A spot of lunch on a summery spring day rarely fails to satisfy – unless the lunch is awful – and in the middle of April (following a Cornish getaway at the start of the month), the other half and I rendezvoused for a quick bite during my lunch hour.
Villandry have just opened a new part of their affordable French brasserie/bistro chain in Chiswick, which is good. The bad thing is the building they moved into replaced Ground, a great burger joint that was miles better than the bafflingly popular Gourmet Burger Kitchen.
The food here is utterly unspectacular but highly adequate for a quick lunchtime in-and-out meal. Nothing we tried was bad, but similarly none of it was amazing. A mushroom and cream sauce assortment underneath puff pastry will always do the job, and the main courses weren’t too shabby either. A decent macaroni cheese gratin and some okay pork belly (a special of the day) didn’t massively spark the imagination, but weren’t bad at all.
A lemon tart for dessert later was pleasant enough – any halfway decent lemon tart should be – and was served with some crème fraiche. Unfortunately we had to wolf this one down a bit since I had to get back to work fairly sharpish, but it didn’t malign the meal unfairly.
The fare at Villandry is going to win no plaudits, but ruffle few feathers. And that’s what it’s trying to do. So that’s just great. Another useful addition to Chiswick’s array of eateries.
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