It has been a long time since I last dined at a Malcolm John restaurant, back when his duo of restaurants in Croydon ‘Le Cassoulet’ and ‘Fish & Grill’ were still around. Of course, this was before the recession when the restaurant industry was booming and there was plenty of money to go around, even in less fashionable areas in South London. Le Cassoulet has sadly closed down and Fish & Grill was subsequently rebranded as Brasserie Vacherin, incorporating the bistro style menu served at the former. Nevertheless, his flagship restaurant in Chiswick has come out unscathed and had recently received a refurbishment.
Good Dinner at Le Vacherin. We had a great dinner at Le Vacherin recently. I had chicken liver and foie gras paté, aged rib eye steak and a delicious Venezulan chocolate fondant. It was very dark and rich and had an excellent flavour. The service was very attentive and the restaurant was well lit and attractively furnished.
The food was excellent for most of our dishes (bare in mind it's a pricey venue), but some were disappointing - one starter with scallops had 2 miniscule bits of fish (it felt mean), one of our desserts (apple fritters) had industrial ice cream (the other, home made vacherin cheese ice cream). It was also sad that our nice bottle of red wine was let down by glasses that smelled of the dishwasher. Despite all this we did enjoy ourselves, I just hope it can pick up on the details
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