Green Man & French Horn

This is a nice authentic French restaurant not far from Leicester Square tube station. A great alternative to the typical offering in the area.
My friend picked it and to be honest I was a little disappointed with her choice because the reviews on Unilocal are quite average. It meant that I had a pleasant surprise though.
We booked for 6pm to take advantage of their pre-​theatre menu. It’s fantastic value (3 courses for £17 at time of writing, but there are 1 and 2 courses offer also). They don’t offer a full a la carte menu at this time of day, but have an alternative cut-​down menu if you want to order from there. I must say that menu was considerably more expensive with mains ranging from £16 — £26 and ²⁄₃ or starters and desserts appear on both menus.
I loved their wine list but purely for sentimental reason. The restaurant is themed specifically around the Loire region of France where I spent 9 months of my life. The wines are from the region and the list is interspersed with pages about the area. My friend even knows their cheese supplier which I find quite cool.
Onto the food. I ordered
— Rillettes & cornichons: I love this pork dish and this serving was very tasty but presentation could have been improved by serving it in a pot instead of slapped onto the plate.
— Veal belly with lentils: My first time ordering veal but have to admit it was wonderful. A party in my mouth and I’m salivating just thinking about it. The broth-​like sauce was equally delicious and I was grateful for the bread to mop it up with.
— White chocolate mousse with coffee and almonds: A great way to finish off the meal. A nice contrast of flavours.
The set menu only gives a choice of two for each course which is a bit difficult. I didn’t like the sample menu on their website for instance, and would have begrudged paying the same or more for a single course as others paid for three.
I’m rating four stars based on the set menu. I might struggle to equal it for the normal prices.

It is really hard to make a Saturday dinner booking on a Friday night, especially close to Christmas. I was lucky enough to book Green Man & French Horn. I actually have never heard of it before this booking. The restaurant is on the busy St Martin’s Lane and a typical cozy French bistro.
The menu is interesting and not exactly what I would expect from a French restaurant. There are some exotic meats like venison, partridge and blood pudding. However, beef is not on the menu, which is a bit disappointing considering this is a French restaurant. I ordered pumpkin and chestnut soup to start. It was very delicious and just perfect for a cold winter day. For main, I had cod and Jerusalem artichoke which was good.
This is a nice and relaxing place for a low key dinner.

Great little French restaurant close to Seven Dials at the heart of Covent Garden. The closest tube station is Leicester Square.
We came on a Monday night with a party of three around 8pm and there wasn’t a wait and we didn’t need reservations.
We had the Pork Belly, Venison, Mussels, and Cheese platter (you select 3 out of about 8 possible choices). While all three mains were great, the Pork Belly was my personal favorite. Service was quick and attentive. Overall great experience — I’ll be back!

10pm-​ish on a mid-​week evening in central London is a dangerous time to suddenly decide you need feeding. Finding our first choice closed for the day a friend and I plumped spontaneously for this unassuming-​looking wine bar based on the bar menu tacked helpfully in the window (cheese plate, some sort of meaty terrine), and the fact that it looked narrow, dimly lit, but still busy inside. It was a very happy discovery and we half-​joked we wouldn’t tell people about it to prolong the magic of our experience. We had 3 hours of drinking behind us before we went in.
The atmosphere inside was extremely laid back with confident, friendly wait staff happy to dissect the wine list with you based on what they know and what you think you like, but it was very clear they knew their stuff. Tap water in an urn-​size bottle is given as a matter of course — a surprisingly often over-​looked touch. The terrine was substantial and salty, the bread soft and replenished for free when requested, 4 very different cheeses were chosen from a board of 8 and I couldn’t pick my favourite.
I would eagerly return any day of the week to sample the main menu, try any of the many wines on offer, and pretend I’m actually in a bar à vin in the Loire Valley rather than a stones throw from Leicester Square.

Visited this restaurant last night, we had the radish salad and asparagus salad (excellent!) to start. Sea Bass with pasta and Sardines with dandelion greens, both were solid– the sardines were large are perfectly cooked, and the sea bass moist and fresh pasta outstanding.
Good wine selection, and really friendly service. Filled with locals, cozy and the noise level good. Excellent value for London.

