La Fromagerie

I wanted to love this place. It had everything I look for - a location that makes you feel you've found a hidden treasure, barrels of wine, delicious smelling food, cosy seating, newspapers, good music......but I was desperately disappointed with my visit on Sunday 16th September.

We were greeted and seated, shown the menus and promptly asked for our order (not one smile was offered during the whole time). They didn't have my first choice, nor my second. When my third choice arrived, I noticed that there was just one lone prawn in my £8.95 prawn salad. I brought this to the attention of the waitress who went to investigate. A different person came back and explained that they were low on prawns but that she managed to find me one - and gave it to me on a separate plate! I intimated that this wasn't really acceptable - and she said she'd talk to the manager about a discount. To be honest, if I order a prawn salad, I'd like to eat some actual prawns - not be offered a discount. However, when the bill came and I noticed that no such discount was offered. The waitress came over and said that they would take 50p off. 50p!? Please...That's wrong on so many levels!

This restaurant was a disappointment as it has so many things going for it - but what it has in quality of food and wine, it lacks in ambience and basic customer service.
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Emily
Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 2
Tuesday, September 18, 2007

I had heard about this place from an ex-colleague who lives in the neighbourhood. He had praised it saying he treats it as his own kitchen, together with a handful of other restaurants in Marylebone. I was slightly dubious about going there myself because we belong to the opposite ends of the financial polestick - he is a millionnaire while I am still paying off my student debts.

The place did however look affordable from the outside, less of a sit-down restaurant but more a casual cafe inside a cheeseshop. So one day I went with a colleague for lunch at around 12:30, and we were swiftly sat down on the long communal table in the middle. It was the only space they had; we found it a little uncomfortable to be squeezed between other people at such proximity (on one side was a French-speaking young attractive couple with two Blackberries each, on the other was a middle-aged woman eating alone clutching a Chanel handbag). It was also rather hot.

The amazing thing was that everybody else immediately knew what they were having. Those that arrived later than us ordered their favourite glass of wine and a plate of their favourite selection of cheese as soon as they sat down. I presume they were all repeat customers who live or work nearby. After some time looking at the menu we both decided to have a small plate of salad that they had displayed at the end of the table.

The salad was exquisite. Slices of chicken with roasted pumpkin, carrots, string beans and wild mushrooms. It came with a small portion of dressed green salad on the side. I would have loved to order the bigger plate, but spending £13 for a salad lunch was a bit too much for me. The small salad came to 9 pounds each with tap water, not enough to fill me up but the food was indeed gorgeous.

I suppose it is worth the price if we were sat on the separate table for two. I think I will come with my wealthy ex-colleague next time so I can order what I really like and eat until I am full.
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M
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 6
Tuesday, August 14, 2007

La Fromagerie is a treasure-trove of delicious cheese, excellent cold cuts of meat and yummy breads & desserts. It sits tucked away from the crowds of Marylebone High Street, and although one might have to wait 5-10 minutes for a table at lunchtime on a Saturday, there's plenty to look at (the cheese knives hanging high up on the wall look amazing, and the carrot cake looks sinfully good) and all the food displayed is redolent of continental delis and speciality shops. This is a place for those who love the pungent aromas of cheese, who appreciate a decent glass of wine with their food, and who value good service. It's unpretentious, down-to-earth and worth a visit any day of the week.
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SJ
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 9
Sunday, February 18, 2007

Marylebone is beautiful, in that sort of posh, Dickensian, could-never-afford-to-live-here-in-a-million-years sort of way.

So it is probably no great surprise that La Fromagerie was filled in every nook and cranny with greatly extortionate goods. You didn't want to even look at a stick of bread in case somebody put a twenty-pound price-tag around your neck.

Yet I'm sure the lovely residents of Marylebone are not as deterred by this as I was. For La Fromagerie is extremely popular, and we queued for quite some time to get a seat. Squashed together on a communual table, we felt like we must speak in hushed tones. People appeared to be frozen, utterly still, holding up forks of cheese as if in reverent worship of the Dairy Cow, or goat, or bacterium.

Now, I love my cheese. I love it so much in fact that I wouldn't think twice to have it in some form for breakfast, lunch and dinner if I could (and I sometimes do). But I did feel a little uncomfortable here. You would think I'd feel delightfully at home, surrounded by such fellow cheese lovers. Yet there was a detectable tang of snobbery in the air - no, it wasn't the cheese. Perhaps it was just paranoia on my part, or perhaps it was the communual table (though there are tables for two available but these are v. popular). But service was slow and unattentive and being a vegetarian, there is a LOT of meat served in this restaurant. Raw drapes of it were everywhere. Less meat, more cheese, would be my mantra.

Onto the cheese. It was all lovely, very delicious. There wasn't much bread but what there was was good. But none of the cheeses really grabbed me, really surprised me. And I'm quite a conservative cheese eater. But it all tasted like lots of things I've tried before. It would be good if they intermixed really surprising, adventurous cheeses with the more people-pleasing ones. Nevertheless, the cheeses, as I said, were very very good.

And the decor was pretty nice too, in a rustic sort of way. Informal, cafe-esque, and with a nicely cluttered feeling, surrounded by bottles of wine. It's just a shame this didn't abet the ambience.
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Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 6
Monday, December 12, 2005