64 Goodge Street

First impressions go a long way and so too does complimentary warm bread with salted butter. 64 Goodge Street knows it. This impeccably mannered Fitzrovia restaurant—deliciously French, brazenly rich, and almost certainly Oxbridge-educated—is an expert lesson in old-school hospitality and robust food done right.

The tone is set early on, when a cheese and black truffle gougère wordlessly appears just as your arse embeds itself into a leather banquette. For all intents and purposes, this cheese ball is a nice little bite. Here, it seems to represent something more, something decadent. It’s a catalyst for a corridor-sized room in Fitzrovia to become a den of iniquity. And that warm bread? It’s the sign of a restaurant that wants to look after you.

photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch

photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch

photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch

photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch

For anyone with a dormant inner Don Draper, consider this restaurant triggering. The lights are low and the off-menu martini is one of the most precise and crisp in London. Men who look like they drank d’Yquem from a sippy cup come with backpacks full of wine, not laptops, to take advantage of the £40 corkage. Families who know their way around the slopes of Val d'Isère better than the aisles at Sainsbury’s may well come here for a weeknight dinner but, for most, 64 Goodge Street is a special occasion restaurant.

photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch

photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch

Like any good Francophile, 64 Goodge Street knows its sauces. A chuggable beurre blanc, served with meltingly good scallops, jumps out from the starters, while a glorious anchoïade hides under the niçoise. The vol-au-vent—a 1970s relic that many thought left for the underworld with Thatcher—is made irresistibly modern thanks to hunks of lobster and sauce américaine. None of it is made for sharing, all of it is for greedily enjoying.

This restaurant is tailor-made for an agenda-less long lunch, or for anyone who’s sincerely Googled ‘gout symptoms’. In fact, find something to celebrate and head to 64 Goodge Street. They’ll take care of you from there.

Food Rundown

photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch

Snail, Bacon & Garlic ‘Bon Bons’

Like any elite bite-sized food, you could easily eat an IKEA bag’s worth of these bon bons. Crisp and golden on the outside, with a parsley, snail, bacon, and garlic medley making up its innards—they are pungent and utterly moreish.

photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch

Scallops, Lentils & Beurre Blanc

Wow. It turns out French cookery is the real deal because this is a glorious, warm bubble bath of a starter. Soft scallops that melt in your mouth, a dill and parsley-heavy lentil salad that’s been mixed with a piquant vinaigrette, and a beurre blanc sauce that will make you feel like you’re being welcomed into heaven by a block of beurre d'Isigny with wings.

photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch

Morteau Sausage, Walnut & Morbier Tourte

Unlike an adult human jumping out of a cake, an unexpected pie arriving at your table is a very welcome surprise. This one is a lovely, meaty, gooey thing. Underneath its lattice top there’s smoked sausage mixed with soft walnut and an oozing mild cheese. Like everything here, it’s rich—but the dollop of wholegrain mustard on the side is perfect.

photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch

Lobster Vol-Au-Vent & Sauce Américaine

64 Goodge Street’s modus operandi is laid out bare with this plate. It’s based on tradition, made deliciously modern, and is pure unadulterated decadence. Unlike vol-au-vents of the past, this pastry isn’t stuffed. The sizeable pieces of lobster are outside the golden pastry, laying in a pool of velvet seafood sauce and vegetables. It’s a must.

Truffade

If you’re going to get one side, it should be this. Thinly sliced potatoes cooked in fat and mixed with melted cheese curd. What’s not to like?

photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch

Gâteau Marjolaine

Fans of chocolate, hazelnut, and cream may need to take a deep breath. As far as that combination goes, this delicate gâteau is up there with the very best (e.g. Kinder Bueno).