Last Friday we escaped the office and headed to Coq D'Argent in the City http://www.coqdargent.co.uk/. We had booked the extremely good value three courses for £25 set menu (available at weekends, which appear to include a Friday in the City), as we are sadly not in possession of an expense account. We were shown to our table with its great views over to the Monument and the Shard. We ordered a Kir and settled in to peruse the rather lovely menu - certainly one of the best set menus I have seen this year.
I ordered the snails to start. I've never really been a big fan since the time when I was in Normandy aged 8 years old and my mother told my brother (then 5) and I that they were mushrooms and that we should just eat them. My brother chose the moment the entire restaurant of chic French people went silent to shout 'uuurrgggh, they're snails'. He's always had impeccable timing. So, I've steered clear of snails, but have never really been a fussy eater and have always been a fan of the philosophy 'if you fall off the bike, get back on it'. Snails it was then:
They were beautiful. Fat old shells, meaty molluscs inside and drenched in garlicky, herby butter - perfectly mopped up with the never ending bread you are offered.
The main course was venison with a crust of pistachio and cocoa nibs, served with mash and baby vegetables:
The venison was perfectly cooked, still pink (I love that when you order meat in a French restaurant they serve it how it should be done as opposed to how the customer wants it done, which is so often overcooked) and very tender. The pistachio and cocoa nib crust was perfect, the slight bitterness of the chocolate balancing the rich gamey sweetness of the meat. As you can see from the picture, the accompaniments were not too much, which meant that we could go on to the dessert course - hurrah!
As a slight aside, Coq D'Argent has recently won the Louis Roederer Wine List of the Year 2011. I was given the wine list to make a choice - gulp - and was a bit freaked out by both the size of the selection and some of the prices. Note to people - at the back of the wine list is a very reasonable and very lovely selection of wines, from which we had a very nice bottle of Argentinian Malbec for £35.
So, we ordered the red wine, and we still had most of the bottle left - therefore our third course had to be cheese. Five different cheese, served at room temperature (so often not the case and one of my pet hates to be eating fridge-cold cheese), we lingered and finished the bottle while stuffing ourselves full of the well thought out selection of cheese, which included one of my favourites, the Normandy Livarot. The cheese was a £4 supplement, but as the whole menu still worked out at less than £30 a head, it was excellent value.
I can't recommend the £25 set menu here enough. It's such a treat to be able to enjoy this restaurant without paying through the nose, for those of us not lucky enough to be able to entertain clients! And the fact that they don't compromise on quality with their set menu is as it should be, not the bonus we have come to almost expect from such deals. Choose a sunny day when you can escape for a couple of hours and go and enjoy.
