Le Cercle

I have been to Le Cercle on numerous occasions in the past and always rated it highly for the excellent choice of French tapas style cuisine. I haven't been for about 18 months and returned on Friday evening looking forward to another delightful experience, unfortunately they have changed the format of the menu and the wine list and I left disappointed. They now have a smaller menu made up of a choice of 6 starters, 6 mains, both my girlfriend and I picked the taster menu, £35 a head, the food was excellent but the service was poor. We has a Mushroom veloute to start, they brought the bread out after we had finished this course, we where continually having to wait for the waiters to come and top up our wine and water, there were only about 15 guests in the restaurant and 4 staff so not exactly rushed off their feet. They made up for not bringing out the bread with the veloute by giving us an extra desert, crème caramel, which was a nice touch. I would say the food is excellent, just wish they hadn't changed the format as it was a winner, won't be going back as there are better valued restaurants (Emilie’s in Putney) that offer the same classic dishes if I just wanted to go for a starter and a main.

My wife and I had a pre-theatre supper at Le Cercle on Friday 23 September 2011. Service was professional and unobtrusive. The atmosphere was quiet and chic: no one was speaking very loudly. My wife though there were “a lot of men in suits wandering about but not doing much” but it was, understandably, quiet at 6pm.We both chose the 2 courses for £16.50 option and we had a bottle of still water and a bottle of Pouilly Fume. With service the bill came to just under £90. I had wild mushroom soup to start and my wife had mushroom ravioli. For mains we had fish and risotto respectively: I cannot remember the details. We both enjoyed our meals and the portion sizes were just right for a pre-theatre meal. We would happily go again and recommend to others.

Had a wine dinner at Le Cercle and it was nothing short of fantastic. I came in early enough to have a few drinks at the bar and the bar staff was absolutely charming. We absolutely loved the tuna confit and crackling on the bearnaise, and the sommelier was helpful and attentive to our questions/requests. Great food, beautiful atmosphere (armchair and fire at the bar area), could one want for anything else?

Update 9/9/2010
Went for dinner – food as good as ever but the service has taken a downtown. We were asked if we wanted a drink before we had even sat down and then the drinks took 20 mins to arrive. Empty glass were left on our table till nearly the end of the meal. The sommelier however could not be faulted.

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A great basement restaurant that serves a grazing menu like Maze. I think this is a fabulous way to eat – giving you about 4 to 5 dishes to taste rather than just 3 and leaves you feeling you have had just the right amount. The basement works well in the evenings but less so for Summer lunches. Does a very good value set lunch menu. An excellent private room in a balcony looking over the main restaurant. Took a party there recently and had their set menu which worked very well as no one had to choose but the Sommelier was too freely opening bottles for the table which escalated the bill unnessaryly – so do not leave it up to him.

Had a very disappointing evening out for dinner at le Cercle. We mentioned that one of our party had a nut allergy and were presented with a supplementary menu listing all the ingredients of each dish – nuts, dairy, alcohol etc. So far so good. We then asked to have the tasting menu but adjusted to exclude nuts and were told emphatically this was not possible. We asked if dishes could be changed for nut-free ones but told that this was also not possible and that we had to choose from the a la carte menu. At this point, I was on the verge of leaving but the maitre'd came along and sorted everything out. Had I not been with guests, I would have walked out. We had the tasting menu (with dishes changed to nut-free ones) and the food was very pleasant. It should be a nice restaurant but with this sort of treatment, I did not enjoy the dinner and would not recommend.

Le cerlce works. Normally not a fan of the Tapas-portion craze, I bow to the creativity and quality of the food on offer here. The service is one of the few places in London which truly deserves 10points here at Square Meal. A truly special restaurant which delivers on all fronts. Truly superb.

Astonishing value. From the tasting menu with matched wines to the set lunch you will struggle to find better value for money. Whilst the food is not quite on par with it's Michelin starred sibling Club Gascon it is still well worth a visit. Service is pleasant and efficient and the basement dining room stylish, if suited more to dinner rather than lunch.

My partner and I went there for the set meal dinner (£15 for 3 courses with square meal) last night and it was absolutely lovely. The food was amazing, and even though the portions were on the smaller side, they were completely filling and full of flavour. The presentation was also excellent. Service was courteous, and all the staff friendly – even though most people there were clearly spending much larger amounts, we weren't neglected at all. Will definitely be recommending this restaurant to my friends and family if they are in the area.

an awful, completely dreadful set dinner menu – an utter rip-off, let's hope the credit crunch bites you in the backside so you can't serve this muck in future.

brief menu synopsis… first course, cold soup (not sure if this was a conscious decision by the inept chef) in what can only be described as a miss-shaped egg cup, with a green slick partially obscuring the brown sludge below. Second delight, a rocket leaf a spinach leaf and a cutting of cold, yet somehow mysteriously burnt fennel (caramelized is the word the menu used) surrounded by a heinz mayonnaise and orange sauce – a unique combination I must say, completely unworkable on the taste buds though… Third effort, cold vegetables off cuts, including that delicacy half a brussel sprout on a pool of sweet juice, interesting concoction, horrendous unpaletable flavour. Fourth dish, mixed segments of pink grapefruit and tangerines in a syrup (this could have come straight from a tin). Fifth disaster, a selection of half a dozen partial mushroom cuttings in a pot, the pot looked fantastic – is this what i was paying for perhaps. desert, actually quite a pleasant raspberry cake, although it failed to take away the bad taste in my mouth left by the other courses, but nice try.

luckily the company was fantastic, the only saving grace for an evening that would spoilt by the food.
give it a miss!

One of my very favourite London restaurants. The room is elegant, cool and fairly dramatic as you enter down the stairs from street level and decorated in a quasi Armaniesque (is that a word?) style. The dishes are small so 4 or 5 are the order of the day which gives your pallate a chance to sample the innovative and obviously carefully thought through varieties of flavours that make up the beautifully thought out menu. Enough electicism to be interesting but not so much as to be pretentious. The roots of Gascon cooking wind whispily through the menu but in the main it is modern French, serious extremely high quality cooking out of a carefully run kitchen. The service can lag a tad if very busy but is usually smooth, efficient and pleasant. The wine list (my business) is specially comprehensive on the Gallic front , covers most flavour requirements and styles and has plenty for those not wishing to go crazy.

It is calm but atmospheric and the clientele are, as the main review implies as cool as the decor. It offers very fine value for money in comparison to a number of illustrious places I have eaten both in London and Bray and is quite rightly very successful. The fixed lunches are a complete steal! Go there right away! And no I have no connection with the restaurant at all!