The French Table — Restaurant in London

What can be said that hasn't already by countless others - this restaurant is an absolute gem. Everything from the ease of contacting the restaurant, to the attentive yet unobtrusive wait staff and the beautifully prepared food, this was nothing short of flawless in our last two recent visits.

The food is exceptional. The bread we started with was, in my mind, the best of any restaurant I have ever been to - the Chorizo spiced bread being a particular favorite - and alone worthy of a visit. The starter of artichoke velouté was hearty and filling - it was indulgent for a starter, sure, but perfectly weighted to ensure our mains would still be able to steal the show. My venison was cooked to perfection, with the accompanying boulangére celeriac and dijon mustard puree providing a delicate and ever-so-slightly-sweet balance to the dish that honestly, might have been the best thing I have eaten all year. Finally, the dessert - I must confess that I am not typically concerned here and it is not my most important metric when thinking about the overall quality of a restaurant. However, on occasion, a dessert will be the thing I remember most and the bread and butter pudding with poached pear I had here is the best dessert I have had - possibly ever - but certainly since Fera at Claridges closed it's doors in 2018. It was simply perfect.

Myself and my partner are extremely bad with time management and do often struggle to keep reservations that we make - we were slightly late on both occasions and the staff did everything they could to accommodate us and allow us to dine. We were not rushed despite being the final service, our food came out with the exact same care and effort that every other punctual table around us received and they could not have made us feel more welcome. So much so, that we booked another table only a couple of days later as they had a rare slot available and we needed to 'complete' the seasonal menu.

I note that many people express their bewilderment that this restaurant has not received a Michelin star, and while you will often see people state this in other reviews where such a comment can be dismissed as hyperbole (a Michelin star is not measure of how good your evening is), in the case of this particular restaurant, it genuinely is confusing. I can honestly say this is the best experience I have had in ANY restaurant this year - surpassing even Helene Darroze at the Connaught and Phillip Howard's fare in Elystan Street. I really do mean this. To be honest, this place is a local icon; one that is so successful from word-of-mouth praise from its local devotees that it is harder to get a table here than The Araki and that is highest praise indeed.

Long may this restaurant serve the community of Surbiton and I cannot wait till my next booking - in about a month.

Thanks to everyone at the French Table for a lovely couple...

There were some nice details that enhanced the experience i.e., blown glassware, premium linens. However, 2.5 hours for a 3 course meal? No. absolutely not. Im pregnant so I wasn’t drinking; but we ran out of water twice. We didn’t bother asking for more when my desert came. My boyfriend just skipped desert. He ordered a coffee drink instead. It came several, (5 maybe?) after my desert. We assumed they forgot it. The food was flavorful but not recognizable as standout. Our table was bizarrely short with chair heights that made it difficult to find comfort. My chair was also sloping from the old floor so that made the experience even more uncomfortable. Again, Im 14 weeks pregnant so I’m already prone to being uncomfortable, to be fair. The 3 course experience was £58-68? I think that is fair-ish. The service definitely needs to be trained up for that price but seams right for Michelin- formerly Michelin?-esque food. Interestingly higher usage of truffles and truffle oil then I expected. Seems a bit dated for an American but I also had a man in a pub laugh at the thought of me finding french onion soup on a menu over here. Have to assume its a here vs there situation.

Overall, it was an experience. Not one we have time for or would go out of our way to experience again. Our waiter changed towards the end of the meal so I assume extra help arrived. When we arrived, it was just another couple upstairs. It was half full when we left. Downstairs looked 75% full when we left. I cant imagine how long a later reservation took for their meal. ——— Weeknight, 6:45 rez upstairs for 2. Would likely have given a 5 if not for time and disappointing service. Everyone was lovely, seems like a lack of staff and/or training. Its mostly the 2.5 hours for 3 courses. We just had a 10 course in 2.75 hours with a party of 8...

Even though we tried to leave any prejudice about gourmet experience behind, and despite being aware of what we were going to, the size of the dishes served still managed to dissapoint us. If it hadn't been because of the cheese course we ordered as an extra to the 5 course menu for each, we would have walked out of the place hungry. I understand that the focus is in the tasting experience, but other than the lamb course and desserts, the dishes served weren't even remotely amazing, and what drawed the attention about them was how some of the ingredients were added with the apparent and sole purpose of making the description of the course larger (i.e. black olive, and there were literally two thin slices of an olive...?) to the point it was silly. Like, why would you serve a dish with a quarter of a soft boiled egg, or one single small mollusc? I don't think it would hurt them to increase the size at least so that the sum of the five courses would make up for a proper, normal dinner so that an average person would be satisfied. Two other things that bothered us: the long wait between courses (the dinner took us 2 hours and a half due to long waits mainly), and that the waiter stood right next to our table chatting with the people on the adjancet table often and for way too long, which felt a bit invasive and uncorfomtable. What we enjoyed the most were the lamb course, the dessert and the cheese board. As an overall, I think it is fine for one time, but wouldn't go...