Le Petit Bistro, Guernsey

On their recent trip to visit offshore accounts in Guernsey, Mr Oil and Mr Vinegar spent an enjoyable evening at Le Petit Bistro, one of the island’s best restaurants.

MrO: Fond as I am of English cooking, particularly at this time of year when game birds are in season, nothing quite beats a really good French bistro.
MrV: I know what you mean, although I don’t understand the need to pack people in so tightly they knock over each others’ glasses every time they shift in their seats.
MrO: Did that happen to you?
MrV: No but it very nearly did. And why do French waiters find our every request comical?
MrO: I think they view English pronunciations of French words as quite funny.
MrV: Then they shouldn’t be in Guernsey. There isn’t even the slightest attempt by any of the locals to pronounce French words in a frenchie sort of way. When I asked that taxi driver to take us to La Grande Mare golf club, he said: “Do what? Ohhh, you mean the Grand Mayor.” Admirable fortitude, really, that close to France.
MrO: Le Petit Bistro was the only place we ate where most of the staff weren’t eastern European. Considering how difficult it is to get residency in the Channel Islands, I wonder how all the Poles and so forth manage to work there?
MrV: They’re cheap, that’s all. If there’s one thing the Channel Islanders understand it’s saving money. It’s clear from driving around Guernsey that building ugly houses must be much less expensive than building pretty ones, for there are virtually no attractive homes there.
MrO: The restaurant was quite pretty.
MrV: Yes, that bit of St Peter Port has an old town feel to it – probably is the old town, although the brochures all say it’s medieval when most of the buildings look Victorian or possibly Georgian.
MrO: There’s also quite a lot of classic Breton architecture.
MrV: Whatever that may be. Anyway, let’s talk about the food.
MrO: It was a marvellous array of bourgeois French classics, wasn’t it? The oysters were excellent.
MrV: So were the frogs’ legs in lemon and parsley butter. What was the filet de boeuf Rossini with foie gras like?
MrO: Exceptional. Cooked to perfection. And the chips were as good as any I’ve ever had.
MrV: I wish I’d had the steak. There was nothing wrong with my moules mariniere, of course, but yours looked so much better. You might have offered me a taste.
MrO: You should have chosen more wisely.
MrV: Come to think of it, your main course cost £10 more than mine. I think you should pay me back.
MrO: Well, in that case you probably ought to pay me for the disparity in our wine consumption.
MrV: Nonsense, you drank just as much as me. Talking of the wine, though, it was pretty good value, wasn’t it?
MrO: Just as well given the amount you drank.
MrV: I drank exactly the amount that the occasion required. That Ropiteau shiraz house rosé was pretty good at £4.25 a glass. I’m not familiar with burgundy rosé but on the evidence of that one I’ll be having another look.
MrO: You were also quite partial to the Chablis.
MrV: A bit of 1er Cru Chablis always goes down well but it was far more expensive than anything else we drank during our stay.
MrO: It did rather stand out at £29.95 a bottle. Funny, one wouldn’t think twice about paying that in London.
MrV: As I’ve said before, booze is really cheap here and it doesn’t seem to have created a drink epidemic. Though if I lived here I’d have to drink all the time just to deal with the boredom.
MrO: You do drink all the time. And I barely got a look-in at that bottle of Chateau du Bois Chantant claret you ordered.
MrV: Well, it was so cheap - £21.25 - I thought I’d better knock it back before they upped the prices. It was very good. I’ve tried to find some in London but with no luck.
MrO: My chocolate brownie with white chocolate Chantilly and chocolate macaroon was very fine indeed.
MrV: Unfortunately, I made another poor choice. The melon in four ways – mousse, poached, gazpacho and sorbet – was largely inedible apart from the sorbet.

Mr Oil and Mr Vinegar ate three courses each and drank two glasses of rosé, a bottle of white and a bottle of red, at a total cost of about £135.

Le Petit Bistro
56 Lower Pollet
St Peter Port
Guernsey
GY1 1

Tel: 01481 725 055
info@petitbistro.co.uk
http://www.petitbistro.co.uk