Roussillon Restaurant

 

The Michelin star on a restaurant is always a guarantee of quality cuisine, but - in London at least - it often suggests other things as well: fiddly, elaborate dishes, flashy decor and servile staff. Roussillon - with its thick carpets, soft chairs and tasteful prints on the walls - feels more like a living room than a showy restaurant. The main courses have all the worthy solidity of the best bistro fare and the staff ooze Gallic confidence. Roussillon is most famous for its tasting menu and - unusually for a French restaurant - its vegetarian and children's options. This is food that mixes all the richness and power of French peasant cooking with the immaculate attention to detail of the best gourmet restaurants. Prawn and langoustine fricassee is fresh and simple, while cepes ravioli are a chewy, meaty delight. Turbot poached in saffron milk perfectly matches strong flavours so that they complemented each other without being overpowering, while highland venison is lethally meaty. The wine list is immense - if you want to splash out, you can do so in style, but there is also an excellent range of choices at the lower end. There's none of the glitz of the big hotel restaurants here, but if you care about food, and aren't trying to show off, then this is one of the finest restaurants in London.