Bliss on Red Banquettes at Brasserie Gustave
Riddle sits down to a taste of France in Chelsea, cooked by an Englishman
Review and Photography by Andy Barnham
Brasserie Gustave opened in Chelsea in June 2014, with general manager Richard Weiss and head chef Laurence Glayzer, at the helm. Weiss started his sommelier career in his native Alsace before then working around Europe, and was head sommelier at the Michelin stared Chez Bruneau in Brussels, The Restaurant Marco Pierre White at the former Hyde Park Hotel (now Mandarin Oriental), and the Greenhouse in London. It was during a stint at Brasserie St Jacques that he and Glayzer crossed paths in 2009, which was Glazyer’s return to the kitchen as head chef having worked as a consultant head chef for seven years. Glazyer, an Englishman, first trained at the Savoy and the Ritz Hotels before moving to France for ten years working at Michelin-starred restaurants including Georges Blanc, L’Esperance Vezalay and Le Maugre before then returning to England.
Brasserie Gustave sits 50 people upstairs and there is a bar and private dining room downstairs, capable of seating up to 16, and is elegantly decorated with art deco posters and red banquettes. The message is clear and simple, ‘we are a brasserie’ and I always view it as a positive for restaurants when people of that nationality eat there; as was the case this evening when a French family was seated at the adjacent table. Gustave offer, as you would expect, an à la carte menu, a prix fixe and currently also a black truffle degustation which, including venison carpaccio and tournedos, looked incredibly tempting.
On this particular evening my wife and I both chose the à la carte option, and for starters we had the moules (£8) and the foie gras (£12) leaving ourselves in Richard’s capable hands for the accompanying wine which for this course was a dry Sauvignon blanc and a Langlois Chateau Coteaux du Layon 2012 respectively. The moules, in a cream and white wine sauce, were perfectly cooked and the exquisitely balanced sauce was eagerly mopped up with some bread afterwards. The foie gras, so often very rich, was surprisingly light and accompanied by a fig and port chutney which added a tasty zip to the flavour of the terrine. The Sauvignon blanc sat delightfully on the palate next to the moules while the sweetness of the Couteaux de Layon was, for me, a completely unexpected but excellent choice with the foie gras.
Moving on to the main course the choice of the evening was meat and more meat; the tartare (£20) for my wife and a beef fillet (£29) for myself. When the tartare arrived, I had instant food envy. It arrived first, on a trolley, with the accompanying seasoning mix (shallots, capers, gherkins and cayenne pepper but to mention a few) made to order at the table. The resulting dish was an incredible blend of the raw meat and chosen spices washed down with a rich Domaine la Rouviole Cuvee Classique 2013, AC Minervois. My own fillet, while not quite hitting the heights of the tartare (which, as it turned out is a house specialty) was a wonderfully cooked piece of beef accompanied by chips and a Béarnaise sauce with a Cosse et Maisonneuve “Le Combal” 2012 to accompany.
When the desert menu landed at the table I did a double take. My sweet tooth normally homes in on one desert on a single reading. At Gustave I was forced to read through the whole menu several times and even then I was stumped; a single desert didn’t jump out at me, they all did. My wife chose her favourite of chocolate fondant (£7.50) while ultimately I went for the crème brûlée (£7.50). The fondant was perfectly formed, the sponge was soft with the chocolate itself not too rich. The crème brûlée, like the foie gras, was incredibly light and the crust delicate and thin. Richard’s final wine choices of the evening were a wonderful Mas des Caprices Rivesaltes Grenat 2012 and Mas Des Caprices Muscat De Rivesalt 2013.
The service throughout the evening was attentive while not being too intrusive with the atmosphere humming nicely from a combination of the other clientele, the trolley service and the smells of the other dishes wafting around the dining room. The food was refreshingly light and the portions generous and not too large. It is all too tempting to order too much and leave a restaurant feeling stuffed to the gills; at Brasserie Gustave the portions were well sized and my wife and I left feeling suitably full but not so gorged that we rolled down the street. 
Enquiries: Brasserie Gustave, 4 Sydney Street, London, SW3 6PP/ [email protected]/ www.brasserie-gustave.com