The French love their steak-frites. The British, although devoted to steak and chips in some quarters, are perhaps less certain about making it the sole main dish on a menu, which is the case at Le Relais de Venise L’Entrecote in the heart of The City.

The Venue
Tucked away in one of those intriguing City alleyways with scant entry for motor vehicles, Le Relais de Venise L’Entrecote is one of two such establishments in London, the other being in Marylebone Lane, not too far from Oxford Street. The Throgmorton Street branch is just around the corner from the Bank of England, that grand edifice that dominates The City, if not most of our lives. Le Relais is typically French, with the decor falling somewhere between a bistrot and a brasserie – darks woods, burgundy red blinds, white net curtains, nothing too fancy but with a definite solidity about it and colourful modern pictures of Venice and vases of flowers that add a touch of glamour.

The Atmsophere
It’s a pleasant room divided into two sections, resembling perhaps a not too exclusive gentlemen’s club. The clubby feeling to the place is no doubt engendered by the number of City businessmen who dine there at lunchtime, which would be the restaurant’s busiest time, although it is also open in the evening (Monday to Friday) with last orders at 10pm. No reservations are taken, so at busy times, expect to queue. A few, perhaps token, women are present but it is mainly suited and booted gents avidly tucking into their steak and frites. Le Relais seems to do a roaring lunchtime business, something that many other restaurants would be very glad to share. Despite the recession, the City of London is not stinting itself when it comes to lunching at Le Relais de Venise L’Entrecote.

The Food
The idea of just serving steak-frites goes back some fifty years, when Paul Gineste de Saurs bought an Italian restaurant called Le Relais de Venise in Paris. He decided to serve his customers the traditional French bistrot meal of steak-frites with no other main course choices. Instead of the usual herbed butter accompaniment, he developed a sauce to a secret recipe based on butter but with the addition of various herbs, spices and condiments. For the starter course, the restaurant served a simply dressed lettuce salad with walnuts. Only the final course presented a choice of desserts and cheese. The idea was a huge success and still is; although the name eventually became Le Relais de Venise L’Entrecote, the location is still the same and the restaurant is now run by de Saurs’ daughter. As well as Paris and the two London restaurants, there are also branches in New York, Barcelona and Manama, Bahrain.

The menu remains the same as it was fifty years ago and very satisfying it is too. There is nothing wrong in beginning a meal with a good, simple salad. The leaves are sprinkled with chopped walnuts which give the dish a crunchy texture and it is dressed with a very good mustard vinaigrette with a slight pungency that delivers a definite bite. Following the salad, the steak arrives cut into in thin slices, free of fat and served with the secret recipe sauce. You may choose to have your steak cooked blue (the very rare French way, virtually just seared), or rare, medium or well done. The cost of the two courses of salad and steak-frites is £19.

For the London restaurants the steaks are sourced from Donald Russell in Aberdeenshire, The Queen’s supplier. It is difficult to imagine better meat than this as it’s as tender as anything, barely needs any cutting and tastes so appetising. Even without the special recipe sauce the meat would be brilliant but it’s even tastier with this delicious, buttery and pleasantly herb-flavoured addition. The frites, using French Bintje potatoes, are thinly sliced, hand-chipped on the premises, and cooked to a nicely dry crisp. After enjoying the excellence of the steak-frites, the nicest surprise is yet to come – there’s more, as the main course is presented in two parts, so that the meat is always served hot.

Having been given no choice thus far, the dessert course (£4.50 - £4.95) goes overboard to offer over a dozen toothsome treats to end the meal. Apart from various ice creams and sorbets there’s also pineapple and kirsch, a chestnut puree dessert in Mont Blanc, a cream gateau, a semi-freddo with Grand Marnier, profiteroles, cherry or lemon tarts, a creme brulee and more. La tulipe au peches et abricots Melba is a delicious mix of ice cream with pieces of fruit and cream in a crisp nest or tulip of pastry – it tastes nice but it needs more fruit. Le vacherin du Relais has practically everything, a mountain of meringue with layers of ice cream, topped with Chantilly cream and the whole thing is smothered in thick chocolate sauce. It is magnificent, a real ribsticker of a pudding course incredibly luscious. For those who prefer a savoury finish, there is a cheese plate served on its own (£6.50) or with a glass of port (£7.95).

The Drink
Just as the original French branch of Le Relais has always had a limited list of wines, the same policy applies to London too. The Le Relais house bottle of red, a Cotes de Bordeaux, is a very good and most acceptable wine, fairly plump, ripe and fruity and eminently drinkable at just £14.95 a bottle, £8.50 a half or £4.25 a glass. There’s a Bordeaux Superieur 2002 at £22 or £5.50 a glass and a Corbieres 2007 at £25 and £6.25. The 2005 Medoc is £35 and the St Emilion £49.50. The chateau-bottled white Bordeaux 2008 is £19.50 and £5 a glass and there’s a good rose wine at £19 and £4.75. Champagne Canard Duchene NV is £35 or £8.50 per glass.

The Last Word
When a weekday lunchtime finds a restaurant practically full with everyone tucking into steak and chips with immense enthusiasm, then Le Relais de Venise L’Entrecote can certainly be deemed to be an enormous success. You know what to expect when you arrive, the steak and the portions are always of the same quality and there’s no surprise when the bill appears. This one has excellence written all over it.

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