Boudin Blanc, Mayfair

Mr Oil and Mr Vinegar visit Le Boudin Blanc in Shepherds Market, accompanied by a friend.

MrO: This is a fine place to start off our column, don’t you think?
MrV: What, the local Frenchie? Hardly grandeur, is it?
MrO: I didn’t think we were going to be terribly grand. I thought the plan was to inform Alphaville readers where the best places are and where to avoid, primarily in London, where we spend most of our time.
MrV: My plan is to drink plenty of good wine in exchange for putting up with your endless stream of unction.
MrO: There’s no need to be rude. Anyway, I must say, I’m never disappointed there. It’s one of the few truly French restaurants in London.
MrV: Don’t be so stupid. Everywhere disappoints from time to time, some places a great deal more often than others. I’m disappointed all the time, every day. Like that waiter only bringing me six snails when I asked for a dozen.
MrO: It was a minor mistake, corrected immediately and I don’t seem to recall it impairing your enjoyment of them. Did you know that snails have to be purged for some time before you can eat them?
MrV: Shut up. Anyway, if that waitress hadn’t been, admittedly, rather sweet perhaps I would have been less sanguine about her performance.
Mr O: Well, I thought it all quite excellent. The oysters had a softer, less salty taste than most, which I prefer. I’m not aware of having had Jersey oysters before.
MrV: Really? And you put yourself forward as some sort of food expert? It quite sickens me how easily people are able to pose as experts in the media. Everyone knows about Jersey oysters. Anyone with any experience, that is.
Mr O: The veal cutlet was very good. It came with quite tangy sundried tomatoes and al dente courgettes. How was your entrecote steak?
MrV: Never mind my steak, your veal looked like it had a ruddy great green footprint on it.
MrO: That was NOT a footprint. I hope the chef doesn’t read this. That was a herb crust.
MrV: Then why wasn’t it crusty? It was propped up against the meat like a damp frisby against the garage wall. Did it taste crusty?
MrO: Well, no, but I’m not at all sure it was supposed to. Anyway, the rest of the dish was perfection. And your friend raved about his foie gras terrine and braised pork belly...
MrV: Lardy in a Cardy? He’d know about that all right. Thought he was supposed to be losing weight. Said the meat came away from the fat very easily – no one’s going to say that about him, are they? Did you notice he complained about how little crackling there was? Plenty on him. And he wouldn’t let the waitress take the cheese plate away until he’d finished every damned morsel and licked the cutlery.
Mr): You still haven’t told me about your steak.
MrV: It was fine. No complaints although there was that dreadful clatter when I was eating it...
MrO: Someone dropped a fork
MrV: ...and the atmosphere was hardly electrifying.
MrO: Well it was your suggestion to go out to lunch on a Monday – hardly the time to witness a restaurant at its buzziest. Anyway, the week before, when the sun was out, the place was heaving because of all the outside tables.
MrV: Smokers!
MrO: Sun-worshippers. If it had been that hot when we went I’d have had the ice cream for pudding. How was it?
MrV: Tasted a bit diluted by ice crystals in it. Not enough coffee flavour. You went for the cheese plate – exciting, was it?
MrO: Well...
MrV: Name all the cheeses, can you? Course not. They didn’t even ask you which ones you wanted. So you got Johnny Frenchman’s view of what British diners like – the blandest stuff on the trolley.
MrO: That’s not entirely fair. After all, I didn’t ask them what was on the trolley. I was glad there was some of that wine left to wash it down with, though.
MrV: Ah yes, the Chateau de Sales 2002 – I chose excellently.
MrO: Didn’t the wine waiter give you quite a lot of guidance there?
MrV: I let him think he did. Do you have to question my every thought and action? You’re like a lefty or a wife or something equally irritating.
MrO: Nonetheless, the place offers a fine example of bourgeois French cooking. You’d go back, wouldn’t you?
MrV: Oh, I suppose so.
The total cost for 3 first courses, 3 main courses, 1 dessert, 1 cheese plate, 3 glasses of champagne, 2 bottles of wine (at £75 each), 2 glasses of house claret and 1 glass of Poire William, including service, was about £240.

Le Boudin Blanc
5 Trebeck Street
Shepherds Market
Mayfair
London
W1J 7LT
0207 499 3292
reservations@boudinblanc.co.uk
http://www.boudinblanc.co.uk/
http://www.london-eating.co.uk/1970.htm
http://www.squaremeal.co.uk/restaurants/london/view/80280/Le_Boudin_Blanc
http://www.viewlondon.co.uk/restaurants/le-boudin-blanc-info-2881.html
http://www.yelp.co.uk/biz/le-boudin-blanc-london
http://www.allinlondon.co.uk/restaurants/restaurant-2111.php
http://www.qype.co.uk/place/171492-Le-Boudin-Blanc-London
http://trustedplaces.com/review/uk/london/restaurant/1901c7u/le-boudin-blanc
http://www.londononline.co.uk/profiles/96806/
http://travel.nytimes.com/travel/guides/europe/britain/england/london/60381/le-boudin-blanc/restaurant-detail.html
http://www.londontown.com/LondonInformation/Restaurant/Le_Boudin_Blanc/82dd/
http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurant_Review-g186338-d789153-Reviews-Le_Boudin_Blanc-London_England.html
http://www.freshenmeup.com/watering-hole/le-boudin-blanc
http://www.fluideating.co.uk/Le_Boudin_Blanc_W1J.restaurant
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/457749