Club Gascon

Club Gascon pride themselves for their innovative, modern take on the cuisine from the Gascogne region in the Southwest of France. In a reasonably formal atmosphere, the extremely attentive and mostly very charming staff make you feel welcome. You have the choice between one tasting menu, which changes every two to three months, and a reasonably small selection of á-​la-​carte options, interestingly enough with one section dedicated entirely to Foie Gras. The wine menu is extensive and very interesting, as it goes way beyond «the usual suspects» and does indeed consist of French wines only, with many from the wider Gascogne region.
Interesting is the operative word when it comes to the food as well — every dish is ambitious, with regards to exclusive or exotic ingredients, beautiful presentation or indeed bold combination of flavours. On some occasions, that boldness pays off, for instance when pairing papaya and pumpkin in a lovely, surprisingly rich purée. On other occasions they overshoot the target, as for instance in the combination of halibut and a very livery overpoweringly strong flavoured sauce civet. There is also a bit of a tendency to overload the plate with too many flavours, but at a price of £100 including a very interesting and educational wine flight (due to the lovely sommelier who was extremely well versed in her understanding of each single wine’s background) it is worth accepting the odd glitch as some of the brighter moments make up for some of the…, well not shortfalls, actually rather the opposite, overloads.

Very creative dishes. Small, I mean very small portions! You won’t leave starving, but you definitely won’t be full. I think a little over priced for what you are getting. But overall a good solid meal

Great old school French food. Definitely have to try foie gras here as its their signature and it will not disappoint you. Service is a little slow. We had 4 course and spent well over 3.5 hours here. Place is quite intimate.

Great service, although my understanding of English with a strong French accent was so poor that I struggled to understand what the waiters were saying (completely my fault, not theirs!). Got the lunch special — 2 courses for £29 — fantastic value. Got the duck tartare for starter and roast guinea foul which was delicious. Also received a lovely pre starter and Petit fours. Highly recommend.

Club Gascon is an interesting place. I got treated to 6 courses on their tasting menu which was £60, and discovered a variety of flavours. The atmosphere was nice and chilled on a Tuesday night and service was excellent. We asked if we could have the courses quite quickly and they delivered. Food was really good quality and I ‘tasted’ a lot of things, which made for a really good birthday dinner.

We were of to visit the famous Smithfield meat market and found this cute little french restaurant.
Let us to practice our french. Meals were very well priced. And the bread and butter was free and just as good.
We ordered the lamb which was fantastic. So tasty.
Service was excellent. Cute little place. had nice deco.

Another FANTASTIC Bookatable deal. Four courses for 32.50 in London is a steal! To start with, the bread selection is amazing, with four different types but the brioche is by far the best. It went well with the first course, the watercress veloute, though I didn’t really understand the coffee cloud… luckily it wasn’t too strong and I just used the whole thing as a dip. But the second course is where we really started to get the ball rolling. I got the foie gras, which was the equivalent of pure butter in richness and texture, and we had to ask for a lot more bread to go with that. Next I had the lamb, which was beautifully done, exactly what you would expect from a quality French restaurant. And the fruity dessert was the perfect ending; we are so glad that we came here!

Overrated. They are trying too hard to do the unusual thing instead of delivering great flavours. Some of the dishes were too cold. The wine list, though, is very good and reasonably priced.

A section of the menu purely dedicated to foie gras?! Yup! This actually is not posted on the menu online which I would have made me more excited in anticipation of dinner.
Their foie gras dishes were really wonderful. The burger was a slider size and had just the right proportions of everything in what I believe was a soft brioche bun. Simply delectable!
For those that that like quail but hate dealing with the effort of bones, the quail here is de-​boned. Pleasantly smoky and served over embers, this was a delight for sight and scent.
Service was okay. I expect a bit more from a michelin starred restaurant. They did not explain the dishes at all or the types of butter offered. When the sommelier came to pour the wine, I would have expected he provided a taste before pouring the whole glass.
GRILLED DUCK AND GRAPES WITH FOIE GRAS
CLUB DUCK BURGER WITH FOIE AND BEETROOT KETCHUP
BBQ QUAIL ON EMBERS, SUMMER ROOTS & FRUITS, SPICY VIOLETS
SAUTEED KING SCALLOPS, CRACKLED CAPON WINGS, NUTS & LOVAGE

