Luc's Brasserie

Luc's does what generations of politicians have generally failed dismally to do, namely bring the English and the French together into close proximity - and smile.

The location for this superb diplomatic achievement is none other than the historic and increasingly fashionable Leadenhall Market with its picturesque cobbled walkways that have somehow miraculously survived the health and safety process, and its echoes of London past and present, now triumphantly joined at Luc's with Parisian chic.

One of the greatest achievements of the Leadenhall Market project is within its creation of a classless zone where all sorts and conditions of people happily whoop it up, and it is into this scene that Luc's blends with precocious ease, offering food that is cosmopolitan and appealing. So the city slicker finds himself sitting next to the day visitor from Cheltenham, or the lonely émigré from La France itself, amidst a riot of simple wooden tables casually draped with traditional checked cloths.

The décor is indiscreetly French, with a newly designed restaurant that seats 100, and an upstairs private dining room that accommodates another 30. To provide before and after space a long elegant bar is backed with a cluster of high tables at which solitary visitors to Luc's can cherish their isolation with a meal and a glass or three.

Chef and Partner, Darrin Jacobs has produced a menu that signals yet another success for l'entente cordiale, starting with some roast onion soup and melted Gruyère toasts, a rabbit and Armagnac soaked prune terrine, or some escargots de Bourgogne.

Home cured salmon with blinis and sour cream offer at least a breath of L'Angleterre and the French attitude to matters of meat is well captured in the Merguez sausages served with a potato and garlic puree.

Steaks feature strongly, all are served with oven dried tomato, frites and sauces aux poivre or béarnaise. Chateaubriand for two invariably makes the best of the cut as well as rolling nicely off the tongue when ordering. Calves liver Lyonnaise makes a welcome change from our often uninspired methods of making this nutritious meat appealing to a wider public.

The eponymous steak hache burger has all the appeal of a well prepared faggot combined with the flavours of well hung meat, served plain or with melted Brie, beef tomato, lettuce and pickle.

No French leaning menu is complete with out a boeuf bourguignon, or sausisson with lentil broth, and of course the French are always much more adventurous in their approach to bucolic meat such as rabbit, served here with mustard and Calvados.

Daily specials give a nice sense of continuity, with bouillabaisse on Wednesdays as a prime target for many. Desserts offer profiteroles with Luc's white chocolate ice cream, tarte au citron, baba de rhum and, of course crème de brûlée.

A wine list that leans exclusively towards the Gallic mode should come as no surprise, nor indeed as a disappointment bearing in mind the quality of the 100 plus wines from which to choose.

Their Website is well worth a click to find out more about special offers and opportunities for private functions in this central City location.