The French Cafe

This is one of our new favourite places to eat locally in Tooting / Balham. The food is very reasonable and very good quality. The prix fixe is a bargain at only 9.95 and for 2 courses is a great choice.

I went here for dinner last night and tried the steak, which was lovely and juicy and well seasoned. The sauces were also very good value and were only £1.50 extra!

The whole atmosphere of the place is great and it has very french nice decor.

The service was good and very friendly.

Would definitely recommend this for a slice of France in Tooting!
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Claire
8 Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 9
Tuesday, June 28, 2011

I recently went to the French Cafe largely on the back of a pretty decent Time Out review. The review made it sound like a real find tucked away in South London - an intimate french bistro with very reasonable prices... what's not to like? So my partner and I booked for a Friday night meal.

We have strong views on the sourcing of food, especially meat, so whenever we eat out we check first whether the meat is free range before booking. We were told on the phone that yes, the chef cares greatly about where the ingredients come from and the chicken is free range but it would be worth checking on the night about the other meats. Fine. We like chicken. We booked.

We arrive through the slush and snow and are told the specials, one of which is a chicken escalope. I ask the waitress, to be on the safe side, is this free range? After going to check, she comes back and says no, it isn't. Seriously, chicken on a special board is cheap battery chicken?

I ordered crab cakes, and the waitress apologetically tells me that due to the snow, they have not had the van delivery of french fries, so the chips will be hand cut and therefore thicker. Incredible. I said to her light jovially "well fresh chips sound better than frozen ones to me anyway", but she walked off. The irony of this is that when my meal did turn up, it was not with hand-cut chips but blatantly the end of the bag of the pre-bought ones. The crab cakes weren't fresh, and tasted of over-used oil. My partner's mussels were adequate but in an overpowering cream and garlic sauce which could have hidden a multitude of sins. We ordered a bottle of prosecco, which was good, but we weren't even offered an ice bucket.

The French Cafe is indeed decorated like a french bistro, complete with retro posters of the Cote-D'Azur, however the most French thing about it is probably the photo of Bridget Bardot in the ladies' loo.

Quite frankly, if I had wanted battery chicken and frozen chips, I would have gone to Nandos.
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Waltshaw
4 Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 3
Monday, December 06, 2010

I popped into this lovely café for breakfast this morning, where I enjoyed a couple of very tasty poached eggs and hollandaise sauce with smoked salmon, and a latte. Service was prompt, and very courteous. I managed to knock over my latte and was given a replacement immediately, on the house. The food was tasty, the sun shone and the whole place had an air of contentment and comfort which will bring me back there again soon.
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8 Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 8
Monday, July 05, 2010

Having previously been here for lunch which was a pleasant experience with nice food and vibes, I booked a table on Sunday in anticipation of a nice relaxed brunch for Fathers Day. From the minute we entered to when we left 1 hr later it was a disappointment. Of the 6 staff on that morning, none seemed to know what was going on, coffees were left off the menu, wrong meals were brought to the table, meals didn't all come at once and when I asked a waiter if chef could cut up the Croque Monsieurs that we were waiting on from the kitchen so that the children could eat it more easily, he told me that the chef was so busy it was unlikely he could find time to cut up the sandwich for me ..seemingly oblivious to the fact that 2 out of 3 Croques didn't come for a further 10 minutes and the 3 croissants a further 10 minutes after that - Customer service ? mmh, The menu also doesn't cater for children, which seems an oversight given it's proximity to Nappy Valley and what, no french toast at a French cafe ? We were offered though, the option of the chef halving anything on the menu for the children, though given his time constraints I don't know how long we would have waited for any of those dishes .... Poor Poor Poor, won't be going there again for breakfast, and neither will the family who came with us ...
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Nickie
4 Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 5
Monday, June 21, 2010