Chez Bruce

[Steve Plotnicki]

JD - I'm not sure I can explain the difference. It is more pronounced in the traditional dishes. Like the odds of getting a cassoulet in the U.S. that is any good is pretty low in my estimation (it's also low in France at this point I might add.) I can't tell you if it's the water, or the way the lardons flavor the food, or the way a French duck or goose renders it's fat. Chickens clearly taste different. As does meat. But it isn't much different then Italian food tasting good in Italy and not so good outside of Italy.

[stefanyb]

...it never ceases to amaze me how badly people take it when one of their favourite places is criticised.

I think it's simply that people feel that what they like and dislike says something about them as people and may therefore feel any criticism of a restaurant they are particularly fond of is not only a criticism of that place but also their taste. (There's a better way of saying that, but I can't think of it at the moment).

Well, you see, I have a theory about what a person finds insulting. I call it the "Green Hair Theory" and it goes like this:

Anything you say to someone that they know is absolutely untrue and couldn't ever be true tends not to bother them. Thats where the green hair comes in. If someone says to you - Yikes, your hair is really green- you would never be insulted, unless, of course, you were a blond and you swam in a chlorinated pool all the time, but leaving that possibility aside, you'd probably just chuckle or mumble something to yourself about what a lunatic the person was.

On the other hand, if someone says something to you that either you know to be true or you FEAR is true, then you tend to react to it and feel offended. The more afraid you are of it being true, the more offended you are.

So....if someone writes a critical piece about a restaurant you really like and you are afraid that your opinion is not really worth much, why then you are mortally wounded. If you are comfortable with yourself and satisfied with your own abilities and tastes, well then you can just shrug it off.

People who react strongly to someone else criticizing their favorite places are showing the world a whole lot about themselves.

[Tonyfinch]

But it isn't much different then Italian food tasting good in Italy and not so good outside of Italy.

Yes. I'm not so sure if the food actually tastes so much different as it is the difference in context and atmosphere.

As I've said before,my glass of pastis TASTES the same in Wapping as it does in Provence. But in Provence I love it and in Wapping I can hardly bear to smell it.

[Steve Plotnicki]

I think why you would like something in Provence and not in London (context and environment) is a different issue then the ingredients used in a dish tasting different in both places because of where they originate from.

Just look at how the broth from local chickens can flavor your risotto differently. I mean there's a reason other than technique that risotto tastes a certain way in Milan and that I've never managed to find it replicated anywhere else.

[Tonyfinch]

it never ceases to amaze me how badly people take it when one of their favourite places is criticised.

The giving and receiving of food,even though in a restaurant it's buying and selling, is so bound up with our intimate and personal needs that we relate to it almost on an instinctive basis.Our relationship with the person who feeds us in a restaurant is only a few shades away from our relationship with our primary feeder-our Mother.

I remember on another thread someone saying that they couldn't bear eating the food of someone they didn't like-no matter how good a cook they were. This chimes totally with me. One of the reasons I won't go to Ramsey's is that I don't want to eat the food of someone who thives on and cultivates his persona as a bully.

So to continue with the psychobabble,people take it badly because criticizing a restaurant they like is not too far from criticizing their mums.And you know full well that the only people allowed to criticise our mums is us.

[Andy Lynes]

The frankly technophobic Bruce Poole has been dragged kicking and screaming in to the 21st century and now has a rather spiffing website for his restaurant Chez Bruce which you can view here.

[Suzi Edwards]

andy,

i'm going here next month. can you let me know what his signature dishes are? anything especially good i should be looking out for?

[Jonathan Day]

A couple of interesting things on this site, which I agree is nicely put together.

First, they are going totally non-smoking as of March. This will be a huge improvement!

Second, in the "team" section:

We also try to foster and encourage a great interest in the London Restaurant 'scene' and regularly hold informal and in depth group discussions of recent staff dining experiences.

Perhaps we can recruit some of Bruce's staff members for eGullet -- what better way to discuss the London restaurant 'scene'?

I was surprised that the site doesn't mention that the menu is redone daily -- not every dish changes, but enough do that each dining experience at CB is different.

[MobyP]

I just had a very nice meal there. According to my step-mother, who is something of a regular, most of the staff have changed - which is to say, a different sommelier and waiters. I haven't confirmed this, though.

For my money, the food at Chez Bruce is always seriously good. Alas I was in the midst of a birthday celebration, and so couldn't pay the attention I usually would.

From the menu on the website, I had the "Stuffed quail with green beans, sauce soubise and red wine." Unfortunately I didn't have a chance to ask what the stuffing was. It was delicious, skillfully prepared, if a bit mild.

For my main, the "Sauté of calf’s offal and veal with celeriac purée and meat juices." It's rare that you get to order this kind of thing - veal kidneys, pink-red in the center, crispy sweetbreads, and some roast loin. Viscerally satisfying (excuse pun).

