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Cheyne Walk Brasserie
Bringing a fresh Normandy breeze to Chelsea

Events at Cheyne Walk Brasserie Ask about the special tasting menus, where Chef Franck Lebeiz and Sommelier Olivier Caisson combine their skills in a food and wine matching contest to make your mouth water.  Literary Soirées in September  Tuesday evenings from 6.30pm - 8.30 pm Novelists Janet Davey and Katherine Davies will be reading from their latest books while you sip cocktails and nibble canapés, then of course it will be time for dinner!

Quelle Surprise! The Cheyne Walk Brasserie is a real 'find' - tucked away in a quiet, residential, chic and sophisticated Chelsea on the Walk itself. There's a fairly large lounge area upstairs which overlooks tree lined views of the River Thames. It's mostly used as a bar/waiting area or to host private functions as was the case on the night of our visit. Downstairs had a warm, cosy, almost 'local' feel. Much to our relief, we weren't greeted with head turning, spaghetti western saloon silence when we entered.

The décor is a mixture of traditional and art deco, with bare floorboards, aqua-marine couch seating, and some rather kitsch Moulin Rouge style lightning. The centrepiece is an open grill where in Celeb Chef fashion, the food is cooked in full view of the customers.

The menu was tempting: simple, typical French cuisine, but without the snails and frogs legs. Our first surprise was the starter - crudités accompanied by the assiette gourmande, recommended by our waiter. As expected the crudités were a medley of fresh raw vegetables, carrots, celery, strips of peppers, cherry tomatoes etc. however, what we didn't expect was the presentation! The waiter had referred it as a 'garden on the table' and that indeed was how it was presented…..a basket full of colourful freshly prepared vegetables along with a range of sauces to dip into. Our favourite was the blue cheese…this was a wonderful, refreshingly different entrée.

The assiette gourmande could have been a meal in itself. We were presented aubergine stuffed with tomato, salmon tartare prepared with parsley and spices, cured ham, bean salad, and the most delicious goat's cheese wrapped in filo pastry.

For our main course we had sea bass, and beef, Provencal style. The fish was simply grilled without any fancy trimmings, and as the offer of filleting was gladly accepted, it was bone free, and succulent…even the beef eater was tempted! Talking of beef - this came from the rack, thinly sliced with a garnish of rosemary and thyme. This is a proper French restaurant so red meat is cooked one notch lower than in a typical British kitchen. So expect 'well done' to be served a bit on the 'medium' side, whilst rare tends towards raw. We had side orders of wonderfully creamy Dauphinoise potatoes and some extremely thick cut chips….they weren't quite wedges, and they weren't quite chips, but, they were good either way - nice and crispy on the outside, and soft, but not mushy on the inside.

Now for our other surprise - dessert. Whilst there were some old tried and tested favourites such as crème brûlée, tarte Tatin and chocolate mousse, we decided to try the Brasserie's highly recommended speciality - 'moulee' This turned out to be a version of our old friend chocolate fondant, with chocolate sponge casing hiding a gloriously smooth, creamy (but not sickly) liquid chocolate centre - chocolate heaven even for non-chocoholics!  After that, we thought we'd better try one of the classics, and so we had to try their take on tarte Tatin, the familiar upside-down apple tart. However, this one came served with flambéed Calvados and could easily have served 2-4. The presentation was worth witnessing and added a spectacular pyrotechnic finale to the meal. Our liquid accompaniment throughout was a red Mercurey 2000, from Domaine Lorenzon (£42 a bottle) This was recommended by sommelier as it was considered a light enough red wine to accompany both red meat, and fish… he was right! Indeed, the service generally was welcoming, friendly, informative, attentive, and appropriate throughout. They appeared to be genuinely proud of what they had to offer. The overall impression we were left with was of a traditional Normandy Brasserie fused with a very upmarket restaurant in trendy Chelsea - a welcome surprise!

Our final note was that the Brasserie filled up by about 9.30 on a wet, stormy, Wednesday night. This for us was testimony to its popularity in this exclusive, and somewhat secluded end of London.

Kim McAusland and Nicole Scipio, August 2004

Cheyne Walk Brasserie, 50 Cheyne Walk, SW3 020 7376 8787

Brasserie, Bar and Cocktail Lounge Open: Monday - Friday noon till midnight Saturday and Sunday 10am till midnight (last orders 10.30pm Sundays) Average Per Head: £40 a la carte excl wine.

Summer lunch menus £16.95 for two courses and £19.95 for three. Children eat for free during the summer hols!

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