Frenchie

Frenchie Covent Garden by Gregory Marchand is the newest outpost of the hugely popular Frenchie, Frenchie Wine Bar, Frenchie To Go and Frenchie Wine Shop hailing from the Rue du Nil in Paris’ 2nd arrondissement.

Frenchie Covent Garden - Home

http://www.frenchiecoventgarden.com

Frenchie - London Restaurant Reviews | Hardens

Frenchie, Covent Garden, London: food without roots

Frenchie, London: Restaurant Review | Olive Magazine - olive ...

During his time at Fifteen restaurant, Greg Marchand was nicknamed ‘Frenchie’ by Jamie Oliver, and has so named his bistro in Paris after gaining further experience in New York, London and his hometown of Nantes, France.

More recently, Greg has popped back over la Manche to bring his modern French cooking to Covent Garden in his new branch of Frenchie.

One of the smart, charming French waiters tells us it’s a secret recipe, but adds in a whisper that Greg uses only smoked bacon, maple syrup and flour to create these caramelised, salty, bacon-studded snacks.

Frenchie Paris’s signature pulled-pig slider is also excellent, sandwiching soft, smoked meat and crunchy red-cabbage coleslaw in a brioche bun.

For something a little more refreshing, try aromatic sorrel sorbet with cubes of Granny Smith apple coated in a salty, sweet crumb, finished with matcha tea powder and meringue pieces, to nod to the Frenchie in Greg.

Frenchie: The golden Gallic touch | London Evening Standard

I ate three times at Frenchie last week, figuring that repeat visits in the soft opening period — 50 per cent off food prices, which is palatable and very welcome — must equal at least one (quite hefty) full-price visit.

Rare-breed pork from Richard Vaughan’s Huntsham Farm in Herefordshire for terrine (surely there are not more giant pandas in the world than Middle White pigs, as the publicity says); Shetland pollock; 100-days-old chicken from The Ginger Pig; Keen’s Cheddar in the gnocchi; Maldon sea salt in caramel; new-season Yorkshire rhubarb.

My chum starts with roasted carrots and I try the pork terrine reminiscing about recipes from Elizabeth David’s French Country Cooking.

After I explain to my guest the Coco Chanel principle of getting dressed and ready and then taking off at least one thing before you go out, he remarks that the bacon bits on the ice cream could go as well as the dill on the carrots and the shamrock (microherbs) on the pollock.

Items I wholeheartedly recommend are Clarence Court egg mimosa topped with shredded black truffle; smoked anchovies laid out neatly on toast buttered with Neal’s Yard salted; pressed duck foie gras with smoked eel, beets and grated frozen horseradish (sublime); ricotta tortelli with Lapsang Souchong and lemon caviar; pink Yorkshire rhubarb.

Frenchie, London, restaurant review: 'small plates, big ambitions'

Still, the restaurant is only a few weeks old, and it will probably find its feet.

I confidently expect that within a few years, there will be a Frenchie coffee shop opposite and a Frenchie juice bar next door.

Frenchie, London WC2: 'This is no insouciant little bistrot ...

The fact that it takes superhuman effort to score a booking at Greg Marchand’s foamingly reviewed Frenchie in Paris means that this new arrival coasts in on a wave of feverish anticipation.

For others, the anticipation is laced with schadenfreude: other successful overseas names (fellow Parisian sensation Inaki Aizpitarte and Le Chabanais; Hong Kong’s “X-treme chef” Alvin Yeung and Bo London) hit the capital only to crash and burn.

For lamb pappardelle, £16 might not seem unreasonable (central London, remember) until it delivers a dish – a ravishing slurp of wriggly egg pasta dressed with ripest, slow-cooked lamb hugging aniseedy depths – that disappears in a couple of mouthfuls.

I reckon Frenchie will take on London and win, but this is no insouciant little bistrot.

• Frenchie 16 Henrietta Street, London WC2, 020-7836 4422.

Frenchie | Restaurants in Covent Garden, London

That’s how Jamie Oliver used to greet his Nantes-born head chef Gregory Marchand when they shared the kitchens at Fifteen.

And so, on April Fool’s Day of all days, Frenchie was born: a tiny restaurant, down a cobbled Parisian alley, where you can’t get a table for six months.

You come for cooking: impeccably composed modern European small plates.

Though it may seem a bit randomly hipster, the pulled pig slider – a signature from Parisian Frenchie's wine bar – is a must-try, thanks to its house-smoked meat and lightly pickled, crunchy red cabbage.

So we offer several hand-clapping emojis to Monsieur Marchand, a man in possession of the key ingredients for a brilliant chef.