Kate had a pate de campagne with a foie gras mousseline to start - this was the best pate de campagne I've had, but it's a dish that could only be itself, i.e. it wasn't 'haute' cooking. Also quite mild, though the texture of the foie was gorgeous.

For her main: "Red mullet with crab and scallop lasagna, bisque sauce and chives." I only had a small taste of this, but it was delicious. The lasagne, obviously, reminiscent of a similar Square dish.

For puds: the Assiette of chocolate - which was reminiscent of the Pierre-White dish in his White Heat Book. Skillfully handled; several approaches on one plate.

Also the treacle tart, which was thick and unctuous (first use of that word this year - French judge awards 10 points).

Sorry for a lack of detail. I was attacked by several glasses of wine, all of which got the better of me.

Still, unequivocal recommendation.

Edited February 5, 2004 by MobyP (log)

[Jonathan Day]

Tarka, the cheeseboard at Chez Bruce is of very high quality, far better than I've had in many West End restaurants. The sommelier is also good, and the wine list is lengthy.

Bruce isn't quite a nose-to-tail cook a la Fergus Henderson, but there's a strong element of that in his cooking. Offal is treated with care and respect, whether in salads or in a main dish. Poached chicken arrives ever-so-slightly pink -- the waiters warn you when you order this dish -- and therefore wonderfully tender. Fish dishes are good, but his meat preparations are outstanding. So I would bias a bit toward meaty, offally dishes, and be sure to order the cheeseboard.

[MobyP]

Yes - I forgot. Someone ordered the cheese, and it was both exceptionally generous, and (the vacherin I tasted) very high quality.

[Andy Lynes]

can you let me know what his signature dishes are?

Bruce doesn't really do signature dishes and as Jonathan says, the menu changes often and there aren't many dishes that stay in tact for a consistent period of time. Exceptions to that may include deep fried goujon of plaice with home made tartar sauce (Bruce's batter recipe is the best I have come across and this is a great starter at lunch time) assiette of charcuterie, roast cod with saffron mash and red pepper compote, tarte tatin and the cheese board.

Bruce told me that he has recently completely revamped the menu with his head chef Matt Christmas and is very pleased with the results. Im going for lunch next week and I'll see if I can get him to fess up to the dishes he is most pround of at the moment and I'll report back next week.

[Andy Lynes]

According to my step-mother, who is something of a regular, most of the staff have changed - which is to say, a different sommelier and waiters.

Bruce has confirmed that the rumours of sommelier and "face of Chez Bruce"

Jason McAuliffe's departure are exaggerated.

[Suzi Edwards]

andy, you have no idea how tempting a cheese board sounds at the moment. i'm on day five of a detox (no booze, red meat, sugar, refined foods, wheat, dairy and fun) and would give my right arm for a good plate of cheese and a glass on red wine.

cheers for the info, i'm really looking forward to going now.

[Stigand]

I wonder if anyone has had the same problem as I have in using restaurants' websites?

I find that most restaurants are totally un-googlable, largely because a google serach for the restaurant name just generates pages and pages of 'www.london-eating.co.uk' and similar pages. These pages never link to the restaurants' websites, and usually contain totally unhelpful reviews. (Try it for Chez Bruce - in fact the only restaurant not affected is St John.)

If you want to check out a restaurant's menu or wine list, say, this is really annoying. Sometimes adding '-review' to the Google search helps (this was Google's advice to me), but usually not.

I'm dimly aware that Google works according to the number of sites that link to a given site and their popularity, but could anyone answer any of the following questions:

a) Why 'london-eating.com' scores so highly on Google search (it doesn't look like a very good site...);

b) Why they don't link to restaurants' websites (do they act as some sort of booking intermediary? Or have they just not thought of it?);

c) Whether there are any search engines that make looking for restaurants' own websites easy;

d) Whether there's anything simple restaurants can do to make their sites Google-friendly (short of setting up spurious links etc.).

[Suzi Edwards]

i've had the same problems as you. i think london-eating might come to the top most as they have either retained the services of search engine optimisation person, or they have paid for the honour.

i think that www.squaremeal.co.uk quite useful, it usually has a web address (if the restaurant has one)

might be a bit easier than googling?

[Stigand]

Wow - squaremeal.co.uk really does the trick. Thanks.

[PoppySeedBagel]

Square meal is good for getting tables at short notice through too

[Andy Lynes]

A splendid belated birthday blow out lunch at Chez Bruce on Tuesday this week. The restaurant was quite busy, with numbers inflated due to the current FT offer and with Bruce in the kitchen and Jason in the dining room, the place was on top form. The £23.50 lunch menu was almost identical to the £32.50 dinner menu currently online at the website. I chose the Oeuf en meurette with warm saucisson en brioche whilst Gill went for Assiette of charcuterie with foie gras parfait and celeriac rémoulade.

