Pierre Victorie

Pierre Victoire
5 Dean Street
London
W1D 3RQ
www.pierrevictoire.com
Date visited: Friday 12^th August 2011
Attendees: Myself, MBB and The Cheesemonger
Price of meal: approx £17 pp for 3 course set lunch menu, dessert and coffee

I had heard lots of good things about Pierre Victorie and as I had a money off voucher as it were and the Luncheon Club (as this little posse is lovingly known) were long overdue for a meeting; to Pierre Victorie we headed.

I arrived late and MBB and The Chessemonger were already seated at a decent sized table near the window in a very busy, buzzing but relaxed restaurant with a rustic French provincial bistro interior. The set menu is large and extensive, we were very pleased with it and as we gossiped and laughed a waiter came to take our order. I was most impressed with the speed and attention as we asked him to come back in 5 minutes as we were not ready to order and, top marks, he did despite it being a busy lunch time.

There was already a generous basket of bread on the table with lots of little packets of butter. The bread was fresh and we didn’t need to order more as it wasn’t one piece per person carefully placed to make it look like more, there was actually a lot of it – top marks again.

Starters:
Myself: Haddock and crab cakes with pickled shredded vegetables salad
MBB: Boullabaise soup
The Cheesemonger: Chicken liver parfait

The starters came in good time and we tucked into them. My haddock and crab cakes were small but tasty though I thought it was quite heavy on the pepper. The sweet pickled salad was a very good accompaniment to it. I enjoyed it lots and could have had more as a main course. MBB was very pleased with his boullabaise especially as it had decent sized chunks of seafood it in. The Cheesemonger enjoyed her starter too saying that “it might look like a mossy river bank but it’s actually very nice.”

Thumbs up all round and our plates were cleared away soon after we had finished.

Main Course:
Myself: Haddock gratin with spinach and hand cut chips
MBB: Beef bourguignon
The Cheesemonger: Roasted belly of pork with red cabbage and apples

My haddock gratin came in a little dish saturated in a butter cheese sauce on a wooden platter with chips on the side. The haddock was perfectly cooked, moist and had lots of flavour. The spinach was underneath the haddock so try as hard as I might I could not avoid consuming copious amounts of butter and cheese and damn it tasted nice! The chips were very good too and freshly made. To balance out the copious amounts of butter and cheese (I had to eat the spinach, its vegetable!) I consumed MBB and The Cheesemonger helped me out with the chips. MBB was pleased with his beef bourguignon, there were lots and lots of beef chunks and even a few green beans to add some colour and it tasted great. The Cheesemonger had a huge chunk of pork, it looked great and it tasted great too according to the Cheesemonger and I can well believe her.

Our empty plates were cleared away swiftly again and we were asked if we wanted dessert. Well the food so far had been so good, of course we were going to have dessert and coffee.

Dessert and coffee:
Myself: Sticky toffee pudding with vanilla ice cream and filtered white coffee
MBB: Chocolate mousse and cappuccino
The Cheesemonger: Moist amaretto tiramisu and filtered white coffee

There was a real dilemma for me whether I had banoffee pie or the sticky toffee pudding so I asked if I could see the banoffee pie to see if there was lots of cream it (I don’t like lots of cream). She brought it over and half of it was cream but it did look very tasty.

The sticky toffee pudding sponge was very light, not too sweet and very good. The vanilla ice cream was good and fairly standard. MBB’s chocolate mousse was very chocolaty and light and the Cheesemonger’s tiramisu’s was huge and tasted good and she enjoyed. Our coffees came soon after dessert with a little biscuit. Both were good thought I would have liked a bigger cup and I don’t think there was a difference between the cappuccino and filtered coffee.

Summary: I am definitely going to return to Pierre Victorie. The food is excellent and the portions are generous. Apart from the desserts it seemed mostly like genuine French bistro food. I can’t believe they are selling such great food for such low prices, no wonder it was packed at lunch and I bet it will be packed at dinner and be the same every day. The service is excellent; the staff are friendly, attentive and quick. This restaurant is close to perfect, perhaps even more so than the Michelin starred restaurants I’ve been to mainly because the service is so good.

UPDATE!!!

Dear reader,
It is with great sadness, a tear in my eyes and a heavy heart that I must report the following news…

I took The Quiff, Apple Geek, Apple Geek’s German cousin and the Cyclist to Pierre Victorie this evening as I thought they would really like it – this being the best restaurant I have been to and knowing it would suit all tastes and prices.

Well we arrived at 6pm, when the table was booked. I didn’t think it would be busy as it was early. It was busy but not heaving, our table was waiting and a fresh and generous bread basket as I knew there would be. Anyway, the waiter came twice for our order but we weren’t ready. By the third attempt we were. Only 3 of us where having starters and these came in good time and were delicious as expected. We had all ordered mains and this is where the problems began. IT took too long for our mains to come and Apple Geek did not appreciate this. And with a heavy heart I must, in all honesty agree. It was too long to wait and I guess it was also more noticable as we were on a time budget (The Quiff, Apple Geek and the German cousin had a train to catch) and Apple Geek didn’t have a starter. The waiter did come up eventually, probably because he could see we were agitated, to apologise and tell us our food was coming. When the food did come it was delicious and a good size portion as expected. BUT oh! the 2 beef bourguignon mains we had did not have french beans as MBB’s had when I first dining at the restaurant!

We then order dessert. There should have been enough time to get dessert and not rush to the station. But alas, it took a while for the waiter to come and take our order and a while for it to come. The coffee never arrived and so we cancelled it and got the bill.

Oh dear  – the service was one of the best things about Pierre Victorie and the service is still good – they are still friendly and good, it was just the food took too long to come. To defend my favourite restaurant, I think the wait wasn’t too long, we just felt it more because we were on a time budget. Just like the time we were at The Terrace restaurant, but that really was a long wait and no apology!

Summary: I will definitely be back, the slight wait has not put me off, everything else was still excellent!