Brasserie Blanc

Disappointing dinner. Have dined there previously and it was a good, bistro style experience. This time was incredibly hit and miss.

- Good start, welcome, given option to choose where to sit (although to be fair the restaurant was less than a third full

- Bit rushed getting the menus/orders, seemed to be a 'turn the table round quickly' mentality, although given the amount of people eating was probably unnecessary

- Wine chosen was unavailable, offered alternative for £6 more, reasonable bottle

- Starters (blue cheese souffle) was ready prepared and reheated, lacked substance. Chicken terrine very nice

- Mains - Lambs liver, asked for medium but was a little overdone and roasted vegetables quite oily. My wife asked for Boeuf Bourgignon but said she didnt like mashed potato, and asked for side of boiled potatoes. Still arrived at table with mash seeping into the sauce

- No alternative vegetables on side orders unless you like mashed carrot and swede

- Skipped dessert. Went for cheese board. 4 generous portions of rather tasteless offerings. Nothing to write home about

- Coffee, not bad

All in, nearly £120 for very underrated fare and hit and miss service.

Little things such as basically not listening to simple requests (no mash please but turning up with mash / saying we didn't need someone to pour our wine but the waiter hovering every two minutes to top you up) all added to quite a disappointing dinner.

Monsieur Blanc's high standards are not obviously being adhered to, which is a shame as he has a nice room in a great location and with his background it shouldnt be hard to get the basics right.

Won't be heading back in a rush, there's plenty more out there in the City much better quality.
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Harry Monk
5 Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 4
Tuesday, January 10, 2012

I have dined at Blanc in the City half a dozen times or so now and I am always amazed at how consistently good it is. The service is the friendliest in the city by a mile (No pun intended) and the food is absolutely lovely. I love the seasonality of the menu and the freshness of the food is outstanding. On this occasion we had a fantastic platter to start followed by perfectly cooked duck and Cornish mackerel that were the best I have ever tasted.

The wine list is reasonably sized and of a good price range £15 - £200 with some very nice bottles. I don’t often bother to write reviews but I was prompted to by one of my clients who said that he had never heard of the place but was so impressed he would be a regular and would be speaking to the manager to request MY favourite table... I don’t think so buddy.

As we left the manager said "thank you gentleman, See you tomorrow". He could be right!
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Jasper - View all reviews by this user
10 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Three of us went and were all disappointed. The standard of cooked food is just not good enough. In particular, the smoked salmon/haddock fishcakes served were abysmal. The chocolate tart for dessert could have been purchased in any supermarket --and it wouldn't have cost £6 a slice.

This is a very blatant attempt to cash in on Raymond's TV fame. My advice: save up your money and head to Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons in Oxford and get the real thing.
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Seany
2 Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 2 | Value for money 0
Thursday, February 24, 2011

We went here last night for the first time. Having read and heard mixed reviews we weren't sure what to expect, but assumed anything associated with Blanc's name surely would be excellent... unfortunately this wasn't the case at all. I had the cheese souffle to start, which was okay but not in the least bit mind blowing, then the dab (a British flatfish for those not in the know!) which was exceptionally dull. My husband started with the mussels, then the tiger prawns (which looked magnificent but were tragically over cooked). To be honest, the best part of both our dishes were the accompanying fries & mayo, oh, actually the rocket & parmesan salad was good. We chose not to have dessert for fear of further disappointment. What a terrible shame about this place - the lovely Mr Blanc should hang his head in shame! Our Madagascan waitress (Alison, I think) was a joy but we won't ever see her again because we absolutely won't be returning.
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Annabel
4 Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 4 | Value for money 4
Thursday, January 20, 2011

I went to Brasserie Blanc last night for a friend's birthday dinner, wish I had read the reviews before booking.

We chose the £18 for 3 courses menu and every single one of the dishes was disappointing. The grilled pear starter with rocket and parmesan was frankly awful - the pear was hard and there were about 3 slivers of parmesan. Most of us chose the grilled trout - so much for tasting the food before it goes out - totally bland and underseasoned, potatoes hard, everything crying out for a sauce.

To add insult to injury when it came time to pay, we were presented with a bill where they had charged us individually for every dish instead of the set menu we had ordered, which put the cost at £37 per head. We were not well pleased with that and finally after sending the bill back twice we were charged correctly.

I find it amazing that Raymond Blanc would put his name to the food that was coming out of that kitchen. Very disappointing experience which will never be repeated.
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RG - View all reviews by this user
3 Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 4 | Atmosphere 4 | Value for money 2
Wednesday, August 25, 2010

I've now been 3 times, always on a week night, found the food excellent. Service first time bit off but last two times it was excellent, perhaps they had read earlier reviews. The meal deal is good, but try the rump steak on the al la carte, melts in your mouth. Desserts were mouth-watering too. Give it a try, I really don't think you will be disappointed with anything.
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Christine Bates
9 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 9
Wednesday, August 18, 2010

I tried Blanc's new London branch of his 'Brasserie Blanc' chain just the other day. After the website I was hoping for decent, well priced and hearty modern French food - ideal for a quick lunch with my three dining chums I thought.

Service was acceptable to start off with, if not a little slow, but it did take them an age to ask us for our drinks which became very annoying as the minutes edged by.

Myself and a friend shared the Cheese Fondue as a starter - this was described as a mixture of Gruyere, Emmental, Kirsch and white wine. After the first try it was all too apparent that the mixture had far too much booze in it; the heady mixture of cheese and excessive wine was over-powering thus rendering it impossible to eat. We sent it back. The replacement arrived quickly and was far more palatable. Mains came and went - The Veal was delicious (if not a little on the small side), the Fish Cake was also good, but the Selection Board (pork rillettes, smoked salmon, salami, etc) was unispiring and bland (expect for the salmon).

As an apology for the fondue mistake coffee was on the house, which was an expectable gesture. We left without tipping and were greeted with disdain by those who served us - that really was the final nail in the coffin of what was a drab, so-so meal which had the promise of being very reasonable!
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FlyingHuskies
4 Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 4
Saturday, May 08, 2010

Thought I would try out another new addition to the city, so went down for an early lunch today. It's only been open a few weeks and it still looks nice and new, a bit too many Mr Blanc books and goodies to buy on display for my liking.

Now on to the menu, if im honest I found it very middle of the road and unimaginative, nothing wrong with that but just had dishes that you can get in every other restaurant in town. We shared a platter to start which had some cold meats, pates and salads on it. We followed this with another starter each, a rather bland Caesar salad with chicken and a slightly better asparagus poached egg and Hollandaise sauce.

The wine list was short but had a good choice by the glass and was pretty good value, we had a glass each.

Service was fine nothing more, was expecting French staff but the team seemed to be mostly Italian.

Overall £45 for 4 starters and 2 glasses of wine, not bad value but I doubt I will be returning, just to average in every aspect.
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Chris - View all reviews by this user
6 Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 6
Friday, April 23, 2010