The ouef was accurately poached and sat on a generous slab of what I guess was ham hock. The bourgignone style sauce was rich and deeply flavoured. A slice of the brioche with saucisson running through was served on the side. The assiette was as generously portioned and impressive as ever and included duck ham, a country style terrine and pork rillette as well as the remoulade and velvery parfait.

We were drinking a Collioure 1997, “Clos du Moulin” Domaine du Mas Blanc, Pyrenées (£38.00) which went well with all the dishes but hit the button with a very rich dish of Sauté of calf’s offal and veal with celeriac purée and meat juices. Gill's red mullet with crab and scallop lasagna, bisque sauce and chives was another winner, although she felt the crab and scallop mousse that filled the lasagna was a little on the eggy side.

A hot chocolate pudding with praline parfait (a menu staple) which I accompanied with a glass of Banyuls 1985 and a passionfruit tartlet concluded a very memorable meal. The food at Chez Bruce has hit somewhat of a high point at the moment, which Bruce attributes partly to a successful working relationship between himself and head chef Matt Christmas.

[Jonathan Day]

Chez Bruce has changed, and for the better.

We took the children there for lunch on Sunday; the dishes had a finesse and clarity that we hadn't seen before. I had a cream of fennel soup that was, simply, amazing: a surprising smoothness and directness of flavour. It was served with crisp little "bastillas" of wild mushrooms that were a nice complement to the pillowy smoothness of the soup. Then a dish of mixed veal and calf's offal, the kind of thing Bruce does so well. Kidneys perfectly done, very good sweetbreads (I had somewhat better sweetbreads at Le Gavroche, the previous week) but the sauce was outstanding, much better than the calvados-based sauce that Le Gav had served. The gartinutes and purees served with all of our dishes had a polish that we hadn't seen before.

And finally, a griottine cherry ice that was beautifully flavoured; it was served with a warm madeleine that wasn't quite perfect, but was good nonetheless. My son had cheese for his dessert, which gave me a chance to nick morsels of vacherin Mont d'Or, Stilton, Mrs Kirkham's Lancashire, etc.; as before, the cheeses were all beautifully kept. My wife and all of the children enjoyed their meals a lot.

It's hard to tell from one tasting. But if this meal is at all typical, CB has risen to a new level of confidence and performance. It's a treat to have a restaurant of this calibre within an easy walk from home.

[John Whiting]

There are several Chez Bruce threads, but this has the simplest title.

__________________________________________________________

Sunday being my wife Mary’s birthday, and only a few days away from that of one of her oldest friends, it seemed an appropriate occasion for a meal that would be a total surprise to them both. We all live in the north of London, and far away below Wandsworth Common is Chez Bruce, a favorite of Jonathan Day and a number of other Gulleteers. Accordingly we set out for Sunday lunch, guided by a talking GPS system whose route aroused increasingly contradictory and confused speculations.

Once arrived and seated in the spacious white dining room, our expectations were happily aroused: first by the menu’s announcement that “Chez Bruce is a non-smoking restaurant” and then, from the very beginning, by the service. It reminded me of Chez Panisse: informed, courteous, relaxed without being off-hand, friendly without being presumptuously chummy.

And the food! Mary is not overly impressed by what London restaurants choose to call “French”, but she approached it with an open mind. For starters the four of us shared the Salade paysanne and the Goat’s cheese crostini. I’m partial to both duck breast and calf’s brains; these were cooked to perfection and separate enough on the plate to taste them individually, but well coordinated in flavor so that they married happily.

For a main course Mary ordered the veal, well done. The waiter didn’t bat an eye. It arrived exactly the way she likes it – thoroughly cooked but still moist and springy in texture. My own choice, the Navarin of lamb, proved to be printanier; i.e. served with fresh spring vegetables cooked à point. The lamb, underneath its rich crust, held its shape but could have been eaten with a dull spoon.

Mary’s only slight quibble was with her Honey and stem ginger ice cream, which could have been a bit more intensely flavored with ginger. I opted for the cheese board and was magically transported back to France. What lingers in my mind is a soft pyramid of chèvre, with the texture of a loose fresh goat cheese but having a voluptuously ripe flavor. If I’d been alone, I would shamelessly have polished it off.

As the afternoon progressed, we noted the arrival of a succession of diners so corporeally well-endowed as to suggest that they might be regulars. Thank heavens we live on the other side of London, a slow and inconvenient journey away!

Chez Bruce is indeed “modern French”, showing its roots but original, even surprising, without descending into vulgar eccentricity. Together with our other favorite, Racine, they now form a pair of French restaurants in London to which we will happily return.

