This new Mayfair restaurant is fitting in just fine with all the locals.

The Venue
With a big name owner, Claudio Pulze, and a big name chef, Pierre Koffman, backing the venture, standards are high. Located just around the corner from the Ritz, Brasserie St Jacques can hold its own compared to the restaurants nearby. Although you might expect tinkly chandeliers and sedate artwork, the actual decor is anything but fussy. Think striking, not stuffy: yellow walls, red leather seats and huge Art Deco-style posters, advertisements and mirrors. There’s a generous amount of seating and tables are well spaced throughout the long room.

The Atmosphere
The lunchtime clientele seems to be mostly made up of local businessmen, plus a few wandering tourists. Although this is a French restaurant, it’s more laid back than a high style affair, so the atmosphere is more along the lines of raucous conversations as opposed to hushed whispers. Even though it’s is busy and fills up quickly, service ticks along nicely without too much of a wait between courses and the charming French staff are unharried and attentive.

The Food
The menu is unsurprisingly French and runs from breakfast at 8am until dinner late in the evening. Prices are on the expensive side (it is Mayfair, after all) but there are a few cheaper options. Starters are about £7 each whilst mains range from £11 - £17. The afternoon menu is well priced at under £10 for a dish and, besides the daily specials, there’s a list of dishes of the day.

Every French restaurant should have snails on the menu, and Brasserie St Jacques is no exception. Large, plump snails (£8 for six) come in a deliciously light, well balanced garlic bourguignon sauce and are served with snail tongs and a teeny snail fork for proper removal from the shell. The foie gras terrine (£9) is also lovely: creamy, smooth and buttery. Served with three slices of toasted bread, this a rich but well-portioned dish.

The main of tender skate wing and chorizo potato cake (£17) is expertly cooked, with an almost crispy exterior giving way to a soft, fresh meat that falls apart on the fork. The potato and chorizo cake is equally good, with sliced dauphinoise potatoes benefiting from good quality chorizo that spices them up nicely. Slow roast shoulder of lamb (£15.50) is, according to the menu, cooked for four hours, and you can definitely taste it. The meat is so tender and moist that you don’t really even need a knife to cut it – a fork will do just fine. It’s been braised in a sweet sauce, making the meat even more succulent, and the accompanying vegetables (peppers, courgettes, mushrooms) are flavourful as well.

Like the rest of the menu, desserts are old fashioned and traditional, but for some reason are less successful; instead of being classic, they seem a bit dated. Strawberries cooked in a red wine aren’t too impressive, the red wine reduction taking the sugary sweetness out of the strawberries and leaving them bitter and soggy. Frozen nougat terrine with raspberries and raspberry sauce is likewise underwhelming, as the sugary nougat needs something with a bit more of a kick to it in order to make it really stand out.

The Drink
The wine list takes up the entirety of the back of the menu, so you can be assured you’ll find something that takes your fancy. Of course, it helps if you like French wine, as much of the list is dedicated to it and divided up as per the country’s regions. Bottles range from £19.50 and right on up into the several hundred pound territory (surely for the behalf of the local Mayfair property developers). There are a few available by the glass as well, including a 2006 Viognier Domaine de la Janasse, vdp de la Principaute D’Orange, which is fresh and crisp with a nice floral taste. There are also several non-French choices on the list in the Other Than French category, including bottles from England, Slovenia, Israel, Italy and Chile.

The Last Word
With a homely feel and a traditional menu, Brasserie St Jacques is a comfortable choice that looks set to do well with local clientele. Who needs to fuss about impressing people at the Ritz when you’ve got a laid back French brasserie down the road?

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