A Miracle in Covent Garden

In January we needed to pick a lunch venue before a matinee of The Motive and the Cue at the Noël Coward Theatre on St Martin’s Lane.

We usually go to J Sheekey but the retired banker said she’d like a change. I have become the nominated restaurant chooser recently. I rely on my assistant; the online Harden’s restaurant guide. This is top-notch for restaurants in London and a few other cities in England and Scotland: Bath, Birmingham, Brighton, Bristol, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle and Oxford. I wonder why so many cities in the UK start with letters from the first half of the alphabet?

“Candlelit booths, rustic French food and wine, and discreet service” make this “little slice of France in Covent Garden” “perfect for a date or anniversary”. If possible, “go downstairs and experience the brick arched cellar dining area, which is full of character and charm”. The “classic bistro fare” is “adequately prepared and comes at very reasonable prices considering the location”. (Harden’s)

This is Le Garrick on Garrick Street (natch). I arrived early, before it opens at noon. Conveniently there is a branch of Waterstones opposite and I made a few impulse purchases including some poems by Seamus Heaney. Our table was in a recess in the brick arched cellar providing privacy lest the conversation veer towards tumbril talk. “Tumbril talk is what rich and/or aristocratic folk might say on the way to the guillotine. It usually reflects a rather startling unawareness about how anyone else lives.” (Alice Roosevelt Longworth)

The menu speaks for itself.