A fan of this place, an overall a nice cozy place for wine and good company. Plus this was right next to the hotel, so it couldn’t get any better.
Good selection of wine and we had a knowledgeable wait staff (at least our waitress) on said wines. Food contain many saltier items made to be washed away with the wine.
Duck Egg and Anchovies comes with many pieces of bread which was vital to have with all the other dishes. Properly breaking the duck egg was a bit of a challenge, but once broken you get to wash everything in the lush yolk. And egg yolk makes everything better PERIOD.
Standard Cheese plate is available as well. Choose up to 3 from an assortment of pieces. This is really your preference here.
Rabbit Terrine is again another salty savory item that was good with wine. Get it. It’s just good.

Now I have to admit to being slightly inebriated when I first visited The Green Man and French Horn. It was the glorious day that Bradford City triumphed over Arsenal in the Capital One Cup. Not a day seared into most people’s memories, but enough to send me into paroxysms of clappy handed joy as I watched the giant killing unfold.
In fairness, all I really needed was something to soak up a number of pints. The output from this cracking little newcomer and youngest sibling of Terroirs, Brawn and Soif, was almost certainly beyond my faculty. So good though that, while not capable of sobering me up, it did cause me to drag a non football obsessed guest back to confirm what I’d witnessed.
We’re in mixed small plate territory here. Lots of lovely little ideas, pulled together with a loose thread of the Loire Valley, intended as much as anything to show off an outrageously interesting cellar.
A thick slab of pork rillette was pushed eagerly into the contents of a hearty, fresh bread basket and consumed within minutes, hearty and flavoursome. My main plate was, as it had been on the previous visit, one of the simplest dishes I’ve had in a long time, three beautifully buttery fat mackerel, served with butter, garlic and a spritz of lemon. The quality was superb and the simplest of touches was all they needed.
Alongside, I opted for a grassy almost cidery fresh Cabernet Franc, refreshin

One way to success is to find a winning formula and stick to it. This certainly seems to be the approach of the restaurateurs behind Terroirs, Brawn, Soif and their new sibling Green Man & French Horn. Each restaurant serves simple French influenced dishes with an interesting wine list.
Green Man & French Horn does change things up slightly by introducing a Loire only wine list. Arguably the most exciting wine region in the world, this means that the list is full of interesting and wacky bottles from vigneron you have not heard of. It is all the better for it although the staff are still developing their understanding of the list. Pictures of the vignerons decorate the walls — in particular Jo Landron and his fantastic moustache — all of which is in the spirit of the wine focused enterprise.
All of this can fall flat if the service is poor (as others appear to have experienced) or the food doesn’t match the quality of the wine. However, for us both were good (perhaps the initial reviewers hit the teething problems that often hit new enterprises). Our mushroom focused starters (girolles and ceps respectively) were celebrations of fungal delight with the shrooms themselves being the centre of the show. The theme of letting good quality ingredients speak for themselves continued as Vendee ham (almost bacon like in taste), a giant partridge and a poached pear paid welcome visits to our table.
Combining this with a central location and cheerful service, I think that the restaurateurs will have another hit on their hands. We will certainly come back for a Loire inspired evening sometime soon.

My friends and I had high expectations for this converted pub after the stellar editorial reviews and high praise for this owner’s other establishments.
Unfortunately, my experience dining there last night was anything but stellar. The food itself, while reasonably good, was far over-​shadowed by the poor service experience. After waiting quite some time to order, the server completely forgot about our request for more information regarding vegetarian options, resulting in another delay. Once our order was placed, we were kept waiting over an hour between each course without so much as acknowledgement that we were still sitting in the restaurant.
Any establishment worth its salt will accommodate for these kinds of errors with an adjustment to the bill or a complimentary dessert or coffee. Having three people come over and assure us that they were «very sorry» in an entirely unconvincing manner certainly doesn’t count!
Green Man & French Horn: I see a lot of potential in your restaurant. The décor is quite tasteful, the dishes nicely presented; but until you improve your ability to take care of your customers I certainly won’t be returning! (And certainly not at this £££ price point!)