Lord of the fries: Gazette

If you visit Gazette’s website, you would think this place is going to be a stereotype of everything le Français. But the style is more modern brasserie than classic bistro, which a sleek looking bar and slate topped tables. The ‘fresh frog’s legs daily’ sign remembers you that this is still definitely a French restaurant though.

Gazette is a small chain of 3 restaurants in South West London, featuring an all-day menu, from breakfast and brunch through to dinner and cocktails. And on the ‘eggs’ section of the menu is something called the Full French. The Full French is ham, omelette, sautéed potatoes with pancetta & mushroom, confied cherry tomato, brie and salad. My initial reaction to that was brie and salad for brekkie?! But ordered it I did, along with a flat white.

While we waited for the food the females in our party discussed how good looking the waiters were, and I amused myself by doodling on the slate table with the chalk provided. The coffee was good, as you might expect in a French restaurant.

So the food: As I mentioned I had reservations, I sort of wanted to find fault with it. But when it arrived in a casserole dish it looked great. The baguette with brie was just great alongside the well cooked potatoes and pancetta. The omelette was well seasoned and the salad (gem lettuce in a mustard seed dressing) worked much better than I had expected. The ham was a little disappointing; wafer thin slices lacked much flavour.