Brasserie Zédel

Brasserie Zédel
20 Sherwood street

In a side street just off the hustle and bustle of central tourist haven Picadilly, the Uk's equivalent of Times Square lit up at night with advertising hoardings, lies a subterranean space unlike any you are likely to find in London.  The place is grandeur of the highest level, bordering towards the obscene. The amount of marble and lighting is on an epic scale. The dining room, with over 250 seats is more the size of a small field, and is packed out, even the grand piano looks diminutive at the side of the room. Despite it's size it's not that easy to get a walk-in, booking is recommended. For those of you unappreciative of the latest 'no reservation' trend, this is what you've been looking for. The cuisine is classical French, and while not in vogue, this place should be around for much longer than most, unless the upkeep of all the marble and brass puts them into liquidation.

Nothing but Gold leaf and marble everywhere you look

With the menu all in French, you try your best GCSE reading level to work out what is what, before one of you plucks up the courage to play ignorant and get the English version. It's more than an extensive menu with anything from soup du jour, at a meager £2.25, to cuisses de grenouille for starters. I plumped with the frog's legs, always keen to try something different. Avoiding the 'taste like chicken' cliche, these were succulent and well cooked, the veal jus was magnificently rich. The creamy watercress sauce balanced the dish nicely. 
It's worth noting the great service of this place, despite it's scale, when the starters were brought out the waiter knew exactly who ordered what, and it wasn't even from the same person who we placed the order. I would love to see the descriptions they put for people on their notepads!

The main, I had, however was a little disappointing, the sea bream with onions and olive compote was far too dry and overcooked, and the compote a quite bland. The steaks my parents had were cooked to order and were really tasty, if a bit meagre in size. They surely make their mark up with the mains.

Dessert was a perfectly cooked, the pastry faultless, the lemon really sharp, and finished off true to style for the place with a big branded chocolate ZL. Best of all only £3.50.

While Brasserie Zédel isn't really pushing any culinary boundaries, it doesn't have to, it's bringing good food at affordable prices into the heart of London. The formuale menu with 3 courses, glass of wine and coffee is testament to this. Often you do get what you pay for, and dispite a bad main I would go back, maybe for the confit du canard. I've already recommended it to a fair few people, it's great for out of towners who gasp at the usual restaurant prices.