Edited May 4, 2004 by John Whiting (log)

[Matthew Grant]

Excellent dinner on Saturday night.

Started with Mackerel salad with beetroot, grain mustard, watercress and crisp pancetta. The Mackerel was a touch over not done and the skin looked wonderful on the plate, I'm a recent convert to beetroot and the warm pieces were a nice earthy component to the dish. Rachel had Rare grilled tuna with salsa, avocado, crème fraîche and coriander. Only got one bite of the tuna which was excellent, too nice slices of tuna seared on the outside virtually raw in the middle.

Rachel's main of Roast Black Leg chicken with herb stuffing, morels, gnocchi and pan juices was simply served. A large supreme (a surprisingly large wing bone!) with a buttery stuffing under the skin. The stuffing was predominantly tarragon. The chicken was cooked to perfection and I was actually allowed two bites of this. On a seperate dish were the Gnocchi. Rachel always finds Gnocchi rather pointless and I'm trying to find a reason to disagree with her, however they disappeared from the plate very quickly

I had Confit Pork Belly with Chorizo and a bean salad 4 slices of melting meat and crispy crackling (if its not crispy then I suppose it's not crackling?) accompanied with a variety of beans and slices of cooking Chorizo.

Desserts were a revelation, I can't remember the last time we had such great desserts. Cherry and almond tart with jersey cream was sensational but Rachel's Raspberry and vanilla tartlet with lemon curd stole the show.. VERY thin crisp pastry, filled with Lemon Curd with large raspberries on top, on the side was a super vanilla ice cream. This was the best Lemon tart I have tried since the days of Nico

Two minor gripes - the service was a little slow and when we asked for a wine recommendation were immediately shown 3 around with the cheapest being £48 mark

The food at Chez Bruce is relatively simple cooking but executed fantastically, thoughtful combinations allow the quality of the ingredients to shine. Even though Bruce Poole wasn't in the kitchen it is quite obviously working very well.

[bateman]

a) Why 'london-eating.com' scores so highly on Google search (it doesn't look like a very good site...);

b) Why they don't link to restaurants' websites (do they act as some sort of booking intermediary? Or have they just not thought of it?);

c) Whether there are any search engines that make looking for restaurants' own websites easy;

d) Whether there's anything simple restaurants can do to make their sites Google-friendly (short of setting up spurious links etc.).

Hello, haven't been on the forum for a while, must spend more time around here, and registration had lapsed so had to wait to get reactivated.

a) I would argue that it isn't a good site, but I am a bit biased. London Eating started as a site for everyone who goes to restaurants, and as such gives everyone a voice, whether they are a seasoned restaruant goer or just a valentines day and birthday visitor. We have a varied mix of people sending in reviews to us from some of the best i have read (Howard Long who I have seen on this forum) to people who write a couple of sentances. Traffic wise we are the largest restaurant guide in the UK (Hitwise figures) and the results on google are a reflection on this.

b) WHen London Eating started maybe 5 in 5000 restaurants had a website so linking to restaurants didn't come into it. We have just lauched London Drinking London Drinking where we are starting to link to bars official sites and if our readers find this useful we will roll this out on the next build of London Eating. Unlike some other sites, although we have just started offering online booking we will always display the offiicial number for the restaurant and not our booking line.

c) I'm afraid it would be impossible to do, however look at the DMOZ directory where you should find most direct links.

d) Just have clear information on their sites.

Hope that clears up a few things.

Charles

Edited June 24, 2004 by bateman (log)

[Suzi Edwards]

a) I would argue that it isn't a good site, but I am a bit biased. London Eating started as a site for everyone who goes to restaurants, and as such gives everyone a voice, whether they are a seasoned restaruant goer or just a valentines day and birthday visitor. We have a varied mix of people sending in reviews to us from some of the best i have read (Howard Long who I have seen on this forum) to people who write a couple of sentances. Traffic wise we are the largest restaurant guide in the UK (Hitwise figures) and the results on google are a reflection on this.

i always think the problem with the site is that lots of people post really negative things about the service and say nothing about the food...it seems to be people ranting rather than debating. it's still an occaisonal useful source for me though.

maybe we can convert you to egullet :-)

come on andy, start the flirty fishing.

[bateman]

I think certainly the majority of diners and not really the 'foodies' seem to value service over anything else while going out, I certainly notice it when I go out with friends who rarely dine out (or really cook) and don't realise some of the differing quality of food out there. We are though making a big effort to add our official reviews, which do actually refer to the food to as many restaurants as we can over the next few months.

You should see some of the reviews we can't use as well!

Glad you do find us of use sometimes, is also good to get feedback on what people like/dislike.

BTW, we haven't paid for the honor of being top, or employ a Search Engine Expert.