Galvin Bistrot de Luxe

Eat here all the time , its just fantastic and I think about the best pound for pound value in London for michelin quality food. The Crab Lasagne starter is much like Kylie Minogue small but perfect. The daube of beef literally melts in the mouth . My goodness i am drooling at my desk !

Too much success?

The noise levels atGalvin Bistrot de Luxe, 66 Baker Street, London, W1U 7DJ are growing unbearable.

The room full, so business must be good

Food as good as ever, service too slow – about an hour to get a main course!

But I love their other restaurants at the hillton and La Chapelle and well worth the extra money.

Galvin Bistro de Luxe, W1U 7DJ

Excellent food, amazing service. Wide range of flavours and dishes which are typically French, excellent wine list.

I've visited several times and like the food and am prepared to suffer the invariably slow service, yet somehow the atmosphere is always lacking. I feel like I've gone into a recently redecorated Parisian back street cafe. The only thing wrong with that being the Baker Street tariff. It's busy but lacks atmosphere. Cooking is excellent though.

Four of us sat down for an evening meal with great anticipation, this place having been recommended. The restaurant was very busy, and it soon became apparent that they had crowded in extra tables as the staff frequently were bumping into us in our seats.

The service was very slow and we had to wait for our drinks and to order. In fact we had to get the waitresses attention as she had completely forgotten about our table.

The food was average at best, with the meat dishes being over cooked and two of the deserts sent back. We did receive an apology with the chef admitting that there was ‘a problem with the taste’ and were offered alternatives.

However, throughout the night, the staff constantly kept trying to give wine to one of our party who was very pregnant. Whilst asking once or twice is understandable – they did it repeatedly throughout the evening despite being told that she was pregnant.

None of us has any intention of returning ever again.

We love La Chapelle and Cafe Au Vin, but on a rare day off we went to our local – Galvin Bistro Deluxe and what a good choice that was. The Aperitif Maison set the scene. We had a chacuterie to share to start and it was fabulous and more than enough for two. There were so many lovely dishes we had a hard time choosing our mains but both had the Boeuf Bourguignonne which was absolutely sublime. For dessert we had great French classics, creme brulee and tarte au citron, which were divine. Overall the atmosphere was very French, the service great and very welcoming and the prix fixe menus look wonderful value. Everyone should give this lovely bijou a try!

Everything here points towards the “new breed” of continental-inspired London brasseries. However, this branch of Galvin doesn't feel very authentic. The service is good, but the hype about this place is difficult to understand. It is a welcome addition to this part of W1, but it has failed, in my oppinion to give the feeling of “occasion” it – and the two star rating on this website – promise. Especially the food is, while the ingredients seem well-sourced, slightly under-whelming.

good service, better restaurant than galvin at windows and cheaper.

We ate at Galvin's last Friday and had a late table (9pm). We arrived on time but it took ten minutes to seat us and a further twenty before anyone took a drinks order. At every stage of the evening we had to actively attract someone's attention to move our meal forward – to order food, wine, water, ask for bread and cutlery etc. At one point, a waiter confidently recommended a wine to go with food we weren't having. Another bought coffee and chocolates before the cheese we had ordered (we hadn't even seen the cheese board) and then looked aghast when we asked to finish our meal first. When we pointed out the problems we were having (we raised all this on the night) they were completely unapologetic. I have had better service in MacDonalds. The food was fine (the terrine of ham hock and fois gras had too much of the former and should have been half the size, the crab lasagne is rightly popular) but not nearly exceptional enough to justify the dreadful service.

Friends, Marylebone, countrymen, lend me your ears! I come to bury Galvin, not to praise him. Unlike Marc Anthony, however, I am not being ironic; it really was the case that, on the showing of last evening, GBDL should be well and truly buried. To be fair, I have been here a number of times, and this is the only time that I have felt the evening to be anything other than very good. But I am reviewing last night, so what can I say; it wasn't a terribly good evening.

We were walk-ins, so had a seat in the middle of the room, by which the serving staff and diners pass every few seconds. It was this or outside on Baker Street, with its buses and other assorted road traffic passing every few seconds.

Things started fine; we were settled into seats, given menus, bread and water. So far, so good. Orders were taken. Again, looking good. Then it all started to unravel: how many times have I complained about wine arriving after the food? There is a set pattern to meals now: take a seat, order, wine arrives, food arrives, coffee, pay and leave. The restaurant wouldn’t like it if you reversed the latter two, so why or why do we get food that sits and waits for the wine to arrive? Come on guys, it isn’t that hard. Food goes with wine, wine goes with food. It works. Always has done, always will. Try harder.

You will have gathered that the wine didn’t arrive. The food did. Piping hot snails, drowning in garlic butter, crusted with parsley; and a thick veloute of broad beans with hard boiled egg. Hard boiled? Surely soft would have worked better. Never mind; both were pleasant, both work better with wine. So we asked. And then we asked the maitre d’. He brought the red. We had ordered a white to start. He brought it. Didn’t offer a sniff; just poured. He left.

Now it is nice of the restaurant to do wines by the carafe, but they: (a) shouldn’t sit around at the service area; and (b) should be served as any bottle would: it could be off. Let me at least give it a cursory olfactory test.

Worse was to come with the mains mind. First there was the wait. Having had the starters rushed to the table before the wine could be served, the mains it seems were being delayed. Maybe so that we finished the wine and had to order more. On arrival, the risotto was pleasing enough, even if the toms were cold, not having been sat in the warmth of the rice long enough. The brain dish, however, was just wrong. I like a nice veal brain, and the brains themselves were a delight: crispy on the outside, melting within. The trouble was they were swimming, nay engulfed in black butter; an oil slick of BP proportions, completely covering the mashed potato that fought like a seabird to escape from the injustice done to it. The black butter is there to enhance, to add to, not overwhelm the centrepiece: the brains.

We couldn’t face any more, so got the bill. Not cheap, not really cheerful. A shame really, as it can be such a great place, as previous visits have proved. Clearly, when it has an off night, Galvin Bistro De Luxe does it with the utmost Gallic flair.