Soutine
60 St John’s Wood High Street,
London, soutine.co.uk
To walk into Soutine is to enter the Parisian café of romantic imagination, the sort we all believe still exists. Except they don’t. Really. At all. They’re a dying breed in Paris, and so there’s a gentle irony that this particular belle can be found on St John’s Wood High Street, rather than Boulevard Saint-Germain. But then restaurateurs Chris Corbin and Jeremy King have always been masters of highly polished nostalgia, the skilful blending of old Europe and new business.
To walk into Soutine is to enter the Parisian café of romantic imagination, the sort we all believe still exists. Except they don’t. Really. At all
The two rooms have an air of elegant insouciance, a gentle glamour, the sort of place to while away a day, unfettered by the bourgeois chains of corporate life. Soutine has been open only a few weeks but already it feels lived in, loved. The couple lingering over a long lunch; the local mothers, feeding their kids between gasps of gossip. A student, tapping his MacBook frenetically, fuelled by a coffee that lasts for hours. And the lone female diner, ensconced in her book, occasionally surfacing to take a sip of white, a bite of croque monsieur. I once asked Keith McNally, the maestro behind Balthazar, Minetta Tavern and Pastis, at which point he felt happy with a new restaurant. ‘When a woman feels utterly comfortable in eating alone,’ he replied. That meant he’d got it right.
And Soutine is a masterclass in getting things right. The handsome mahogany fixtures and panels, the winding bar, the specially commissioned mural with its scenes of late 19th-century Lord’s (just down the road), the marble-topped tables. Vintage travel posters, paintings, etchings and prints crowd the walls. Hordes of immaculately drilled waiters wear black waistcoats, and pristine white shirts and aprons. No one does service better than Corbin and King, and this is front of house in the most traditional sense. Their staffing bills may make the accountants tremble. But it sure keeps the punters coming back.
Paper place mats are Provençal rose pink, the menu font a beguiling mix of gothic and art nouveau. And the contents of that menu are joyously predictable, less mittel-European, perhaps, than The Wolseley, more regional French. But there’s a schnitzel, and firm, clean, mustard-heavy pickled herrings. Alongside brasserie stalwarts like a rich, mildly sweet soupe à l’oignon, searing hot, splendidly garlicky escargots and fiery radishes with a great mound of butter. They have the chopped chicken salad too, a Wolseley classic, with a whisper of tarragon, and hot, crisp, salty French fries, and a coq au Riesling served in a cast-iron pot. The creamy, mushroom-studded sauce is divine, and the legs plump and succulent. Although the breast, like most pot-cooked breasts, errs towards the dry. Petits pois à la française and baby gem salad are exactly how they should be. You eat well here, and happily.
Soutine a local restaurant on an international scale, a place to eat, drink and be merry. Oh, and when the test match comes, book early. This will be the best seat in town
But you don’t come here to break new gastronomic boun-daries, nor marvel at the genius of the chef. It’s reassuringly old-fashioned, but never stuffy. This is all about the joys of a well-run restaurant, from breakfast right through to that last icy glass of Poire William. The fact that you can talk, uninterrupted by well-meaning waiters explaining concepts and sharing plates and other such fatuous nonsense. And eat food that soothes and comforts, rather than thrills and perplexes. It’s not so much a pastiche of the great Parisian cafés as a loving, respectful tribute.
Already, there are regulars, their eye on a favourite spot. Front room or back? I’ve been twice and I’d go for the former, yet there is no bad table here. And compared to The Ivy Café down the road (a pastiche of the original Ivy), Soutine is in a different league.
It’s a local restaurant on an international scale, a place to eat, drink and be merry. Oh, and when the test match comes, book early. This will be the best seat in town.
About £25 per head