La Nouvelle Garde has nine restaurants in France and none anywhere else. Sloane Square changes that.
Amber glass chandeliers, checkerboard tile, rust velvet banquettes – the room reads exactly as retro French Riviera as it’s meant to, right down to the café tables spilling onto the pavement outside. The Parisian brasserie style has been captured so perfectly through the open kitchen and the all-day service – croissants at nine, steak frites by eight, the same room doing both without changing gear. The menu doesn’t try to reinvent anything – classic dishes done well without fuss.
It starts with the oyster bar sitting right off the main bar – langoustines, whole lobster, oysters shucked to order. We went for the oysters, local and flawless.
Hors d’oeuvres and entrées came together. Escargots et beurre persillé – snails bubbling away in a lava of garlic parsley butter. The prawns, straight off the wood fire grill in a slick of pepper oil, smoke worked all the way through the shell – rip them apart with your hands and a drizzle of lemon, but wear a dark shirt. Fish crudo followed, catch of the day sliced thin under grapefruit segments and a dressing sharp enough to reset the palate before the next plate landed.
This is where the kitchen shows its hand. French classics, executed properly, no reinvention required. Steak frites and the fillet both coming from the charcoal grill, bavette with a choice of peppercorn or béarnaise, the fillet blood-red in the centre, fries stacked alongside either. Lobster is the house dish for good reason – whole, garlic butter running straight into the fries underneath it.
Head chef Rachide Sambu Baldé joined us over dessert. We cracked through a perfectly caramelised crème brûlée and picked our way through the Paris-Brest’s distinct hazelnut flavour as he talked us through finally getting his own kitchen – well deserved, and the quality of classic French cooking coming out of Number 1 Sloane Square is a pretty damn good place to start.
