L'Escargot

Fabulous food, wonderful ambience, service and decor with fair pricing for such gorgeous french fine food.

This is my "go to" place. Food is always lovely, ambiance is calm and elegant but not snooty, staff are always amazing and attentive. Value wise, I think it's better than many other up market London restaurants.

Warm, cosy, old-school style with delicious cooking, friendly service and a lovely member club upstairs.

We were a party of six booked for Saturday evening at 8.45pm. We arrived a little early and went for a drink in the bar which is very nice. However, it took nearly 15 minutes for someone to come and take our drinks order and then a further 10 before they arrived. By this time our table still wasn't ready (8.55pm) and we were told it was available but still being set. 20 minutes later we were finally shown to our seats (we had clearly been lied to about the table being set) with no hint of an apology for them being over half an hour late. The food itself is fine - well cooked classics although somewhat expensive for the quality of the cooking itself (£21 for a dozen snails, £32 for a steak with no sides included). Also there is a cover charge of £2 per head which is pretty unusual for a restaurant such as this (all it got us was four slices of bread between the six of us) and a 'market leading' service charge of 14.5%. The services itself was patchy - attentive at points but disappointing at others (e.g. we ordered sparkling water and still arrived, when we pointed it out there was no apology and he just kept on pouring the water - also we ordered a bottle of white from the sommelier but when we wanted another we were told it had run out - for a party of 6 they should have let us know when we ordered it - in addition one of the coffees didn't arrive and then was charged twice on the bill). Nothing horrific but all in keeping with a sense that the waiting staff were more concerned about chatting amongst themselves and laughing at their own jokes than serving the customers. Would I go back? No - decent food and a good atmosphere (although very loud bass heavy music which felt a little out of keeping for a classic French restaurant) but the service seemed more for their benefit than ours, both on price and quality.

We came for the snails - where else ? and we were not disappointed. They were full of garlic and herbs and served with lovely crisp baguette. The lobster and avocado salad was delicious and for the price good value as we had quite a lot of lobster in it. Then Coq au vin and Beef Bourguignon - both delicious. The beef was especially good as it was a large piece braised in a very rich red wine sauce, rather than the normal little cubes. Then only one dessert - we shared a creme brulee which was a mistake as we should of had two ! The wine list is mainly French - we had two glasses of white Chateauneuf du Pape - which is unusual by the glass; the red's by the glass were uninspiring so we just had the house - which was acceptable. The service was very friendly. The decor is traditional French - a nice change from the contemporary style of most restaurants these days. It's a good place to go for a relaxed meal in comfortable surroundings.

L'Escargot is like a tardis! The frontage appears small from the road yet once inside the interior is huge and the decor is amazing. Unfortunately, we could only stay for a short time as going to the theatre. We plan to return soon and spend an evening at this restaurant. The food is good and we look forward to selecting from the full menu rather than the pre theatre menu. Service is also good and the waiting staff attentive.