I must admit, the second to the last review here surprised me. Im convinced he must be talking about the wrong place, as this is NOT a place where you can wander in drunk and NOTHING on the menu is that cheap.
My boyfriend brought me here for some sort of deal or special he found. The experience left us both flabbergasted. Everything was perfect. The staff and service, albeit a bit pretentious, was impeccable. The presentation and food were stunning, and the wine was to die for. Easily out best meal in London – and yes, one of us has been to a Gordon Ramsey restaurant.
We were supposed to get a 3 course selection, but it turned into a generous 7 or 8 course tasting menu – and the portions for the 3 courses we ordered were larger than expected. We started with a selection of fresh breads and butters – and I melted over the foie gras butter – and the prestarter (something with potato and anchovy) then starter (he had quail with some sort of ice thing, I had fantastic clams and mussels). I enjoyed my entrée of Fish of the Day, but we both liked his entrée – a selection of fried stuffed pork with chorizo – better. Then came a pre-​dessert of red berries with a small sponge cake, then dessert (I had a powerful chocolate cigar with a coffee ice thing, he had passionfruit crème), and finally perfect chocolate truffles to finish it off.
Overall, simply perfection.

the best sweet foie gras ever! good haute-​french cuisine. portions a bit on the small side though.

Good for what it is, but this style of cuisine is very very heavy. Too much cream, too many fussy broths /​foams /​jus…

Club Gascon is a French restaurant giving a refined version of the cuisine of Gascony. It is the big brother of Comptoir Gascon (also in the same neighborhood). We had the tasting menu with matching wines and it was one of the best gastronomic experiences of our lives!
After the interesting Amuses Bouche, we had the first dish, a venison and hare pie paired with a white and slightly oxidized in character, but totally matching white wine. The dish was a real masterpiece, intense and elegant at the same time, that had an impressive aftertaste, allowing you to continue tasting minutes and minutes after each bite. The second dish was a foie gras macaroon. We could talk about this dish for hours, but really there are no words to describe how powerful the taste of foie gras was. The matching wine was a sweet Marsanne that was complementing the dish perfectly. The third dish was a dover sole with a watercress sauce and a green risotto. That was a rather uninteresting dish, but we have to admit that it served it purpose well: To help us get ready for the next dish. That was a lamb variation; 4 different preparations of lamb, placed over a bed of mandarin sauce. Each of the lamb pieces was so tasty in its own unique way that the whole dish was admittedly one of the best dishes we have ever tried. The matching wine was an impressive red from the region (too drunk to remember name or place). The desert was essentially ice-​cream in kadayif, over a grape-​fruit sauce, making things unusually bitter for a desert. That was served with a solera-​type sweet wine.
Overall it was an amazing experience. Although the ingredients were so similar to the ones in Comptoir Gascon, the food here was so elegant and has such an impressive quality that made you want to savour every bite carefully in order to appreciate it better. Service was also much more professional and attentive, our only minor complaint being the fact that dishes kept coming at a rather fast pace (or at least faster than what we would expect).

This was an interesting place to wander into a little sloshed on a Friday night. We were searching for some food to line the stomach before a couple hours of shots and karaōke. The lights of this place drew us in and I was surpised at the upscale frenchness of it all. Even the waitstaff had strong Gascony accents which made both ordering and comprehending hard on both sides.
That being said, we managed to secure a selection of items from the menu and even a few drinks. The food was delicious! A duck pie bursting with flavour although lacking a bit in variety of textures. Smoky Toulouse sausage with a rich bite. Thickly sliced spicy chorizo which was tasty and would have been more so with a slight browning. My favourite was a slow cooked meat dish (for the life of me I can’t remember if it was pork or beef) with stewed lentils served in a large marrow bone. Excellent presentation, delightful flavours, and overall a great experience.
Given the style and relatively low prices (each dish was £3.50−5), I shouldn’t have been surprised at the small portions. Basically, if you are hungry, give this place a miss in the evening as the main food is predominantly for lunch or perhaps an early dinner. Or you could always do what we did — enjoy the fine dining… then go to Mickey D’s to silence your growling stomach.

