Une part de bonheur

Review: Patron Cave à Manger - Kentish Town

Hiya,

[Hey Google, play La Vie en Rose by Edith Piaf, and add cheese and wine to the shopping list.]

As much as I love cooking, I also love supporting local restaurants – especially at a time when food businesses are trying their hardest to bounce back after months of forced closure.

My favourite restaurants tend to be smaller, intimate venues with around 50 covers, where you can look around and see every other guest in the restaurant, eavesdrop on your neighbour's conversations, spy on what other people are ordering and casually lean over to ask what the waiter's just brought out without feeling like you've made some sort of social faux pas.

Patron Cave à Manger in Kentish Town, a french brasserie by Jean-François Pioc and Tanzi Ellison, is definitely one of those places. It's on a side road close to Kentish Town station, flanked by shops that are so unassuming, I don't even recall what they are. Patron isn't necessarily showy, but that doesn't mean it's any less proud of being a little Parisian gem situated in North London. 

Dinner at Patron is a rather moderately priced affair, with excellent cocktail and winelist choices, and a focussed, yet elegantly-executed menu of starters, small plates, mains and desserts. Perfect for a date, or an intimate reunion of friends and family.

Image courtesy of Patron London

The decor at their Kentish Town location (they have another restaurant in Highbury which offers brunch and different menu options) is a cross between a chilled speakeasy and a charming french brasserie with cool blue-green furniture and warm brown and gold accents with a hand-written chalkboard announcing the specials. It's at the same time comforting and familiar, as it is special – and special is definitely how I felt for my first big night out since March.

On arrival, a chirpy and friendly waitress sat us at our table which was separated from neighbouring diners with – to my surprise – tall perspex panels in clean, minimalist black frames. The government may have forced restaurants to incorporate partitions in between tables, but Patron has managed to oblige in typical style.

Image courtesy of Patron London

We ordered a bottle of Prosecco and a round of cocktails to settle in. Then, with a Negroni, an Old Fashioned, a French Martini and a St. Germain in hand, we pored over the menu for our imaginary trip to Paris. 

First off, the starters: the best part of dining with fellow food-motivated friends is being able to order multiple plates to taste a broad selection of the menu all at once. Patron claims to offer "classic French comfort food" and boy, did it deliver on that promise. 

Beautiful Burgundy Snails basking in garlic and parsley butter (it's okay to smell like garlic when everyone else does too), a punchy Steak Tartare with a delicate quail's egg perched atop, mixed Wild Mushrooms on Toast with shavings of nutty grana padano (I didn't miss the absence of rocket or other spicy foliage which often overshadows the earthy allure of mushrooms), and most of all, lusciously velvety sautéed Chicken Livers in a rich, creamy sauce of sweet Sicilian Marsala wine, served on brioche. The chicken liver might have been more affordable than a foie gras, but make no mistake it tasted every bit as decadent.

Unsurprisingly, we just HAD to ask for more bread from the busy waitress to sop up the glorious sauces – my mother would've been proud to see our clean, unapologetically spotless plates.

And then, predictably we moved onto mains. I tend to have mixed feelings about restaurants with small menus - on one hand I like the confidence in only putting out the chef's best dishes and only what's seasonally available. But at the same time, I'm sometimes a bit disappointed by a lack of variety because I think we as diners want to feel a bit spoilt for choice.

Nevertheless, we ordered a bottle of Malbec and got stuck in. We lingered on the 8oz Onglet Steak and the Mussels on the menu but eventually settled for the Slow-Cooked Duck Confit with a red wine reduction and a side of either truffle fries, or classic fries topped with a generous spoonful of garlic and herb butter. 

The duck was audibly crispy and indulgent as one might expect from the french staple, and the red wine reduction was a perfect accompaniment to it. Plus, with the truffle fries (which came with what I’m guessing is a ramekin of creamy truffle mayo) and garlic butter fries, it’s no surprise that there were a lot of “oohs” and “ahhs” going around the table.

I, however, opted for the start-of-season favourite, Coq au Vin with pearl onions, button mushrooms, carrots and smoked lardons. I was afraid I'd get massive food envy being surrounded by three other people having the duck confit, but as it turned out, I had the best choice.

I ordered a side of Potato Gratin with my Coq au Vin, because in my book, there is no such thing as too much decadence. The beauty of the Coq au Vin was in how it tasted like it'd been made by someone's very loving French grandmother, with an impossibly succulent and tender chicken leg, smoky lardon jewels and sweet, braised vegetables. It was so good that if I had nothing else but the Coq au Vin, some bread (obvs!) and a glass of red wine that evening, I'd still have come home with a big smile and a big, happy belly.

The potato gratin was not short on flair either. While gratin is usually served with shallow, thinly sliced layers of potato baked in cream and cheese, Patron's gratin was served in a pavé-style block of potato-y, cheesy, creamy layers which elevated the simple dish into a show-stopping side.

Then regretfully, we moved onto dessert. Regretful not because it was bad – rather because it meant the end of the meal was upon us.

After the wonderful array of starters and mains that we'd had, we were unsurprisingly running quite low on stomach capacity, and even contemplated not having any dessert (sacrilege, I know). But as my mother always says, there's ALWAYS room for dessert. 

So we went with what I consider to be Patron's smartest menu choice: the Café Gourmand which comes with three of the other desserts in miniature sizes, paired with an espresso or mint tea. The desserts were a slice of Pear Poached in Red Wine with a tangy scoop of vanilla crème fraîche, an adorable baby Crème Brulée, and a deep, sensual bitter-sweet Chocolate Mousse – offering you three different ways to close the night's gastronomic delights. 

And while I know a Mint Tea is a very un-french way to end the meal (when compared to the option of having an espresso), after all the butter and cream that we'd had, a refreshingly light, sweetened mint tea was kind of the perfect way to end the meal.

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Consider me, a self-confessed francophile, satiated for now until I'm finally allowed to return to Paris, walking along the Seine and looking for another quaint little bistro where I can order food in embarrassingly inadequate french.

Patron, I hope you never lose your charm and impeccable flair for modest, yet incredibly outstanding French comfort food.

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Patron Cave à Manger - Kentish Town

26 Fortess Rd, Kentish Town, London NW5 2HB

Open: Tuesdays to Sundays, 4pm to 10pm

Reservations can be made via their website.

Happy Hour at Patron is currently from 4pm - 6pm daily, with 50% off Prosecco, champagne, cocktails and wine by the glass.

Full menu and pricelist can be found here.

Don't forget to check them out on Instagram @patronlondon too. And also check out Maison Patron, their new delivery service here.