Going Out | Restaurants

Top five for getting cheesy

Free tables are rare at top-class La Fromagerie
Simon Hopkinson|Evening Standard
10 April 2012

From some a superb selection of some very serious French cheeses to one of the best cheeseboards you will find in a London pub, Simon Hopkinson presents a round-up of the best places for people who are rather fond of le fromage...

  • The Glasshouse14 Station Parade, Kew (020 8940 6777) £75.Wonderful cooking from Anthony Boyd, who trained with Bruce Poole at Chez Bruce, is complemented by a fine, international cheese selection that often changes. The £25 three-course menu offers temptations such as Minola smoked salmon with endive-and-fennel salad; roast Middlewhite pork with apple and choucroute tarte fine; chocolate and nut brownie with vanilla ice cream.
  • La Fromagerie2-4 Moxon Street, W1 (020 7935 0341) £24.There are nearly always more people waiting to eat than there are spaces to accommodate them at the shared tables, so tempting is the food displayed in Patricia Michelson's Marylebone cheese shop and deli. Breakfasts are inspired, the salads bountiful, the charcuterie top-class, the baking irresistible and the coffee exceptional. But don't skip the cheeses.
  • Racine239 Brompton Road, SW3 (020 7584 4477) £80.Racine offers a very decent French experience - and a very serious French cheeseboard. The restaurant pays homage to the real France - somewhere increasingly hard to find. Expect slick service, a comfortable atmosphere and unaggressive pricing.
The Edbury
11 Pimlico Road, SW1 (020 7730 6784) £60.

Le Cercle
1 Wilbraham Place, SW1 (020 7901 9999) £80.
The owners of Club Gascon have introduced a similar formula of a parade of small French dishes to their new Sloane Square site, a double-depth basement designed by Keith Hobbs. It is intended as an informal meeting place but the quality of the cooking - and the superb selection of temperature-controlled French cheeses - merits a full-blown dinner.

Prices estimate the cost of a meal with wine for two.

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