Ted's Reviews

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.

As a Putney resident this is my favourite restaurant by far, amazing value, great wine list that isn't overly priced and they always try to offer the best seasonal food on the menu. The individually baked beef wellingtons are perfectly cooked and if you’re other guests don't order it watch them have food envy when it arrives and you cut it open. Atmosphere is very friendly and welcoming, a must try for anyone in SW15, try and get a table upstairs as downstairs lacks any natural light and has a slight cellar bar feel to it, unless you like that kind of thing. Deserts are good and are presented as a list on a chalk board at your table, cheese selection is also good and they make one of the best Irish coffee's in the area. The only negative I can say is even though the food is served timely and with a professional manner I feel they could do with 1 or 2 more extra waiting staff as they all seemed a bit rushed off their feet but that doesn't really effect things to much, you may have to top up your own win every now and then but that’s not a huge negative in my book.