Last week myself and a few other bloggers were very lucky enough to be invited along to try the newly opened PAUL restaurant in Covent Garden.
You probably know PAUL for their delicious pastries and macaroons but the chain has just opened their first restaurant right here in London. As PAUL first opened in France I would have assumed that their first restaurant would have been in Paris but lucky for us Londoners we’ll be the first ones to try out their new venture.
I’m already such a huge fan of the PAUL cafes, they have such a lovely French feel to them with their chic glass cake counters and they have continued with this feel through to their restaurant. The dinning room can be found at the back of the Covent Garden cafe and has a very relaxed fell to it.
They have quite an extensive menu to pick from filled with plates to share, cold small plates to share, hot starters and mains. To start with we decided to share the Charcuterie and Petit Camembert au Four.
The Charcuterie came with a selection of saucisson, jambon cru, coppa, rosette, terrine and smoked duck breast. If you’re a meat lover then this is the starter for you, I’ve seen my fair share of cured meat boards and this one was really impressive. My favourite was the smoked duck breast.
As I’m much more of a cheese lover the Camembert was the clear winner for me. It was baked with rosemary and garlic and finished off with balsamic vinegar with gave a lovely caramelised taste. Looking at this photo I could eat it all over again!
For the mains there is a really good selection of regional dishes to pick from, but as soon as I spotted the Entrecôte I knew my choice had been made.
I picked the 7oz Scottish Sirloin Steak and that came with tomato, french fries and a choice of Bearnaise or Bordelaise sauce. This was £17.95, which I thought was a really good price for filet steak with sides. The steak is cooked more of the rare side than well done so make sure you have it well done if you don’t like any pink bits. Mine was cooked medium to well done which was perfectly pink and tender.
By the time desert came around I was already pretty full but felt I should at least sample something sweet so I opted for the Lemon Cream Tarte, which had a nice balance of zest and cream.
Overall I’m really impressed with PAUL’s first venture out of pastries. I think the menu is reasonably priced and the food was delicious. They also do an amazingly priced pre-theatre menu at £11.75 for three courses!
The dining room isn’t huge so I would image you would need to book but it’s definitely somewhere to visit.
