The first time I walked into Bistrot Bruno Loubet, it was a
Tuesday lunchtime, around noon. The man himself was in the kitchen, in his
whites. A good sign. I had offered to "research" venues for a work Christmas
lunch, and was nobly pounding the streets looking for a suitable place, perhaps
sampling here and there as I went. They didn't have room for us for our lunch,
but I decided to sit at the bar and order a little cheeky lunch of my own,
while I was there. I am not the kind of person to whom solo
dining comes naturally, but from the start I could not have felt more
comfortable. Second good sign. Anyway I love sitting at the bar. Service always
seems to be better because you can always attract someone's attention. Not
wanting to overdo the whole treating-myself-for-no-reason thing, I skipped the
tempting starters and stuck to a main course, with a glass of wine as a
condiment. Choosing from the menu was agonising, but I plumped for a seafood
cannelloni, and resolved to return many times. They brought me the bread, which
is up there with the best restaurant bread I have ever eaten, the onion bread
in particular. The good signs were piling up. Being a solo diner I got a whole
basket of it to myself. The cannelloni was delicious, a great dish perfectly
cooked, as they might say on Masterchef. Afterwards I had a coffee, which came
with a little chocolate, and the bill came to less than £30, for what had felt
like an utterly luxurious and stolen lunch. 
Since then I have been back, both solo and accompanied, to
sample the Hare Royale and other things I had missed on that first visit, and
have never left disappointed. Recently the menu was overhauled, which gave
me the excuse I needed to write a blog post about it. A dinner for four was
arranged, and as expected, every dish was delicious, with the possible
exception of an ever-so-slightly dry flourless chocolate cake. Wonderful bread
as usual, incredible guinea-fowl Boudin Blanc in a small Garbure soup, braised
oxtail, saddle of hare. (Sounds good, right? It is.) Mashed potato that is done
in that proper way I never seem to manage at home. Tonka bean crème brûlée. I had been slightly nervous
going in as I had raved about the place so much to my companions, who had never
been before, but I shouldn’t have worried. The place is a banker. The good
kind of banker. 
I have no idea whether Bistrot Bruno Loubet has a Michelin
star or not, and I don't care. I get the impression that the owners care much
more about customers having an enjoyable time than they do about any Michelinigans.
What I do know is that the value is outstanding. It is not a cheap restaurant,
but for the quality of cooking, atmosphere, and service, I struggle to think of
where you can get better value for money for this kind of meal. It is fancy and
luxurious, but not at all stuffy, quite relaxed in atmosphere. It feels like
the owners have really tried to make it the kind of place they would like to go
to themselves. When you want a really nice, table-clothy kind of meal, without
having to pay through the nose for it, and you don’t want to travel too far,
this is the place. Or if you are just passing by yourself at lunchtime, you
could always pop in and treat yourself. I won’t say "because you’re worth it".
That would be cheesy. I’ll just say that Bistrot Bruno Loubet is. 
Bistrot Bruno Loubet
86-88 Clerkenwell Road
London EC1M 5RJhttp://www.bistrotbrunoloubet.com
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