Ooooh la la a La Strand

Although we do have a dining club at work, the majority of people care little about food, and normally my moans about the lack of options around the Strand falls on deaf ears. But I must admit that it is steadily getting better. In the last year or so, we've had a few good chainy places open up near work - Carluccio's, Wahaca, and to the joy of the males in the office, Nando's. I also really like Bedford & Strand, a lovely little wine bar place that does very good quality British grub.

There was also another little wine bar on William IV Street which I also liked, mainly because it used to serve proper British bangers as a bar snack with your vino. This place appears to have died since I've been away though, replaced by a littel French brasserie/wine bar called Terroirs. Matthew Norman nearly wet himself about this place in the Guardian a few weeks ago, giving it 9.5/10 (read the review here). Just the mention of duck scratchings was enough for me to go.

Unfortunately, it seems that the whole of London also read that review, and it's near impossible to get a table there at a decent time. Even on a Wednesday night, calling a few days ahead got us a table at 9pm, which inevitably meant a glass of wine at Gordon's beforehand, which meant I was a little squiffy when it finally was time for dinner.

Inside though, it is very buzzy and tres francais in appearance. The lovely shiny red tables are a little bit too close together, but it just gave us the opportunity to be nosy at what our neighbours were eating. The menu is roughly separated at bar snacks (e.g. duck scratchings at £2.50), charcuterie featuring some very happy pigs (£9 for the board), small plates (e.g. potted shrimp at £7), and plats du jour (e.g. sea bream with cockles at £14).

Greedy as ever, we wanted to try as many things as possible, so we went for a variety of small plates, a bit like French tapas really. The following, clockwise from the top left, are potted shrimp on toast, garlicky bacon and snails, and smoked eel with celeriac remoulade:

Bacon and snails again here, but the scallopy looking one is actually bone marrow with truffles, and the little pot are those very famous duck scratchings:

We also had a chorizo with piperade (spelling?), which is basically a very thick red pepper sauce:

Highlights of the meal was definitely the eel - such a good combination with the remoulade, which cut through the richness of the fish, and the portion just the right size to make you want a little bit more. I also now have a new business idea of packaging those duck scratchings and selling them in corner shops, for which I will probably face a law suits from people keeling over with heart attacks.

It was all executed very well, but like at St John, you do have to think about the combination of things you order. Our selection definitely had too many salty porky things, which would have benefited from a nice plain salad really. We also had a very unexciting crepe with cherries whcih was quite unspectacular.

Overall though, I'm just waiting for this to be less popular so it can be more of a easy place to pop by after work. I also love the fact that they do a good range of 500ml carafes of wine, which means if there are 2 of you, you can have a little bit more than a glass of wine between you without having to order a whole bottle.