THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED French House Dining Room

THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED French House Dining Room Restaurant Review:

Now a stalwart of Soho, this restaurant above an eccentric pub (with which it shares lavatories down some rickety stairs, so beware) appears to have been here long before the current generation of bohos was born but, in fact, dates back less than a decade. The small, bare-boards upstairs room with tortoiseshell laquered walls is intimate, with an almost conspiratorial atmosphere generated by the kind of customer who doesn’t belong in the brash new world of media West End. If the surroundings are a little louche, the cooking is quite the opposite. It’s British and resolutely seasonal, but not an exercise in heritage. The menu is uncompromisingly direct: grilled squid and aioli; grilled lamb and chickpea, potato, artichoke and olives. Each will be cooked simply and honestly, but nevertheless skillfully, producing generously proportioned, full-flavoured dishes. Expect something like chocolate pot or prune and Armagnac ice cream for desserts. Wines are a good, sturdy selection from France. Prices, too, especially for Soho, are another example of the French House’s disarming integrity: they’re lower than they need be.