Tipped

I couldn't fault it

September 24, 2008

I went as part of a group of 8 - I'd been before a while ago and had read a few reviews about how it had gone downhill so I was a bit concerned.

Gastros is arranged over two rooms in a ramshackle way. They haven't splashed out on expensive furniture or crockery: you drink wine from a glass tumbler rather than a wine glass etc. But in my view, this is part of the charm.

The waitress we had was really lovely, very friendly, and... well, French. She spoke a mixture of French and English and indulged our indecision when it came to ordering.

Some of the negative reviews were concerning the 'arrogant french' staff... I didn't find this at all apart from the fact that some of our requests were 'interdit'. So our requests for:
- Tabasco with our oysters
- Well-done steak
- Tomato ketchup
..were all met with a very firm 'non'. You could call this arrogance, but I just think it was the chef saying you're not gonna mess up this food that I've lovingly prepared for you. Some people might hate that, I quite liked it.

So, I had oysters for starters, shared a cote de boeuf for main and followed it off with a creme brulee (which i couldn't finish as it was so big).

We had a really good night, great food, friendly staff, and unpretentious environment. I told a colleague who is French about it afterwards and she said "ugh I would hate to go there" - so it struck me that to an actual French person this might feel a bit like a theme restaurant, but to us Francophile Brits it felt like the real thing.

Tags: french, simple, friendly staff, unpretentious

relaxed and easy

May 25, 2008

we went there as a big group and although they messed up our reservation so we were not on the big table, we had a good time. They were accomodating as we moved from one table to the next and didnt mind that we were all standing around drinking at the bar. The food was fine, not amazing but for the price and atmosphere it was passable.