Chanterelle

we were very dissapointed with this restaurant and fully agree with the previous review.

the set menu we had was of very poor quality and represented very poor value. Like the other reviewer, we are local to the restaurant and would be delighted if it was a hit.

The starter we had came with burnt melba toast, and the beef wellington is far from traditional - more like a beef burger to be honest. the cheese selection and assorted desserts came without introductions so we were unsure of what we had been given.

some parts of the restaurant looked unfinished and throughout the meal we heard shouts and swearing coming from the kitchen which clearly affected the mood of our meal.

overall, the staff were stretched and the service was below average. The food was extremely dissapointing and severely overpriced.

There are plenty of much better restaurants in Twickenham - you could try Zizzi's or even Pizza Express! even these chains produce a much better quality of food than Chanterelle.
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2 Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 1
Sunday, February 20, 2011

Local restauranteur John McClements tried various formats on this site, none of which flourished recently and it seems he has now sold the site. It is early days but this new restaurant does not seem to be very busy either. We had dinner the other night and, unless it improves, we won't be helping to keep it going.

The room has been modestly refurbished. Reasonably attractive but with signs of poor workmanship and things not quite finished off properly. Some of the restaurant's literature describes the place as "Le Chanterelle". I'm not a fluent French speaker and I am willing to stand corrected, but I am pretty sure chanterelle is a feminine noun. Which starts to cast doubt on French pedigree of the place.

The menu is conventional French stuff. For me a good good thing if well executed, but this wasn't. It's not that it is bad. It is just that the food is not good enough to make a positive impression. And around the edges there is poor attention to detail that leaves an overall impression of pointlessness.

It was hot day and reasonably decent bread was brought with butter that was all but liquified. How hard would it be to keep it in the fridge? A starter of confit of duck salad was enormous. The duck was pretty good, the dressing on the salad was nasty. Chanterelle soup was good but with no evidence of the promised truffle oil.

A main course of Poulet de Bresse consisted of overcooked, tasteless, very dry chicken with a rather cloying oversweet sauce. The fish pananche was unremarkable and came with an artichoke heart which just did not fit with the rest of the dish (and wasn't very pleasant either)

We didn't try the puddings.

Service was fine but the waiter was overstretched despite the place being far from full.

I'd really like the place to succeed, there is not much choice of good restaurants in the area. But I fear it will not unless it improves significantly.
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5 Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 6
Sunday, July 04, 2010