La Poule au Pot

Grenville C. (Over 60, Male, United Kingdom)

Over the years this restaurant has pretty much become my neighbourhood caff, going there it is a bit like putting on an old jacket, it is always as expected and somewhat reassuring in a turbulent world. Like many I have been going to the Poule au Pot since the days that it was located in Walton Sreet. and I suspect that many feel the same way.

The secret of the menu is not to order from it – except for the eponymous poule au pot and the steak and frites, which seem to be hand carved – but rather to listen to the day's specials which are extensive and occasionally unexpected, these daily specials tend also to be chea;per than the dishes on the printed menu.

They have a custom of serving house wine by the two litre bottle and charging for the amount drunk, they are quite fair about this. the house wine is perfectly good and suits the food well.

The managers are very efficient, always welcoming and ever helpful, the waiting staff, who seem to change quite a lot are interesting, they tend to be young and French and often they have real Gallic ‘attitude’. I quite like this as it is a change from the London norm and makes one feel as if you might just be in France not Pimlico.

Once I took some American friends there and that particular evening the waiters were charming for some reason, never having experienced this before and I was truly concerned. One of my guests suggested that perhaps the food had gone off or the chef had walked out or something, but everything turned out fine, fortunately it was a one-off.

This is a restaurant that you have to work at. After three visits most people are hooked for life and many consider it to be the most romantic restaurant in town. The decor is wonderful, it was until quite recent times that New Yorkers were paying huge sums to interior designers in order to capture a similar feel in their urban lofts.

i fully accept that the whole thing will not be to everyone's taste,, in fact I hesitated before writing this as it is now taking a day or two to get a table and longer for weekends.