Steak frites in Covent Garden - what’s not to like?

The Venue
A long, glass-walled and glass-roofed restaurant at roof-level, like a floating conservatory, the Covent Garden Chez Gerard overlooks the old covered market, and indeed is architecturally part of the same structure. The restaurant has a black-and-white mosaic floor. There’s a roof-terrace outside, a lovely place to sit and chill on a warm summer’s evening.

The Atmosphere
Relaxed. Cool jazz plays. There is a long zinc bar where you can have a drink while waiting for your table or just watching the world go by. Being able to see out on all sides gives you a great view of the colourful Covent Garden populace. Inside it’s a little more sedate: men in suits, ladies who lunch, people getting on and quietly enjoying their food. Service is excellent, with a nice attention to detail: order a beer and it comes in a frosted glass.

The Food
While you wait to order you get a basket of good-quality bread with a pot of anchovy butter - an unexpected treat that sets the taste buds a-tingling. Starters include French bistro classics like soupe a l’oignon, goat’s cheese, terrine de porc. Escargots de Bourgogne are recommended for those who like snails: they come ready-removed from their shells in a china plate with twelve hollows, drenched in herby garlic butter, and are as succulent as seafood. Speaking of which, oysters at £7.95 the half dozen are an order you won’t regret - cold, super- fresh and tasting of the sea.

Main courses include vegetarian options such as goat’s cheese, tomato and basil tart at £10.95, and fish options such as the grilled fillets of sea bass at £16.95. But the centrepiece of the menu is the Grillades de boeuf, featuring cuts like onglet, entrecote and the raw steak tartare. It’s worth pushing the boat out and spending twenty quid on the wagyu steak - a 9oz cut of beef from contented cattle who are given organic food and cider and massaged twice daily. It is as tender as fillet steak and as flavoursome as rump. The menu also features other grilled meats, such as a pale, succulent, melt-in-the-mouth veal cutlet. For dessert, the choice is from French classics like tarte au citron and creme brulee. A petit pot of bitter chocolate comes with three accompanying miniature pots of raspberry mousse, orange compote and chopped hazelnuts. All the food tastes super-fresh and is beautifully presented.

The Drink
Mainly French wines, but a few New World wines are thrown into the mix. The wine-list is helpfully divided: for the whites into ‘light, crisp and refreshing’, ‘dramatic and fragrant’, ‘soft and round’ or ‘rich and full’; for the reds into ‘light, soft and fruity’, ‘spicy, peppery and warming’, ‘smooth and round’ or ‘rich and full-bodied’. A Beaujolais Villages at around £20 from the light, soft and fruity department is just that, and a good match for most dishes here. There’s a Happy Hour every day between 4.30 and 7.30, when champagne can be had for £24.50 a bottle.

The Last Word
As traditional as steak frites. Chez Gerard isn’t doing anything daring or different - but why should they when the food’s as good as this?

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