BLANCHETTE, SOHO

It is so hard to write this blog at the moment as I am currently doing the How To Lose A Stone In A Week Diet and I really don't want to think about yummy, scrummy delicious food!! Thankfully I am only doing three days of the diet and I stop tomorrow….so far I have lost 3.5lbs in two days….and no doubt I will put it all back on Wednesday as it's Pascal's birthday and we are off to Gola.

Anyway I have had a good month of eating (hence the diet) and last week Pascal and I went to try Blanchette in Soho. I had read about it and loved that it is French tapas - perfect as I always find there are too many good things on a menu and at least with tapas you can order more!!

We arrived at the restaurant at 2pm on a Wednesday and Pascal immediately turned his nose up as it wasn't what he was expecting - from looking at the website he had imagined something much smarter. I dragged him in and luckily they had one table for two left. As soon as we sat down and Pascal surveyed the surroundings he realised he had been quick to judge and he actually loved the place - very quaint and cute - it was filled with old french "artefacts" albums, books, pictures displayed in a rustic environment.

We ordered a couple of drinks and studied the menu. The concept of the restaurant is sharing small French family style dishes with charcuterie plates, homemade terrines, oysters, cheese and so on.

The menu was fantastic - so much to choose from, it was really hard not to over do it. Most importantly we ordered a bottle of rose from Provence which was delicious.

Then to start we had bread and butter and saucisson with hazelnuts. We wanted the saucisson with truffles but they didn't have it unfortunately. I was initially disappointed as I love truffles but the saucisson we had was amazing, served with a celeriac coleslaw and cornichons - we wiped the plate clean.

We also wanted the homemade terrine but they didn't have that either so went for the duck rillettes instead and I have to say, it was the best rillettes I have ever had, so soft and it literally melted in your mouth.

We then also had the cheese beignets with onion confit. These were Pascal's favourite - they were so light and fluffy. I would have preferred the croque monsieur but it was worth it to see Pascal thinking he was literally eating Heaven!!

For mains I chose the warm confit of salmon with duck, puy lentils and herbs. The salmon was seared and lightly cooked but still pink in the middle and tasted so fresh - my only complaint was the pieces of duck were minute and so you couldn't really taste them. It was still all delicious though.

Pascal ordered the chou farci of braised beef shin with spring vegetables - I thought this was a random choice but obviously I do not know French food as well as I like to think…it was amazing - if you go here, you have to have this.

To round the meal off we had fries with béarnaise - the sauce was so good, we had to order another one!!

Unfortunately we had no room for cheese which was a major bummer as they had such a good selection but I know we will be here again soon and I can get stuck in then. If you like French food, definitely pay a visit but book a table as this is already a very popular place.

Blanchette

9 D'Arblay Street
London
W1F 8DR
Tel: 020 7439 8100
Email: info@blanchettesoho.co.uk