Frenchie Covent Garden

Gregory Marchand’s cool but smart London outpost has long been regarded as one of Covent Garden’s best. The area around the piazza can be a tricky place to find good, well-priced food but Frenchie is ever-reliable and delicious, with a menu built on a foundation of classic Anglo-French cooking.

Nantes-born Marchand was previously head chef at Fifteen, where Jamie Oliver gave him the nickname Frenchie. Today he operates a mini-empire on Rue du Nil in Paris, (a restaurant, wine bar, wine shop and Frenchie To Go), plus this smart London eatery which features bare bricks, marble tops and elegant lighting, as well as an open kitchen downstairs that’s great for private dining.

When you visit, don’t miss a handful of dishes that have been on the menu for many years, because they’re that good. Wolf down a bacon and maple syrup scone with clotted cream, then order another, because they're that good. The slow-cooked lamb ragu with pappardelle and Kalamata olives is another classic that never leaves the menu, the savoury richness balanced by a citrus hit of confit lemon.

After that, you can roam the eclectic billing – most things are rooted in classicism, but with little details that lift and enhance. Take a gorgeous, flaky tranche of turbot for example, where the cockle beurre blanc is straight from a textbook, but the yuzu puree comes flying in from the Far East, providing fruity acidity that elevates the whole dish. Accompanying wines are pitch-perfect, and a pair of desserts - a fabulous blood orange tartlet and an airy dome of deconstructed banoffee pie - show that there’s talent in the pastry kitchen too.

The restaurant was busy when we visited, on a Wednesday night no less - it seems Frenchie’s reputation as one of London’s most consistently excellent restaurants is alive and well.

Frenchie Covent Garden is chef Gregory Marchand's London outpost - Marchand owns a number of 'Frenchie' businesses in Paris on the Rue du Nil that includes a wine bar, a restaurant, a wine shop and a takeaway grocery, and the Covent Garden restaurant mirrors the Paris restaurant, which itself has a Michelin star. Marchand was born in Nantes and has worked in a number of well-known kitchens, most notably as previous chef of Jamie Oliver's Fifteen restaurant (it was Oliver who gave Marchand the nickname Frenchie, which has become the name of his small restaurant empire). 

You'll find Frenchie near the Covent Garden piazza, on a cobbled street. The restaurant itself is deceptively large - insidem a combination of exposed brickwork, marble table tops and moody, low-pitched lighting gives Frenchie a classic, relaxed fine dining vibe. The dining room extends a long way back, and then downstairs into a basement which often hosts private dining and large groups. On the right, a marble-topped counter provides ample room for counter dining and for visitors to drop in for a glass of wine or a cocktail. 

Marchand's cooking is rooted in classic French technique, but he has worked all over the world and gleans influences from his time in England, and also from spells across Europe and even as far as Hong Kong. The menu is recognisably French, but there are touches of flair in dishes like smoked sea bream carpaccio with chive sabayon, strawberries and jalapeño, and salt-baked pork neck with grilled courgette and harissa. There are some dishes that are almost permanently on the menu, such is their popularity, such as the bacon scone with maple syrup and Cornish clotted cream, and the lamb ragu pappardelle with Kalamata olive and confit lemon. 

The wine list is extensive too, and Frenchie's mixologists mix up some intriguing cocktails too, like a bacon Old Fashioned. Always busy and consistently great, Frenchie has become one of London's must-visit restaurants.