Bistro Du Vin and Bar Dean Street Soho

Bistro Du Vin and Bar

36 Dean Street

Soho

London 

W1D 4PS

020 7432 4800

It takes courage to open a large restaurant anywhere in London in this economic climate, I would say it takes an even braver one to open  one  in Soho. But bravery has paid off in spades with the opening of Bistro du Vin and Bar on Dean Street in Soho. What they have achieved in such a short time has got to be down to great management in this case under the tutelage of Cheila Reais who used to run the Brasserie at High Road House one of the out posts of Soho House, which had Chiswick a twitter when it opened, well she has brought all her knowledge with  her and has managed to whip the staff into some of the most clued up I have come across in a long time. Everyone from the barman to the waitresses and the sommelier showed product knowledge that would put most in their field to shame. It only proves the point that there is no reason for bad service other than that the manager who really can't be bothered to instill the knowledge needed to make even a simple dinner into a rememberable one. Such is the case with Bistro Du Vin and Bar.

The food which is prepared in an open kitchen, thankfully without any Gordon Ramsay style tantrums, is so well executed it really is very hard to find fault in anything we had to eat. I say we and the we in question was Stephen Clifford-Wood who is marketing director of a very successful group of restaurants in the West End and he was determined to find fault, but even he, who has to be even worse than me at judging restaurants was blown away with everything. The attention to the smallest details was noted by both of us. 

 They have designed the restaurant in typical bistro style, lots of banquettes with interesting art on the walls, the buzz that you expect in a bistro is supplied by the customers and there were more than enough of those to make the buzz with a capital B, which only went to make the evening more enjoyable by people spotting and eavesdropping, some of my favourite things to do in a restaurant, but especially with Stephen, who without doubt is one of the funniest people I know. So the evening was never in doubt only the restaurant was. This they managed to the moment I got there when I was greeted by Good evening Mr Cotter-Craig would you like to wait at the bar until your guest arrives. Now unless they googled my name to see what I looked like, I have no idea how the receptionist knew it was me, So really anything after that was the icing on the cake and by the end of dinner there was more icing than cake.

I know the point of this blog is to persuade you to follow my likes and dislikes but it is rarely that I say you would be a fool not to try this restaurant, so YOU WOULD BE A FOOL NOT TO TRY THIS RESTAURANT, there said it. Now make sure you do.