Le Café Anglais - Bayswater, Thursday September 27th, 2012

Picture Stockholm on a mild late-summer evening. If you haven't been there it's not hard, just picture pristine urban cleanliness and relaxed hubbub. Imagine strolling the quayside of a sun-soaked harbour, past verdant flowerbeds and parks, until you get to the most opulent-looking restaurant. It's refined, elegant and grandiose. You're prepared for some seriously authentic local fare. And you get Asian food.

The restaurant itself, part of the Berns Hotel, was actually pretty nice. On a business trip, our generous and welcoming hosts had arranged dinner for us at one of the more exclusive spots in the city. In the event, the food was rather good. For Asian fare it was competitive with some of the better places in London. Where at first I felt surprised, I eventually felt quite satisfied.

Such incongruity is more common in London than many other European cities in my experience. Probably because we are so ashamed of our own cuisine. How many times have you been inside a beautiful-looking local venture to find the menu advertising something totally different to what you expected? Thai restaurants inside local English pubs are a common example.

With this sort of experience in mind, you would expect Le Café Anglais to be something of a play on French or modern European food inside a place purporting to be English in name only. It is too big, too polished and in too nice a part of town to be something genuinely English, surely? It turns out the name is no misnomer. Set up by Rowley Leigh, Le Café is indeed English in its roots, its ethos and its menu. More or less...

A friend was in town and she, the wife and I wanted some proper English grub to celebrate. The menu at Le Café is a confusing read because it's one of those spread across an enormous sheet of card. Any menu this size usually suggests the meal to come is not going to be the best but when you take a look at what's on the menu here, it's another story. My starter was a triumph of Englishness: smoked eel and bacon salad (left). Silkily smooth cold fish with some dressing to balance, topped with crispy bacon over a bed of crunchy bitter leaves is something that works a treat as long as the produce is fresh and this certainly was.

Both the wife and our friend opted for the less local-sounding cep mushroom risotto (right). Nothing wrong with a bit of risotto, of course, but does it really fit the bill on a night like this? I have pondered this question since the meal and the answer is: it does. Risotto doesn't have to be Italian in every way, especially if it is made with local produce, as this was. The rice itself was lovely. Both ladies enjoyed it immensely and there is little more to say than that.

To go with our starters, I practically insisted we sample some of the enticing hors d'oeuvres as they were listed (again, the message was lost at times with all the French on the menu). Parmesan custard with anchovy toast (for the sheer audaciousness of it alone) and kipper paté with soft-boiled egg (for the absolute traditional allure) were both ordered to come with the starters (left). The custard was a strange one, with perfect consistency and texture almost ruined by the fact that it was parmesan-flavoured. It tasted pretty good but this was a dish where the idea had overtaken the taste. Not bad but not much to write home about. The paté was better, having a more robust punch to it, combining nicely with the egg and melba toast on the side.

Several options on the main course menu appealed and the wife went for something as perfectly English and suitable as one could order from such a menu in September: grouse with bread sauce, game chips and gravy (left & right). I might not usually reserve space for a photo of a side dish but the chips themselves (as game chips should be, closer to crisps) with perfect bread sauce really made this dish. The wife enjoyed the bird, stuffed with watercress. I think the idea of the greens is to counter the strong, gamy flavour of the grouse but I always find it something of an inconvenience.

Now our friend unfortunately did indulge in some total incongruity with her main course. Clearly the most outlandish choice on the menu was the roast duck with bok choy, pineapple and chilli (left). Almost an entirely Asian dish in terms of construction and flavour profile, it made little sense to have it on the menu. In the event, she was a little lost as the dish arrived. It was a very nice piece of duck but with the accompaniments it seemed a waste of the restaurant's strengths and tradition.

My main course was one the restaurant should have delivered with flying colours and I was impressed with the rustic autumnal wholesomeness of roast partridge with cabbage and bacon (right). Beautifully carved and somehow delicately plated to allow the vegetables to soak in the rich game juices, this is British eating sadly less common than it should be in modern London. Everything was cooked expertly and the flavours were a comforting mixture of salty, savoury and rich.

Desserts (as should be the case on any British menu) were enticing and a lemon tart was a perfectly reasonable place to start (left). This was just about right in terms of gelatinous consistency, sharp-sweet flavour and crumbly crust. There is a pure, beautiful simplicity to a proper lemon tart and this was certainly one.

My dessert was one which stood out on the menu: raspberry soufflé with red berry sorbet (right). I tend to think raspberry is about the best type of soufflé one can order because the dessert itself - an innately sweet thing - needs that slight hint of acidity and sourness to balance it. This was perfectly even, with the pudding risen excellently, the flavour of delicious red fruit a divine constant. Whilst I would usually always prefer an ice cream over sorbet, this worked perfectly with the extra water content in the side dish allowing for a more potent punch of fruit flavour. It was a memorable and wonderful dessert.

The wife was instantly drawn to the panna cotta as she tends to be whenever it is on the menu (left). This was supposed to come with roasted figs but she is not a fan and so asked the restaurant to change the accompaniment. Chocolate ice cream was the substitute choice and a damn fine one it was too. The panna cotta itself was a little too firm for me but she enjoyed it wholeheartedly and whilst not totally British in its conception, it complemented the meal as a naturally lighter dessert.

Having tried ten separate dishes between us, it was a pretty good evening's work. We were all happy with what the restaurant had turned out and it generally trod the line between traditional British cuisine with more modern interpretations of British ideas very well. The duck was a red herring (metaphorically) but all else varied between enjoyable and excellent.

The clever name and swanky location are both slight misdirects for Le Café Anglais. It is a very properly-run, laid back restaurant. There is much to be said in upmarket London for restaurants serving genuine British food at affordable prices. It might be the simplest idea in the world but that also makes it hard to get right. On balance, Le Café Anglais is certainly doing so.

Le Café Anglais