Our long-waited visit Brasserie Blanc
How have we never been to Brasserie Blanc? This week, I realised that that was a mistake, after visiting their restaurant in Gunwharf Quays and thoroughly enjoying it. Recently, we’ve been spending a lot of time in craft beer bars eating what I call ‘beige food’. Don’t get me wrong, I love all that, but sometimes it’s nice to put on a dress and a touch of makeup and have a special date night. Three courses with wine – oh how I love that.
The menu
We were invited to Brasserie Blanc to try their new autumn menu. The place felt spacious but cosy, just how you’d expect a nice restaurant to feel, the type you’d wear a dress to. However, it certainly wasn’t pretentious and you wouldn’t feel out of place if you stopped by after a day of shopping. We were shown to our table by Paul who was lovely. All the staff were lovely and had just the right level of attentiveness.
The wine list
We started with a chilled glass of fizz and ordered a bottle of Chilean red wine as we are going to Chile soon, so figured it would be good to try a Chilean wine! I was impressed at how big the wine list was. On it were the tasting notes, which helped me choose as I know exactly what I like. It was the mocha in this red wine that sold it to me. I loved it.
Our starters
It wasn’t as easy to choose the food as everything sounded delicious. There’s one thing that goes perfectly with red wine and that’s cheese. So, we settled on the cheese souffle and the baked Saint-Marcellin cheese to share. Both were incredibly good and the cheese souffle was cooked to perfection. I think this may have been my favorite.
The main event
From the mains, the Morrocan vegetable tagine, Malabar fish curry and grilled cauliflower steak all caught my eye. Even some of the meat options sounded lovely and I rarely eat meat. I went for the Chalkstream trout with brown shrimps, cauliflower puree, beurre noisette, spring onion crushed potatoes, capers and parsley which was fantastic, despite not really liking shrimps or potatoes (I’m not that fussy, promise!). Everything was well presented and had plenty of flavour.
Carlos had the Gressingham duck leg confit with blackberry sauce, french beans, carrots, dauphinoise potatoes and poached blackberries. I had a bite and it was divine. As you can tell, we both really enjoyed our mains!
To end
Next up was dessert which, for me, is always the best bit. We went for what appears to be Brasserie Blanc’s signature dessert. The pistachio souffle was served with rich chocolate ice cream which, like the cheese souffle, was beautifully cooked. You can never have enough souffle in my eyes as it’s not something I can’t replicate at home.
We also shared the chocolate delice with a crisp feuilletine base, dark chocolate ganache, cacao tuile, glazed hazelnuts & pistachios, dark chocolate sauce, honeycomb ice cream. It tasted as good as it looks. I also ordered a French dessert wine because our meal was feeling rather special and it felt like a good way to end a great evening. As you can tell from this sterling review, we’ll be back!
H x
Ambience 9
Quality 9.5
Value 9
Service 9
Overall 9.5
Return? Yes!