Le Bistro

Not sure why its called Le Bistro, as the menu has no french food on it. Having been a resident of Hornsey for some time we really are starved of a good place to eat. I have eaten here twice, and it is very hit and miss depending which cook (there not chefs) is working. I guarantee the closest thing they have to french food in those kitchens is a baguette. Staggered it has positive reviews, the food is at best supermarket quality, badly cooked and some of the strangest combinations of flavours ive had the misfortune to taste.

Its VERY expensive for the area at around 30 per head, it would still be expensive if they had a "buy one get four free" offer on. Head into town, run over to hampstead, wander into Crouch end but don bother with this sub standard poor local food bar.
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SPW
2 Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 0
Saturday, January 14, 2012

We ate here on a Friday night. Like most local restaurants it is variable, but generally good, hence over a dozen visits over the years.

The restaurant was full and the atmosphere good. The food was good quality. My black pudding upside down tart was very tasty, not overcooked (as most boudin can be in England) with crisp pastry and nice salad. The liver main had the same qualities. We also had prawn and snail starters, seabass and pave steak mains. They were all good solid bistro food well cooked. I dont usually mention vegetables but I shall as the dauphinois, although thin, and the carrots and peas, all tasty and cooked to perfection.

Service was reactive, not proactive.Friendly, there was a delay between starters and mains bordering on thumb tapping.

Some nice wines. We had a relatively inexpensive Pinot Noir from the Rhone if I remember correctly. Four people, two courses a la carte, two puddings. One bottle of wine and three glasses of wine (kir) = £150 (inc. service)

So this time an enjoyable evening.
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Dr Stix
8 Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 7
Thursday, October 27, 2011

Having found this restaurant on the taste card website, and having seen positive reviews, we decided to give it a try. The decor was tasteful and interesting and the atmosphere very pleasant. We ordered starters (scallops and a blackpudding tart) which were very good. However, we were very disapointed with the quality of the main courses.

The duck, (with belly pork and french sausage) firstly came burnt and without the sausage and secondly the pork belly tasted more like a dry ham hock. The other main was beef steak with tomato provencal and dauphinoise potatoes. The beef, although ordered as rare (and it was rare, in the middle) arrived char-grilled. The french fries side dish that we ordered tasted like it came from a fastfood restaurant and the meal came with no tomato element. On questioning the absence of the tomatos after our meal, the waitress insisted that there were definitely tomatoes on the plate and disagreed with us when we begged to differ. Additionally a diner seated next to us also missed the tomato from their beef dish.

Several other dishes on the menu also had significant elements missing and the waitress was ill informed about some of the ingredients.

The dessert was very pleasant however the evening was marred by the dissapointing main courses.

With a taste card the cost of the meal and wine came to £46. Had we paid full price we would have been very displeased with our value for money.
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Anna & Dave
6 Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 5
Sunday, October 16, 2011

Funny reading the negative reviews here as it almost put me off visiting but I'm glad I went. I would certainly recommend to anyone looking for a good meal in relaxing atmosphere. Both my wife and myself enjoyed all the food (goats cheese & whitebait to start, beef & duck for mains, lovely bottle of wine). It wasn't the most amazing food I've ever tasted but it's not in Mayfair or Paris so I wouldn't expect it to be.

The food was tasty, well prepared and a reasonably priced. The service was spot on, attentive but not over bearing. I will certainly go back.

So to summarise, if you're a snobby git that wants to pay £500 for a meal then don't go here. If you like French food at a reasonable price and can live with some minor & irrelevant imperfections then make sure you go,
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Reuben
8 Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 8
Wednesday, August 24, 2011

We had a very enjoyable meal at Le Bistro last night, when most other people were watching the football, so it wasn't that busy. A fish soup starter was very tasty, as was the Welsh lamb main course. My desert of dark chocolate cake and Bourbon vanilla ice cream was pretty good. My girlf had 3 oysters to start and one of them found it's way onto my side of the table - very nice. For main course she had scallops, one of her favourites things, she said they were good but not the best. Her apple pie was very good. 3 glasses of Loire sparkling wine. Tap water. £79.55 including service, which was good. The atmosphere perhaps wasn't the best because it was quiet, but the room is a good size with interesting old signs and odds and ends on the walls. The music was a bit odd but didn't intrude. I would like to go back, and recommend it. We live about 20 minutes walk away.
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7 Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 7
Sunday, May 29, 2011

Le Bistro is fantastic. Simple Bistro food, served with great enthusiasm in a relaxed Bistro environment. I have left my disagreements with one particularly bad review below, so I won't go into it again.

Just to say that this is one of the few consistently good restaurants in the area at such value for money. The set menu's are fantastic if you're mid-week dining and don't fancy breaking the bank, cheaper than some restaurants which even offer taste London discounts. The main menu is always changing and always great. The steaks here are excellent. My partner and I have never once been disappointed with Le Bistro. I've brought friends from outside of London to dine here and they've marvelled at how amazing it is to have something like this on my doorstep.

