L'Escargot

A restaurant where snails are flambéed in pastis is our kind restaurant. Especially when there’s a crystal chandelier involved as well. L’Escargot is Soho’s oldest French institution and has the well-heeled regulars to match. A lunch or dinner here involves velvet drapes and plenty of butter, and always has the potential to start (or more likely finish) in the bar upstairs with a couple of well-made martinis. The food is just fine, but a reasonably priced prix fixe means that L’Escargot still consistently pulls in a crowd looking for a taste of old Soho. The French onion soup isn’t the most deeply flavoured but is passable, and the duck confit does the trick. Still, an order of its garlic and optionally booze-drenched snails feels essential and for a lazy lunch where nostalgia is more important than perfection, L’Escargot hits the mark.