Very average. ChiChi, fussy food, quite good on flavour, but not sensational. One more arty smear of some reasonably pleasant substance on my plate and I would have either laughed aloud or just got irritated. My chicken was undercooked and pink. Main complaint is that there just wasn’t enough to eat. Wines were very good, service friendly and helpful, atmosphere delightful, so far from a disaster … just boring and samey.

Came here on a Thursday for Cellar Gascon’s £7.50 lunch offer. The dish of the day was an incredibly tasty, albeit slightly smaller serving of duck. I added on £2 for a glass of wine, and my dining companion opted for the wine and dessert supplement (£5 extra on top of the lunch offer). All in all, I thought this was really good value, although I did make the mistake of ordering a side of spinach to go with my meal which cost £4 (i.e. more than 50% of my duck!).
The service was generally good, with the waiter being very patient with our indecision.
In terms of ambience, I thought the restaurant was a little on the dark side, and the seats — more like barstools and small tables — weren’t that comfortable. I think there were proper dining tables further in the bar, but we weren’t shown to them although no one else was sitting there.

I must admit that I didn’t know much about Club Gascon before I went. On reflection this is not much of a surprise as I am not a big meat eater and not a fan of foie gras. The latter is the chef’s particular speciality.
However, I did enjoy coming here — luckily a set menu is on offer at the moment which makes the experience a lot more affordable.
Considering the style of restaurant and chef’s reputation (apparently Michelin starred), I was particularly impressed that they were happy to overcook the beef I ordered.
The presentation is spotless and includes a selection of small delicacies beforehand which are just as beautifully presented as the selection of chocolates which round off the meal.
The ambience is very relaxed and sophisticated. I went on a week night and probably experienced a large proportion of after-​work diners (us included). A further rush hour arrived after 10, presumably with the culture vultures who enjoyed a night out at the Barbican.
As can be expected with a restaurant of this calibre the guests were more mature, and on our visit at least, quite male-​dominated.

There are some restaurants that you’ve dined at once and you remember it for a very long time (or even for your entire lifetime). Per Se and WD-​50 in New York are two examples for me. Club Gascon in London is another. There are two things I remember from this restaurant, the beautiful ambiance (blue walls and my table looked straight into the prep area) and the interesting food. It was here at Club Gascon that I tasted my first sweetbread but more importantly, I was also exposed to unique pairing of ingredients (strawberries ice cream and basil). I guess you could say, this is where my love for foodie-​ism really started.
I haven’t been in years but I believe the food is equally fantastic and wonderful from start to finish. Maybe soon I will be able to go again. Until then, just good memories.

Expensive? Yes. But if you can afford the splurge, definitely go for it! I ate here last month (
) and have to say it was one of the best meals I’ve had in London. Service was impeccable and the dining area was gorgeous (possibly the most pleasant non-​view seating in London!).
No time soon but I have every intention to go back. If you’re looking for a wow factor kinda place for a special occasion that isn’t gimmicky I strongly recommend that you consider Club Gascon. It’s a quality, classy restaurant that’s a cut above the vast majority of upscale, fine dining restaurants (even compared to the handful of heavyweights nearby).

Club Garscon is very impressive, the décor, food & drinnk, atmosphere and staff all combine to create a very indulgent and extravagent feel.
The food was delicious, the wine was fantastic and the bill at the end of the night was astronomical! (Good thing I wasn’t paying!).
The night that I went they had classy showgirls perform and along with everything else it made for a memorable evening.
Most definately a place to visit when you want to splurge or impress (or when someone rich is picking up the bill!). A very worthwhile experience.