The French House
The French House review: the Dean Street pub that serves beer only in half pints is still Soho's most civilised afternoon. The upstairs dining room, too.
The French House is a pub with a long memory. It was the unofficial London HQ of the Free French during the war, and a steadfast refuser of certain modern conveniences: no mobile calls, no television, no pints - halves only, so the place stays properly sociable.
The room
A single narrow ground-floor bar with photographs four-deep on every wall, and a small dining room upstairs with seven tables.
What to order
Downstairs: a half of bitter, a glass of Ricard, a wine by the glass. That is it. Upstairs, Neil Borthwick’s short menu: duck rillettes, grilled fish, an iron pot of something braised.
The drinks list
Restrained, Gallic-leaning, with an unusually strong vermouth selection.
What you will pay
Downstairs: three halves and a glass of wine, maybe £25. Upstairs: three courses and a half-bottle, around £55 a head.
The verdict
Take a quiet afternoon off, go at 16:00, drink halves, stay until something happens.
Nathaniel Ashford
Senior contributing editor
Nathaniel Ashford writes about bars, cocktails, pubs and the London neighbourhoods that hold them together. A former drinks-trade journalist, he now contributes a weekly cocktail column for Vivi and leads the Vivi Neighbourhoods series.
He knows more about vermouth than is strictly respectable. Based in Fitzrovia; generally found two doors down from wherever he is supposed to be.
Near this restaurant
Bar Gemella
A small Italian wine bar on Lexington Street that takes walk-ins until nine. Three marble tables, a short list, and a cl...
Kiln
Ben Chapman's tiny Thai counter on Brewer Street is still the best bowl of clay-pot noodles in London. Walk in at the co...
Quo Vadis
Jeremy Lee's Soho institution on Dean Street is the best lunch in the neighbourhood. Go for the smoked eel sandwich, the...