Bedford & Strand

I love this place!
The wine list is very good and reasonably priced. The menu is tantalising and the food is delicious. When we went we had outstanding service.
It is a real hidden gem.

We have since visited the restaurant – A friend and I turned up on Saturday night for a 7.30 reservation for two that I had made on the internet. When we arrived, the restaurant was closed due to a private party.

The manager was very kind and apologetic, rang a neighbouring restaurant (gave us a glass of champers while we waited) and, all in all, dealt with the situation in a wonderful way.

I am so ashamed to say that when I got home and checked the booking, he was, of course, correct and I had made it for the wrong date. I come to the B&S on a regular basis and this has only reaffirmed my excellent opinion!

I used to go here when i worked in the area (until early last year) but recently returned for dinner with a group of friends. Pleased to see that it hasn't changed too much. A few things definitely have, the wine list, the menu both keeping the high standard i remember, and some notable additions caught my eye (Portuguese red was surprisingly good). What i am glad to see has stayed the same is the fantastic, friendly atmosphere. Despite the secret-society-esq entranceway this remains one of the most inviting places I have found in my travels. A must for all local socialites.

Cosy and intimate, this is one of my favourite finds in all of London.

Originally went for a friends leaving do, but came back for dinner last week. I arrived early and had a drink at the bar (a delightful little cab/shiraz). The barman was warm and seamed very knowledgeable. When my companion arrived we were seated without the fuss I have come to abhor from the more commercialised bistros in the area. What the menu lacked in design, it makes up for in flavour. And although I found the cottage pie somewhat plain, the tartare was sublime.

I find the venue itself is summed up by its interior: classic, friendly, and intimate. I am certain that those who come expecting the ego-fanning pomp and elitism of high society will be happily disappointed by its simple layout and ethic. But the real highlight of my visit was the staff. They are real characters who know what they are talking about and are an absolute pleasure to engage with. I am so bored of lifeless, faceless waiting staff who would not dare crack smile, much less a joke. Here, thankfully, are real people who aren't afraid to stand up for their profession too. I watched one table of city-snoots who were being quite rude to our waitress, something about his cottage pie taking too long (this was a busy evening with almost every table full). Despite her apologies he seamed determined to lambast the poor girl on behalf of his appetite. She continued her attempts to placate the bear, now playing to his table as an audience, but he would not let her finish a sentence. I was about to lean across to liberate the young lady when she looked him square in eye and said “I appreciate what you are saying and have apologised, but do you know what is delaying it further? This conversation.” She went on, “Now do you want me to go and get your main courses, or do you just want to sit there are shout at me some more?” As he fell silent, I damn near fell off my chair for laughing.

A great evening of fantastic wine, some good food and some spectacular entertainment.

Go to Bedford & Strand:
If you like an eclectic selection of wine at decent prices administered by some of the sharpest bar-staff in all of London. Relax and let your hair down.

Good food, good wine, awful service.

Food: very good. Excellent smoked salmon and chicken liver pate to start, mains of haddock fish cakes and a Barnsley lamp chop resectively both great. Wine also very good. If a restaurant experience involved just the food, I'd have few complaints – great bistro food, in short.

Service: terrible. At the bar, I waited around 5 minutes whilst a bar man/waiter hovered at the other end, having a sip of his drink, before he noticed someone who had arrived after me, and serving him. Another bar man hovered in front of me, preparing a complex drink for someone, and although saw I was obviously waiting, made no attempt at communicating, no 'I'll be with you in a second' or knowing nod of the head. I gave up in the end and sat down, with no drinks. We asked to be moved to our table, still at this point with no drinks, as it would hopefully mean a chance to buy some!

