Le Colombier – a long-standing London treasure of particular interest to French-wine-loving bargain-hunters.
Reservations in restaurants depend on a number of different factors. Availability; increasingly, your speed online; and, perhaps most of all, the agreement of all the parties as to the mutually agreeable date as to when this breakfast, lunch or dinner should take place.
It was my failure on the last point that left me feeling pretty stupid as I sat waiting for 15 minutes at Table 9, a lovely corner table in Le Colombier restaurant between South Kensington and Chelsea, expecting a friend who never appeared.
At that time I decided to look at my emails and discovered my mistake. I had asked him to join me on Thursday 30 June while I was there and waiting for him on the 29th. In my consternation, I knocked over my glass of Punt e Mes.
But at least I was able to put the 15 minutes before I realised this to good use, by reading the restaurant’s wine list. Putting to one side that this list is entirely French, it is magnificent, not just in what it lists but in its pricing. Le Colombier’s owner, Didier Garnier, believes in buying early, buying heavily, and applying a cash margin to his cost price, a tactic which means that the older the wines, the less expensive they seem.
Garnier’s other wine-buying principle is to cater for all tastes. There is a large array of half-bottles, with more than 30 from Bordeaux – far more than I have seen anywhere else for many years – as well as an excellent range of magnums (‘only two bottles’, as this list proclaims) from the Rhône, Bordeaux and Burgundy.
Initially, my eye was caught by the offer of a bottle of Trimbach’s Cuvée Frédéric Émile 2013 for £85 and I was honing my arguments in favour of this wine when I realised that my friend would not be joining me. Then, perforce, my attention shifted to their list of half-bottles and I noticed a half of Chassagne-Montrachet 2018 Les Masures from Jean-Noël Gagnard, which I felt could take in the strong flavours of both the first and main courses I had, at least mentally, chosen.
I had chosen to eat here for the principal reason that on their list of very French first courses – steak tartare, oeufs pochés en meurette, salade d’endives aux Roquefort et aux noix – there is a dish that incorporates one of my favourite fish, but in a form rarely seen anywhere, especially in the UK. It is described on the menu as ‘sardines “La Quiberonnaise” millesimé 2019 with peanut oil, lemon and onions’, all for £13.30.
They arrive, in their bright yellow tin, whose base has been opened on a plate on to which the peanut oil is already seeping. As you remove the tin, the 10 or so closely packed sardines fall out with more oil and are ready for eating. They may not exactly stretch the kitchen’s cooking skills but are absolutely delicious and extremely easy to enjoy. Their heads have been removed and their bones have disintegrated over time. It is well worth reading the producer’s website for full details. The bread basket, which arrived within seconds of my sitting down, comprising half thinly sliced baguette and half toasted baguette, provided the vehicle for mopping up the sardines as well as the peanut oil.
This is a dish that I would call a ‘restaurateur’s dish’ rather than a ‘chef’s dish’, one that has been seen and enjoyed elsewhere and then replicated by the clever restaurateur. In this case, Garnier first saw these sardines on the menu at Brasserie Lipp in Paris, investigated and has been buying them directly from the source ever since. ‘When I started, these sardines were even smaller but these are just as delicious now in my opinion’, Garnier told me. It reminded me of the potted shrimps I used to buy directly for L’Escargot from James Baxter in Morecambe Bay, Lancashire. They may not show off the kitchen’s culinary prowess but they do exhibit the restaurateurs’ thoughtfulness.
Like the sardines, all the main courses on the menu are very French. The menu interested me in that there is no cover charge (hurray!); secondly, it specifies the origin of the meat that is not French (the beef is Scottish, the veal chop is Dutch); and there is a translation of cooking terms, from bleu (very rare, almost raw) to bien cuit (well done).
Although tempted by a special of the day, a fillet of turbot with lemon butter, I stuck with another favourite, a fricassée of veal kidneys with a mustard cream sauce, a dish that to me exemplifies the best of French cooking. I finished off with a chaud-froid aux amandes, a dish of cold ice cream alongside a jug of warm chocolate sauce. I paid my bill of £111.78 happily, though regretting the absence of conversation.
Such a comprehensive immersion in the manner in which the French enjoy their food and drink does not come without a lot of application and hard work. Garnier, today a sprightly 66 and not present on the night I was (he was at Wimbledon, where the tennis was excellent and the food less so) first came to London to work as a waiter at the renowned Brasserie St Quentin in Knightsbridge, before establishing Le Colombier in 1998.
It was formerly a pub, The Princess of Wales, that had been bought by bon viveur Nicky Kerman, from whom Garnier eventually bought it, thus proving my contention that, in London at least, the best corner sites invariably are pubs. It has changed little over the years: the terrace with its blue awning and chairs that evoke the sunny south of France has proved to be extremely popular.
The interior is so well upholstered that it is extremely difficult not to overhear the conversation at other tables (especially of course if you are dining alone). The tablecloths are linen, the curtains are thick, the banquette, which runs round one entire side of the interior, is extremely comfortable and well padded. Some of the topics that my ears caught were: that Chinese stocks are now so inexpensive that they may well be good value; water rations may affect my neighbour’s second home in Chiantishire; and another table’s dealings with an escrow account. These highly unusual, user-friendly acoustics – certainly by today’s standards – are another reason why this long-standing restaurant continues to appeal to a well-heeled clientele who have grown old as Le Colombier has stayed resolutely youthful.
When I spoke to Garnier a few days later, he sounded despondent only when I asked him about Brexit. ‘It has made everything much more difficult’, he sighed, ‘particularly the hiring of French staff.’ With this I drew a comparison between Garnier and chef Giorgio Locatelli, whose 20-year-old restaurant, Locanda Locatelli, I reviewed so favourably a few weeks ago. Both Locatelli and Garnier came to London as young men, stayed and have left their distinctive, and indelible, marks on this, their adopted city, ever since. How will the UK attract such talented individuals in the future?
Le Colombier 145 Dovehouse Street, Chelsea Square, London SW3 6LB; tel: +44 (0)20 7351 1155. Closed Sunday and Monday.