Bruno Loubet’s restaurant at The Zetter has had some excellent reviews. Indeed it was voted 3rd Best Restaurant in the UK at the National Restaurant Awards, just behind The Ledbury and The Fat Duck. That seemed a bit odd to me I have to admit, as this is a very different type of restaurant to the fine dining establishments I have just mentioned. Bistro Bruno Loubets is a “proper” bistro that serves good homely french food. It’s not fine dining, nor is it trying to be.
We visited on a Monday lunch time and were on the whole surrounded by affluent dinners enjoying business lunches. The tables are very close together, so you can not help but overhear conversations. I picked up a least one investment tip 😉
The staff are friendly and efficient, you could probably even manage a one hour turn around if you needed to here.
For starters I had a snails, meatballs and mushroom dish, a bit wintry for the lovely spring weather, but very tasty all the same. My companion had the Beetroot ravioli, which was lighter and more suited to the climate, it was accompanied by a fresh rocket salad. For main course he ordered the braised oxtail stuffed with cabbage and I had roast rabbit crumbed with almond and “forgotten” winter vegetables, that included atomic red carrots and some type of root vegetable I did not recognise.
We moved on to dessert, I had a very light Tarte Tatin with cinnamon ice cream and my companion ordered the white chocolate and passion fruit mousse with raspberry sauce. We accompanied this with a small and reasonably priced bottle of Domaine de l’Ancienne Cure 2007.
We then went on to explore the surrounding area. In the same square you have The Modern Pantry which looked inviting and the rather interesting building opposite is the Priory Church of St John which is part of the Museum of the order of St Johns. The Zetter has also expanded into the square with its sister venue The Zetter Town House. which has a small rather quirky cocktail bar.
