• Privacy policy
  • T&C’s
  • FAQ
  • Meet the Team
  • About The London Economic
  • Advertise
TLE ONLINE SHOP!
NEWSLETTER
SUPPORT THE LONDON ECONOMIC
  • TLE
  • News
  • Politics
  • Opinion
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Entertainment
  • Film
  • Food
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Travel
  • Tech/Auto
No Result
View All Result
The London Economic
  • TLE
  • News
  • Politics
  • Opinion
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Entertainment
  • Film
  • Food
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Travel
  • Tech/Auto
No Result
View All Result
The London Economic
No Result
View All Result
Home Food and Drink

Restaurant Review – Petit Pois Bistro

Unlike Burger & Lobster, Bao, Duck & Waffle and other popular restaurants with names that showcase their signature (and sometimes solitary) dishes – there is not a pea in sight on the menu at Petit Pois Bistro. Opened just a few months ago, the restaurant is a new venture from the team behind successful cocktail […]

Jon Hatchman by Jon Hatchman
September 23, 2016
in Food and Drink, Restaurants
TLE

Petit Pois Bistro

Unlike Burger & Lobster, Bao, Duck & Waffle and other popular restaurants with names that showcase their signature (and sometimes solitary) dishes – there is not a pea in sight on the menu at Petit Pois Bistro.

Opened just a few months ago, the restaurant is a new venture from the team behind successful cocktail bars Happiness Forgets and Original Sin, “tired of all the new restaurants in London being either super fine-dining, or gourmet fast food.” Taking over a tiny space on the corner of Hoxton Square, the 25 cover dining room is extremely informal and looks as though it has been dragged kicking and screaming across the channel with its exposed brick walls, French pendant lighting and chairs very similar to those famously painted in Casa Van Gogh.

As for the food, the restaurant showcases the sort of classic French cooking that’s seldom seen within restaurants in the UK, particularly the opulent gastro temples that fill the Michelin guide. To start, Moules Mariniere offered a bowl of mussels that had been cooked and cleaned properly, bathing in a pool of sauce the colour of dirty dish water. Although unappetising on the eye, the liquid had bold flavours of wine and sweet ripe tomatoes, working in harmony with the shellfish’s natural salinity. Also quite brilliantly, the dish was served alongside a finger bowl: an unwritten invitation to contact our primitive side and eat with our fingers. Blue cheese soufflé, on the other hand, resembled a fluffy Yorkshire pudding that had been slightly burnt on top. Conversely, the dish delivered a level of indulgence bold enough to compete with the city’s finest available cheese soufflés, all without the potency of blue cheese overpowering the otherwise delicate dish.

TLE
Steak Frites at Petit Pois Bistro.

A classic brasserie dish of steak frites favoured a cut of flat iron (taken from the cow’s shoulder) instead of the traditional rump, or even common entrecôte. A cheaper “off cut” of beef, flat iron is a marvellous steak that, if prepared properly, is almost as tender as expensive fillet, yet with far more marbling that results in a depth of flavour that’s infinitely superior. While the steak had been cooked to a perfect medium-rare, the meat was disappointingly tough – possibly due to careless butchery, with the improper removal of the gristly fascia membrane. Elsewhere, the accompanying fries retained some of the potato skin which added pleasant depth of flavour, and a pot of béarnaise sauce was all the better for its heavy handed addition of tarragon.

RelatedPosts

How to make: Risotto with asparagus and Prosecco DOC

Shake Shack introduces new Vegan Crispy Shallot Burger

Cocktail Recipe: The Duppy Share spiced piña colada

How To Make: Banana Bread

Far better was a leg of confit duck that had spent the past few hours submerged in hot fat. As a result, the skin was crisper than a new polymer five-pound note, the meat fell from the bone with little need for cutlery and the flavour delivered all of the richness and decadence expected from a menu so quintessentially French. The same can be said for a cast iron ramekin of gratin dauphinoise, comprising slivers of potato that had been cooked in an unhealthy (read: delectable) amount of cream and topped with hot melted cheese.

Since opening, the chocolate mousse dessert has received an onslaught of justified praise. Served from a mixing bowl that looks as though salvaged from 1942, the mousse was topped with a sprinkling of bitter cocoa powder. This worked surprisingly well in contrast with the ludicrously sweet dessert that’s not dissimilar to the most perfect raw cake mixture, promptly resurging so many fond childhood memories. It is not merely nostalgia value that makes this dessert so exceptional, nonetheless: it is the simplicity, the smoothness, and the perfect balance in quantities of heavenly chocolate, cream and egg yolk. Had the portion size been less sizeable, I may well have insisted on elongating the nostalgia trip, gluttonously licking every last trace from the mixing bowl’s surface.

Though not all dishes are the absolute ‘crème de la crème’ of Bistro cooking, the food is served with a certain rustic charm, presenting itself as more of a warm hug than a snooty grimace at even the slightest incorrect pronunciation of dishes from a menu prestige. What’s more, it seems very much as though that’s the scrupulous intention, ultimately making Petit Pois a fine new addition to the seemingly endless list of Hoxton restaurants.

Petit Pois Bistro can be found at 9 Hoxton Square, London, N1 6NU.

–

Tags: HoxtonPetit Pois Bistro
Support fearless, free, investigative journalism Support fearless, free, investigative journalism Support fearless, free, investigative journalism

Subscribe to our Newsletter

View our  Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions

Trending fromTLE

  • All
  • trending

What If We Got Rid Of Prisons?

Stress, fear and homelessness: The threat looming over families confronted with eviction

File photo dated 07/11/03 of a prison cell.

The Other Prison Pandemic

Latest from TLE

Lucky Numbers and Horoscopes for today, 21 April 2021

Image by AdobeStock

Weather forecast, alerts and UVB index for London, Wednesday 21 April 2021

Derek Chauvin cuffed and led out of court after being found guilty of murder and manslaughter in George Floyd case

Plan for White House-style briefings scrapped despite £2.6m being spent on venue

About Us

TheLondonEconomic.com – Open, accessible and accountable news, sport, culture and lifestyle.

Read more

Address

The London Economic Newspaper Limited t/a TLE
Company number 09221879
International House,
24 Holborn Viaduct,
London EC1A 2BN,
United Kingdom

Contact

Editorial enquiries, please contact: jack@thelondoneconomic.com

Commercial enquiries, please contact: advertise@thelondoneconomic.com

SUPPORT

We do not charge or put articles behind a paywall. If you can, please show your appreciation for our free content by donating whatever you think is fair to help keep TLE growing and support real, independent, investigative journalism.

DONATE & SUPPORT

© 2019 thelondoneconomic.com - TLE, International House, 24 Holborn Viaduct, London EC1A 2BN. All Rights Reserved.




No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
  • Politics
  • Opinion
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Entertainment
  • Film
  • Lifestyle
  • Food
  • Property
  • Travel
  • Tech & Auto
  • About The London Economic
  • Meet the Team
  • Privacy policy

© 2019 thelondoneconomic.com - TLE, International House, 24 Holborn Viaduct, London EC1A 2BN. All Rights Reserved.