Gavroche W1

London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates
Central London: Westminster, Victoria and Pimlico

Le Gavroche, London W1

Restaurant (Independent)
43 Upper Brook Street W1K 7QR
T 020 7408 0881 w www.le-gavroche.co.uk
Open 1200-1400 (Not Sat-Sun), 1830-2300 (Closed Sun).
Cask beer None, Other beer 9 (Fuller’s, international), Also World class wine list, specialist whiskies and brandies
Food Haute cuisine. No disabled toilet but access via lift in adjoining hotel.

Given that Michel Roux’s double Michelin starred Mayfair restaurant boasts an astonishing wine list with over a thousand entries, including top Bordeaux and Burgundy vintages at four figure prices, it seems like being thankful for small mercies to dwell on the beer offerings that makes up the last page of the substantial volume that thuds onto your table. But Le Gavroche makes an effort that so few establishments in its bracket bother with, and the list does include some serious choices like Fuller’s Vintage and Rochefort 8 as well as the likes of Duvel and Innis & Gunn.

Food is top class inventive French cooking that’s still reckoned to be among the best in London; a potentially challenging cellar space has been rendered charmingly attractive with fresh flowers and sparkling utensils; staff are polite but warm and attentive. Of course you’ll pay for the privilege – the dinner tasting menu clocks in at £100 and the beer sells for at least twice the price you’d pay in a pub. And it was especially disappointing to overhear a waiter respond to an enquiry about the beers on offer by suggesting Kronenbourg – I doubt they’d suggest branded Chardonnay as a first choice wine. If a place like this can manage a beer list, surely others further down the gastronomic pecking order should see the opportunity, as this is one area where it wouldn’t take much to better M Roux.

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