At table: we were given only one food menu. I mentioned to the man who had sat us in the bar that I thought his bar staff could be a bit quicker; he muttered something in agreement, including the phrase ‘kick up the arse’. We were brought some bread – had to ask for it. The butter was hard, there were no butter knives nor side plates given to us. When I asked about this, the main man told me that it wasn't ‘that kind of place’ and that even ‘the suits’ in the week weren't given side plates. So we were meant to eat the bread over the paper tablecloth. I can appreciate that this is a laidback bistro, but when I've been to the real deal in France, or similar in Italy, spit and sawdust places, I've generally been given something other than the table to put my bread on. We were given some plates upon request, and a knife for the butter. Further flaws service-wise: waiter/waitress presence fairly non-existent for first part of meal, though this did improve as we went along. Service so disappointing that I would not go back. And the attitude of some members of staff was a little too 'that's the way we are, take us or leave us'.

An anonymous doorway on Bedford St, just off the Strand (see what they did there…) takes you downstairs and into a well designed white tiled, mirror lined bistro. It isn't difficult to find, but is thankfully anonymous enough not to appeal to the tourist herds piling in to TGI Friday two doors up for their chicken wing shakes.

Desk bound working lunches are the norm in the UK, with work done over an actual lunch (by which I mean useful business related conversation) seen as a bit of a perk. They wouldn't go for it on the continent… Bedford and Strand is the kind of place that Keith Floyd would have unearthed in a railway station in rural France. In short, the sort of place that we should all have access to regularly. They do a two course set lunch for £12 and to be honest, I'd be in there most days if i worked in the neighbourhood. A casual meeting with Ed Hitter in Chief was proposed and he kindly offered lunch at his ‘local’.

It's a simple rustic French brasserie menu with a great little wine list priced by ‘reliable’, ‘honest’, ‘decent’ and ‘good’. I wasn't drinking, but there were enough here by the glass that I was made to feel slightly envious. Like some of the best spots round here it was a former wine cellar, think Gordons or Terroirs, and there's something of the dark, comfortable evening venue about the place. Leaving into the sunlight felt frankly wrong.

I can honestly say that there wasn't anything I wouldn't have eaten from the menu. Cauliflower and White Truffle Oil soup vied for my attention among the starters alongside Chicken Liver Parfait, Goose Rillette and potted crab. We were on a time constraint so skipped sadly by and onto the mains. A couple of nearby city types from large local employer Coutts on the Strand tucked into large, padded well seared steaks, served with crispy looking thin frites. The money managers murmured their approval.

On a (slight) health kick, I skipped the Braised Rabbit in a Mustard Sauce and a wonderful sounding Parmesan Crust Pork Chop and went for the Chicken Caesar Salad. large slabs of plumb charred chicken breast arrived on a well seasoned salad with the (admittedly inauthentic) bonus of crispy bacon strips. The dressing was fresh, piquant and delightful. Ed Hitter in Chief took plump fishcakes in hand, they looked stunning, a mixture of smoked haddock and seasoned potato in a crisp crumb.

A very solid option for the area, and proof of Covent Garden's delightful ability to reinvent old spaces and manage to provide well for the locals as well as the tourists, something it's more difficult to say for transatlantic cousin, Times Square.

Had a superb Xmas party in December at the Bedford & Strand. The staff were attentive, food superb and it was a cheery atmosphere – difficult to pull off at the height of the season when the place was packed. Would highly recommend it.

Terrible experience, and incredibly overpriced. The service was non existent, absolutely appalling. We had to buy our own drinks from the bar throughout our meal, as although we had asked three times for our specific order, they never came. Items of food were never delivered to the table and when inquired about, the plate was eventually delivered without an apology. There are far better places in London to dine at. We nor any of or our friends will be returning.

I went to Bedford & Strand on a Monday evening on the strength of the SquareMeal 1-star rating. I was disappointed. The dining area was half empty and barely cut off from the noisy, echoey bar. The “white-clothed tables” were actually covered in paper. My foie gras starter was the size of 4 two-pence pieces stacked up together, whilst my companion's starter, the greek salad, had so much rocket that she couldn't finish it. The main courses were unexciting (and top dish £18 for a rib-eye steak?) and my companion's first choice was off, so she opted for the day's special (Mussels). This was off too. So we both went for a shepherd's pie. This was OK as far as it went. The bill was reasonable at £30 per head, excl wine. So Bedford & Strand is OK as a pre-theatre bistro, but is not for “dining out”.