and a great location, but I would say something is sliding in the kitchen!
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Clare
Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 3
Monday, April 28, 2008

I booked a special night out with my wife on the strength of the review in TimeOut, where they recommended La Trouvaille strongly as a great French restaurant.

The experience was good, but not fantastic and I would much rather go to somewhere a little less central - Le Vacherin or La Trompette in Chiswick, for example.

The menu allows 2 or 3 courses from a fixed set and the 3 course menu costs £33; there is no a la carte option, and there was no beef course on the menu at all. The wine menu is however very attractive and offers a lot of choice. The sommelier gave us excellent recommendations and we ended up with a very nice wine from a small vineyard that set us back £50.

The starter was good (I went for the duck option, and my wife went for the salmon) and small, so it just took the edge off our appetites. The food disappointingly arrived before our wine did, so the starter was consumed with just water; the timing should be better coordinated here.

The main course is always the one it's hardest to get right, but I was very happy with my rabbit; the mustard sauce was excellent and there was just enough that I felt pleasantly full afterwards. My wife's duck maigret was a bit chewy and not as tender as it should have been; somewhat disappointing although the sauce was good.

The dessert is normally a course that restaurants get just right, but the cheese in particular was not up to scratch. What the menu described as "a selection of French and Continental cheeses" turned out to consist of a supermarket blue cheese that was just ordinary, a boring Somerset cheddar, and a soft French goats cheese that at least added a bit of interest.

The accompanying dessert wine was however both good and reasonably priced at £6-7 for a glass.

In summary, we had a good night but probably won't come back - there are lots of other places that have better French food and better service for the £150 or so that was the total bill.
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Allan Mertner
Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 6
Sunday, March 23, 2008

I've heard about small portions in French restaurants before. I didn't expect huge amount of food but what I got in here was really tiny. DFood was nice but not much of it. Even bread was not on the table but given from the waiter - got a bad look when I took 2 slices :). Maybe I'm just not the person for this kind of a'la carte dining.

I would recommend the wine bar downstairs. I almost cried when after the meal I saw nice food downstairs, baskets of bread on the table and reasonably priced menu.
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Anna
Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 2
Tuesday, February 19, 2008

would highly recommend this place - excellent food and realxed but by no means bad service. very knowledgeable maitre d and a really eclectic selection of wines
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Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 9
Monday, February 18, 2008

We went to la Trouvaille for a pre-theatre meal. The food was good - interesting choices, presentation and flavours. However, the service can only be described as appalling. One example - the waitress knocked a full glass of wine over my boyfriend during the meal. When it came to the bill, they charged us for the full bottle of wine, plus full service! We pointed out that we hadn't drunk the full bottle of wine as some of it was on the table cloth, our food and our clothes, and the waitress told us that she was going to offer us another glass of wine, but we hadn't finished our original bottle! She eventually took the price of one glass off the bill, but we still felt it was disappointing to pay full service charge in this case. Despite the good food there are restaurants serving equally good food with better service in the area.
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Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 3
Sunday, February 03, 2008

Had a lovely lunch here last week. The food was delicious, the French staff were very accomodating, friendly and pleasant, the decor very nice, and the prices reasonable. I'd never heard of or been to this place before but intend to return for dinner one evening.
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Alan
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 9
Wednesday, January 16, 2008

We ate here recently with a couple of friends and none of us had been before. I often think French food in London is disappointing and overpriced compared to eating in France but that certainly wasn't the case here. We all thought the decor, ambience, wine and above all, the food, were excellent. The young French waiters were friendly and willing if not terribly professional, mishearing us a few times when we asked for things (bringing bread instead of red wine, easily done !) and I must say when the waiter bumped into my transparent chair for the tenth time whilst serving the table behind us I did feel somewhat irritated, but the chairs are ridiculously uncomfortable anyway and the one thing I would change about this place. Our share of the bill came in under £100 including wine from the cheaper end of the list at around £15 and delicious. I thought that was actually pretty reasonable for such a great meal.
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IC
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 8
Thursday, August 30, 2007

I booked La Trouvaille for my birthday for a party of 14 people. Each person was to have the 2 course menu at £27.50 and pre-order the food. The night started of well but eventually it went down hill. The food took over and hour to arrive, (despite pre-ordering!) and the food was cold. Not one person said the food was good or delicious. My meal of duck was bland and the swet potato mash was no On top of that, my brother brought a surprise birthday cake to have for dessert and they charged us for 3 courses at £33!! I think £5.5 per person to cut a cake is just ridiculous. Avoid this restaurant!!!
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Emily Tay
Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 0
Friday, March 02, 2007