CHEZ BRUCE: Wandsworth Common 0

Hmmmm……..weird……..

Generally when people rave about something, be it a book, a movie, or even a person, when the time comes for you to ‘see for yourself’  i.e. read the book, watch the movie, meet the person, you’re normally disappointed…… The read wasn’t as good as they’d said, the movie wasn’t as funny, the person wasn’t as cool…… the same goes for restaurants….

So, when people go on and oooooooon about a place to eat, I normally set myself up for a letdown….

HERE IS THE STORY OF THE EXCEPTION TO THE RULE….

Chez Bruce (CB) is one of those places that no matter who you speak to, people love it. Randoms. Old people, Young people, Singles, Couples, Everyone…. I knew one day I’d get there, as I’ve said before, to ”see for myself”, but I just didn’t know when, with who, or how.

Anyway, about a month ago, whilst dining at a shall-remain-nameless-Ramsay-yuckyazoid- gastro pub, with some family, they suggested that they lock in an evening for us all to head to CB. They wanted me and husbies to experience what was, in their opinion, top-notch grub. Thankfully no one needed to cancel, babysitters turned up, plans ran smoothly, and last night we got to see for ourselves.

CB is located (LITERALLY) directly across from stunningly sunny (yes sunny!) and lusciously green, Wandsworth Common. From the windows you can see families enjoying picnics on the grass, friends meeting for an afternoon drink at the pub next door (THE HOPE – which also appeared to serve delicious food – will be back there to suss it out) and locals roaming down Bellevue road on an evening walk.

The interior is understated but stylish and the ambience is intimate and very ”French”. Our table was tucked away in a corner, which suited us fine and we were greeted by an attractive lady at the front door who welcomed us with a huge smile! Lovely.

Once seated, and whilst waiting for our dinner companions, we were handed menus. Death and destruction. As I read through the starters I could feel that the onset of a panic attack was imminent. I want it all. Ok calm down, you can only choose one…..well two….that’s what husbands are for! Deeeeeep breaths….. I move on to the mains, the feeling doesn’t go away, it gets worse….heart beating faster and faster…...quick I think…..move onto dessert…..surely you’ll see something that you really dislike…….WRONGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG – WORSE STILL……scrumptious, yummy, delicious, mouth-watering descriptions……..and so the drooling began!

For starters. I settled on a Tuna, toasted croutons, olive and tomato salad with heaven in liquid form poured all over it – sorry for the horrendous description by me, but I didn’t copy from the menu at the time, as I was too busy wiping away my tears of delight. I also thought I could just grab the info off the website, but alas, Bruce is so on-trend that the menu changes very regularly hence only a SAMPLE one appears online. Husbies had the same as me – simultaneous sobbing.

For Main I chose the Skate Wing – a favourite ….. as you probably know from reading this blog ……you can see that whenever it’s on the menu, it’s pretty much guaranteed to be in my mouth by the end of the night. This was served on a bed of puy lentils with tomato and bean garnish BUT WHAT DOES HE MARINATE IT IN…..what’s in THAT DRESSING – whyyyyyyy does it taste so good. And I mean GOOD, really good. Husbies is always one to play things safe and neutral and if something is FABULOUS he will say ”It was nice” – but as he lifted my fork full of skate and lentils and placed it on his tongue, and chewed, his eyes lit up and he said ”No, no….that’s REALLLLLLY good”…….

Also at our table Beef and Salmon were consumed – and the plates went back into the kitchen clean. LITERALLY CLEAN. The beef came with chips and the boys INSISTED that I try one (and only one!!) so that I could UNDERSTAND THE FRY when writing about it in this review. Well….. I WILL NEVER understand how one man can make a potato taste so bloody fantabulous!

DESSERT. *SIGHS* – who orders ”Ice cream” for dessert at a restaurant like CB when the other options include Crème Brulee, Chocolate Fondant, and a FANCY SCHMANCY Raspberry Mille Feuille impersonation??? ME – THAT’S WHO – and WHY you might ask……well, because I saw someone at the table next to us eating it and she had a look on her face like all her christmases had come at once, so I thought, WHY NOT?

And this wasn’t just ANY ice cream….it was HONEYCOMB ice cream….so creamy, it made normal cream look like water. Packed with oozy schmoozy ripples of honeycomb and topped with chunky bits of the golden goody too! On the side of the very large bowl was a gorgeously fresh Madeleine cake, a ginger snap biscuit and an almond tuille! mmmmmm!

Three courses of this ridiculousness is £40, add a little more for the Beef and also for a cheese platter if you think you can fit it in – drinks obviously on top of that – Pretty reasonable in my opinion!

Overall, CB didn’t meet my expectations, as I said in the beginning of this blog, I really tried not to have toooo many, it frigging doubly exceeded them!

This place is ABSOLUTELY worth every tip of it’s 6 pronged Michelin Star.

Onya Bruce!

(note: where in god’s name has my attention to detail gone? I forgot to mention the olive bread and palmiers that we also managed to stuff into our pie holes before our starters and after our desserts, consecutively. YUMMMMMMMY!)