The owner is French and is a wine broker so the selection of wines is always superb and well matched. He once took great delight, on a quiet evening, on letting us sample, for free (because we moved tables, a minor inconvenience), one of his new natural wines which he had just imported.

If I was going to make this balanced I would say that sometimes the service has kept us waiting a fraction too long, but only on some occasions, but if you are with good company, it never drags. Again, occasionally, the set menu has only had two choices, but it always has steak on, so I am still happy with it. One of the waiters also sometimes doesn't know what certain things are on the menu, which he really should know, but again, has only happened once or twice out of many times I've visited.

If you are from the area, or just visiting, I urge you to try this place out. It is great. As I said before, it's not fine dining, but never professes to be. For two, you can eat off the set menu and have a bottle of wine and for £40-£45 or chose to go a little more pricey from the a la carte for around £55-65.
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Nick
9 Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 10
Wednesday, April 27, 2011

I have been visiting this restaurant for a number of years and was quite happy to recommend it to my friend for dinner on her 60th birthday, we booked a table for 7 people for Saturday 19th March about 5 weeks in advance for a time of 8.15, when we arrived at the restaurant we were shown to our table, we were then told, one of the starters on the specials list was not available but they continued to leave it on the board, one of the main courses was also not available and the special wine was not available, it seemed everything we asked for was not available, I could understand this if we had not made a booking and it was late in the evening, we were very limited in what we could have from the specials therefore a number of the party had to go for dishes from the set menu which was not great, very disappointing, to end the evening we were then told the coffee machine was out of orde, very disappointing all round and a bit embarrasing as some of the party had travelled quite a long way for this.
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elma
4 Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 1
Saturday, April 16, 2011

Personally I really like the homely atmosphere and rustic decor in Le Bistro and have always found the staff very hospitable and accommodating. It is true they treat their regulars particularly well, and many of their regulars then become friends - isn't that usually a sign of good hosts? They created a fantastic atmosphere for me and my guests when I held a party there recently, as I trusted they would, and their regular events (Beaujolais, Bastille Day to name a couple) are always fun. There's a lovely quiet courtyard garden out the back as well, which is quite a find in Hornsey.

So, it's a down to earth place rather than fancy, but the food is good! I'm not a food critic, or a nit-picker, but I'm pretty discerning about what I eat and I eat out a lot. I have always found the food at Le Bistro very well cooked and nicely presented, lovely flavours, interesting combinations. I often have the three-course 'set menu' and it's great value - under £15 ! I take my family in there, or go with friends - either works.

They have just introduced a new menu, so I am going to have to find new favourites... but am looking forward to that.
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Helen
9 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 9
Sunday, March 06, 2011

AVOID at all costs! Having just moved to Hornsey we went looking for a good local restaurant and found Le Bistro yesterday to celebrate my girlfriends 29th birthday. First impressions were good although on closer inspection you realise that 3/4 of the restaurant is French and the rest, very English (down to the Coleman mustard poster). It tries very hard to be French just not there yet. Restaurant had about 25 people so not too busy. We were given menus and as we glanced through realised they are very, very unfrench! Out of around 15 dishes (starters from about £4/£5, mains £14-£20) only two were French, the snails and pate. There was German, English and Indian influences but nothing really French! We started with scallops and blackpudding, and mousse/pate cross (served with no bread or melba toast). They were ok but nothing special, if anything the blackpudding was very undercooked.

The mains then took over an hour to arrive! We asked the waitress where they were after 35 mins to be told they were nearly ready (so had opportunity to speak to us before we complained), another 25 minutes we finally get served. I had asked for another beer and was given this on the house because of the wait. The kitchen despite having only 4/5 tables to serve during that period seemed to stop dead, nothing was coming out and it was clear many tables were not happy. The roast duck I ordered was a DISASTER, over cooked and tough with vegtables I could not identify and deep fried potato fritters (I guess) with Indian spices and a filling that tasted of air. Everything was also cover in salt. The monk fish my girlfriend ordered was ok but came with a potato and shrimp mix side, so fish and fish... I spoke to the waitress yet again to complain and discovered at this point she was the owners wife, they also own a Japanese restaurant next door. I was told that the chef was going to be leaving (fired) shortly and perhaps we could try them again soon. Having only eaten about 4 mouthfuls of the Duck I stated I did not want to pay for it. We asked for the bill and when it came everything we ordered was listed to the tune of £67.50 (no wine). My blood was boiling and had it not been my girlfriends birthday would have hit the roof. This was the perfect opportunity to have comped the food or invited us back again at their expense but no, money was more important! They ruined our evening I will never, ever grace their door again. AVOID
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2 Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 2 | Value for money 0
Friday, February 04, 2011

This is our local French restaurant and we always feel like we are visiting friends.It's a litle goldmine in Hornsey. Great service, never had a bad meal and very good value. Arnaud is very entertaining, they have special nights and I recommend the Beaujolais Nouveau night. The wine list is good, nice selection. The set meal is very good value and the steak is huge!!

Shame Arnaud is going back to France, hope the new Manager will keep the same atmosphere.
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Anna
10 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 8
Sunday, January 23, 2011