Restaurants come in all shapes and sizes and can often be surprising in choice of location. Pique Nique certainly embraces both of these categories, resembling a Swiss Chalet, shoehorned into a space in the corner of a small park,within spitting distance of the local tennis courts and around the back of a Premier Inn car park. It does not sound the most celebrius of settings but somehow it works. In fact it even has a small outside space itself with some tables and benches, which, when the weather improves, could indeed be used for a picnic, or failing that at least a barbi !
The restaurant has the same Owners as Casse Croute, a tiny very French all day brasserie around the corner in Bermondsey Street which is in itself a very French experience with menus written in French and is run by lots of seemingly non English speaking Gallic staff. The owner of both establishments is Herve Durochat who has history at Shoreditch House and has also spent time working with Jose Pizarro 25 metres down the road in Bermondsey Street.
Pique Nique has risen from the original construction that was built in 1929 as a Bermondsey workhouse and the opportunity arose for Herve to take it over when the council were looking for tenants to establish a business after renovation.
Are we in a Swiss Chalet ?
Like its Sister Restaurant the menu is in written in French and whilst my 2 guests and I exercised our pigeon French desperately trying to remember what “Volaille” was in our mother tongue, we were greeted by our charming (in a French way ) waitress asking us what we would like to drink. We chose a Le Temps des Copains 2015 (£42) which we were advised was one of their Biologically produced wines using 100% Syrah grapes.
The bottle appeared to have 2 Angels kissing on the front label ( one male,one female), and that was what it was like to drink. Like kissing an angel, silky smooth, medium bodied and easy to drink without food – this could be a dangerous start to the evening! With my friend Ed planning on cycling back home to North London alarm bells were already ringing.
After a little translation assistance from our Waitress we were ready to make our food choices which involved starters of mackerel tartar with mayonnaise, snail croquettes and a chicken en croute with a jelly. We decided to plump for the Chateaubriand at £57 which they advised could stretch to 3 persons with mashed Potatoes and a salad. We thought that should compliment the wine beautifully – or was it supposed to be the other way around ? The menu is ever changing and small- 5 starters , 4 mains and a couple of board specials, which included on that particular day Seasnails which we were told is a classic French meal at Christmas time. I had never heard of this as a seasonal meal, but even so, this being a cold May Day (not very Christmassy), and the fact that they were swimming snails as opposed to landsnails persuaded us to prefer the Chauteabriand to the offered sea molluscs! Maybe we will be braver next time.
In appearance our starters were a mixture of simple country plates combined with one not out of place in a fine dining establishment. More specifically the chicken was a large slab of what looked like a slice from a large pie, with pieces of pink meat encased by pastry with a colourful blob of jelly on top.
A very typical picnic style dish, tasting of earthy meat set off by the fruity apricot purée, with slivers of onions and scattering of parsley,and a little bit of excellent chewy pastry to give it the right mouthfeel. The mackerel was accompanied by pickled green cucumbers and dill mayonnaise and was tart, fishy and almost Nordic in taste due to the pickle, but cooled down by the Mayo. My croquettes were plated in a more elegant style, sitting atop a vivid green parsley mayonaisse and when opened up , steam escaped before hitting you with the smell of more parsley and little cubes of fried bacon, followed by hot snails falling out on to the plate which when you ate with the crust of the deep fried globe gave you the snail soft and crunchy texture you were looking for combined with the salty bacon bits – just beautiful and the first time I have eaten them in a croquette.
Wine and conversation were flowing freely and the second bottle was already open and we had not even got to our beef yet ! When it did arrive it was a sight to behold. We were told it would be prepared medium/rare (how dare we argue) and you could see from the colours of the meat it had been lovingly cooked. It had the perfect meaty sheen with the colours of the slightly more cooked edges running gradually into the pinker middle, uniform throughout, and carved to make it ready for an assault. A large bowl of mash arrived, and likewise a bowl of mixed leaves ( just to make us feel we were eating healthily) and we glugged another glass of Syrah to prepare our insides for the magnificent looking Chateaubriand.
The good news was it tasted as good as it looked with swimming in a meaty Jus which was great to add to the mashed potato. Only slight critical comment here was that I had read in Casse Croute that their mashed potato was akin to the legendary Joel Rubechon standard ( 50% Cream/50%Potato) however this was not. Good but not too different to anything I could muster at home. It’s not a complaint – just an observation…..
By the end of the meat, and now on our third bottle of Syrah, we had to think long and hard about whether or not a dessert would be appropriate. So in true democratic style we ordered one between three- a Raspberry Soufflé which came which a large helping of Raspberry purée on the side which I insisted we spooned into the middle of the Soufflé. This was pretty epic in itself, and actually a generous portion which was enough to satisfy three.
After this we stumbled out into the night, Ed off on his bicycle to lord knows where, me leading Diane to London Bridge station to ensure safe arrival there, and me then off home – lucky enough to live within waking distance of a great little find which will be visited again. If you want some classic French fare and wine, and relax in a convivial atmosphere you would not go far wrong by visiting Pique Nique- and if your French language skills are better than ours you would even be able to read the menu !
Rating – Almost Blazingly Hot Pan 4.5
Service – Also a Gallic 4.5
Pique Nique , Tanner Street Park, SE1 3 LD – you may need GPS or Google maps !
0207403 9549
PS – had breakfast there today and they do a stonking Croque Monsieur with real bechamel sauce and fantastic quality ham – the real deal !