Lou Pescadou

Lou Pescadou is my favourite French restaurant in London. The staff are friendly and extremely efficient, the steaks are cooked exactly to your liking, and the seafood is marvellous. When you walk in and hear the buzz of French speaking patrons, you know youre onto a winner. Dont miss the opportunity to enjoy some freshly shucked oysters whilst you peruse the menu.
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Julie Claire
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 9
Friday, February 02, 2007

I have been going to L.P. for some years and I love it! The food is great, I always think of it as a genuine French restaurant serving genuine French food. The service has always been good, the greatest compliment the staff can pay you is to to have fun with you, they treat you like their friends but have always been courteous and efficient. It helps if you have some knowledge or interest in Rugby, the downstairs bar is remarkable. I very much look forward to going back soon.
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Roland Wild
Sunday, October 30, 2005

Sunday evening and only two other diners (male and both alone). Although it looked sad, this restaurant had been on our 'to go' list for a while so we thought 'just do it'. There was a blackboard on the pavement advertising a £14.50, 3 course menu but this was not presented to us along with the full a'la carte menu, so we had to ask for it. The wine list offered an 11.80 bottle of (white) house wine then the main wine list started at around 19.80 per bottle, with a 15% 'optional' service charge. The staff appeared to be totally disinterested, the menu very basic, with extras (spinach, potato, green salad) added at 2.10 each.

Although we had ordered a bottle of wine and had a glass, the menu and staff were so miserable we decided to leave and go elsewhere. The maitre'd offered us a cork for the wine and commented that we had paid a lot of money for not very much but failed to ask why we were leaving. Perhaps he didn't really need to!

The prices here at not cheap to begin with, especially when you add on 'extras' and the 15% 'optional' gratuity and the total lack of interest and/or service by the staff.

We cut our losses, had a glass of wine from the bottle we paid for and then went for a very pleasant Thai meal further up the road.
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Mardi Harris
Sunday, August 21, 2005

My older sister Alex took me here on the recommendation of a friend, who assured her it was one of the best French restaurants in London. The friend’s reasoning being that all the French rugby teams brought their mothers and special dates here. A somewhat questionable reason for a food recommendation I thought, but I was interested to find out whether it would live up to French maternal approval.

The restaurant itself is quite long and narrow. ‘Cosy’ is the probably the most apt description. Rugby players’ sensitivities notwithstanding, it wasn’t to my mind the ideal place for a romantic tryst, as the meal was interrupted every now and then by other people’s conversation (most notably the obnoxious American businessman two tables away). It was innocuously decorated, the only memorable feature being the wide variety of seascapes and sailing pictures, which ranged in quality from the insipid to the very fine.

The small bar downstairs was a shrine to rugby, walls completely covered with rugby and rugby league photos and mementos. Unlike most similar sports bars however, they were all clean and bright and tidy, and it actually looked quite good.

The bathrooms were excellent – beautifully painted and decorated, spotless and well maintained, with real towel hand-cloths for drying your hands. That may seem an odd thing to consider important but I intensely dislike restaurants whose bathrooms are old, rundown, badly painted or poorly maintained. Not just because they spoil your impression of the place and put a bad spot in your evening, but if the management and staff of a restaurant are unconcerned about the upkeep and hygiene of their bathrooms, it makes me wonder about their kitchens. The bathroom at Lou Pescadou was one of the nicest I’ve been in for a long while.

The wait staff were pleasant in a clearly disinterested manner, but very good about topping up our glasses and quickly clearing plates away. The maitre d’ was attentive – maybe a little too attentive, but then men tend to be that way around my sister! I found him a bit too over-familiar however.

***

We chose our table and were offered a small dish of shrimps and another of olives as nibbles (you couldn’t really call it an amuse bouche). The shrimps were fun; pulling the heads and tails off and popping them into your mouth for a little mouthful of sweet and salty flesh surrounded by the little crisp carapace. Quite delicious. The olives didn’t get a look in. I was pleased to note that the menu declared all the fish were wild caught.

As an entrée I ordered the Fruits de Mer Mini Plateau. It came with 2 langoustine, 4 oysters, 6 whelks, about 18 winkles, and a couple dozen more of the shrimps, all presented on a bed of kelp. Before starting I was amused by the waitress laying my place setting with every single piece of fish cutlery she could find – picks, forks, fish knife, etc including a couple I clearly didn’t need. A crab-claw cracker? For langoustine?

If I were allowed to only ever eat one type of bivalve mollusc again I would choose scallops – but oysters come a close second. This night’s oysters, which according to the waitress were the Fine de Claire variety, were an undiluted pleasure. Light and fresh, with a taste like a mouthful of mild clean seawater, they exemplified everything wonderful about raw oysters.

The langoustine (of which I only got one!) were tender and flavoursome and I could have cheerfully eaten a couple more. Regarding the whelks I’m still a little ambivalent. I’d never tried them before and I liked the flavour - quite strong and somewhat sweet and reminding me slightly of scallops - but I didn’t particularly care for their consistency, which was quite compact. Texture-wise they weren’t tough, but they weren’t particularly tender either. I’d try them again however, just to see.

The winkles, another first time try, won me as a convert however. My sister gave up in exasperation after coaxing a couple of them out of their shells, saying the half mouthful wasn’t worth the effort, but I thought they were delightful. I liked their freshness, taste and texture.

My sister ordered the Grilled Baby Squid, which was perfectly cooked, smelt divine and had a rich BBQ taste – gorgeous. They looked naked on the plate however, as that was all you got. No garnishing whatsover!

The Tartare Sauce was a big disappointment. Unremarkable, insipid-tasting and with a rather solid plasticy texture. If it wasn’t straight out of a jar, I'm a monkey's uncle.

As my main I ordered the Filet Steak, cooked blue - or to paraphrase my sister, “Just find a cow and smack it on the rump as it passes through the kitchen”.

This arrived as a large 5-inch round, about 1-½ inches thick, with strands of onion on top that were fried to a melt-in-your-mouth consistency. The filet itself was good, very good in fact. Not fantastic, but cooked well (or rather, cooked correctly), tender and very tasty; a beautiful piece of high quality meat. I couldn't eat all of it – and pointers for the staff for happily doing so when Alex asked them to doggybag it for me.

Alex ordered the Lobster with Asparagus Spears. She didn’t let me try the lobster (perhaps wisely!) but gave me one of the asparagus spears. There were only a half dozen of these and they were fanned out under the lobster in an (rather futile) attempt to make it look generous. I wasn’t impressed by their stinginess. The asparagus was barely adequate. It was one of the strong tasting, big varieties, but I thought it was borderline age-wise, too compactly textured and very slightly woody. I wouldn’t have served it at one of my dinner parties. Alex thought the lobster was lovely however.

Accompanying our mains were a dish of French String Fries (Pommes Frites if you want to be pedantic) and plain cooked Spinach. The spinach was absolutely dreadful. Lukewarm, overcooked, average quality vegetation and really, just plain bad. I've consumed better spinach at youth camp. I ate one mouthful and later another just to be sure my first impression was correct, but that was all I could stand. The fries were pleasant enough. But I must say I thought as the accompaniment to the meats it was abysmal and totally let the meal down. Very unimpressive.

The dessert menu was traditional but not very exciting. Alex chose a float of Meringue & French Custard with Caramel Sauce. The meringue was light, with little sweetness, and melded nicely with the rich toasted-sugar taste of the sauce and the slightly bland sweetness of the custard. Altogether, a nicely balanced and delicious dessert.

My choice was two different icecreams – Violet and Raspberry & Red Wine. Oh, I so want a Gaggia ice cream maker so I can spend a weekend making things like this! I love violets as a food (sugared violets – mmmm) and this ice cream was no exception. Delicately flavoured and beautifully coloured, sadly it suffered from slight crystallisation so the texture was slightly gritty. All right for a granité - not acceptable in a glacé, and that rather tarnished it for me. The Raspberry & Red Wine ice cream had a sublime texture however. I was very impressed with it. It melted in my mouth like a snowflake. And the flavor was boldly raspberry with a tartness that harmonized very pleasingly with the sweetness of the violet ice cream.

We topped the evening off with a couple of coffees and a glass of Calvados for myself.

To drink with dinner we ordered a bottle of Pouilly-Fumé Vieilles Vignes 'Cuvée d'Eve' 2001, Jean-Claude Dagueneau, which I enjoyed. It was a clear tasting, slightly grassy wine. We finished dinner off with some coffees and a glass of Calvados for myself.

***

So, what did I think overall? It was a great night out with my sister, but would I visit Lou Pescadou again?

Probably not.

The desserts were good (if unimaginative). The freshness and high quality of the seafood and meat was unmistakable, and if you’re of a primarily carnivorous nature (i.e. a male rugby player obviously!) then this is the place for you.

However, as someone who likes food in general I was disappointed. For the prices charged, I expected a great deal more professionalism directed towards the entire meal, not just the meats. The experience was let down immensely by the restaurant’s attitude to side dishes and details, such as garnishing. It was rather like watching a ballet troupe who clothe their prima ballerinas in immaculate costumes and give them the limelight, but who dress the corp d’ballet in cheap, worn rags and get them to wave their arms around in the background. Pitiful to see.

In conclusion, dinner here is overpriced for what you get. However, you could definitely tempt me to return if it was for lunch of a glass of bubbly and a platter of oysters.

***

The bill for the two of us (including alcohol) came to about £130 including 12.5% service charge.
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C.Nevin
Monday, August 08, 2005