Le Basilic Restaurant Review

The first impression starts outside. There's a traditional wooden, chalet feel to the building, with chalk boards advertising tasty sounding specials and twinkling fairy lights framing the front door. A hint of warm candle light comes through the windows, enticing you in.

It's tiny inside, but in a good way. Everything is wooden and alpine, but more on the stylish side than the rustic. There are chunky wooden tables and chairs to seat maybe 45. The tables are laid immaculately with sparkly wine glasses and flickering candles. There are little touches of imaginative decoration around the room and my favourite are the lampshades made of old copper pans, holes drilled in the bottoms to let the light through.

Adjoining the restaurant is the cutest little bar, with just enough room for three bar stools. This is where my boyfriend Dan and I started our evening, looking at each other with the same “what shall we drink?” expression. The lovely woman behind the bar (and indeed who served us all evening) asked if we would like to try the house aperitif, a white wine infused with basil. I didn’t hesitate in saying yes; Dan thought for a moment wondering if he should just be manly and have a beer. He decided to join me and the lady filled two large wine glasses with ice and a syrupy looking white wine. It was very cold, slightly sweet white wine with the most amazing aroma and taste of fresh basil. The aroma was not that of processed basil, in a jar of pesto say, but of a bunch of fresh basil, just picked from the garden. It's one of those intense smells that everyone seems to love. The flavour worked amazingly well with the sweet white wine. It was just what we wanted to drink and we didn’t even know it.

The menu is not huge, which I always take as a good sign, and everything seems to be homemade including the lovely bread. Dan went for the chef's homemade wild boar terrine starter. This was beautifully presented with baby, confit balsamic onions and bright dots of tangy gherkin puree. While very tasty, Dan pointed out that it was “just a terrine” and didn’t vary massively from dozens of others you might have. This didn’t stop him from happily polishing it off though. I started with a bowl of thick hearty pumpkin soup, which came with a little side dish of crunchy croutons and one of whipped cream flavoured with garlic. A sprinkling of the croutons and a dollop of the garlic cream helped lift this from an okay soup to something tasty. But still nothing to blow you away. The garlic cream was garnished with a shard of crispy pancetta which added some colour but felt unnecessary gastronomically. Perhaps it was there simply to satisfy the French need to add meat to all savoury dishes.

Our main course was altogether more successful. We both chose the "piece of beef" with pepper sauce. This turned out to be big, yummy juicy chunks of fillet steak which had been grilled and served on a wooden skewer, covered in a deliciously hot, creamy peppercorn sauce. The distinctive heat from the peppercorns was just the right side of too hot. I asked for my steak rare, forgetting I was in France and it would probably come out blue. It did. But it was not a problem at all as the meat was just so tender and soft. The steak was accompanied by a mound of lovely, lightly roasted little potatoes with their skins still on, they were soft and salty and buttery and just what you need with steak and sauce. There was also a small bowl of tasty mixed vegetables. We both thoroughly enjoyed our steak and washed it down with two nice glasses of red wine. Mine was quite light and easy to drink while Dan went for the richer, heavier Gamay which actually worked better with the rich red meat.

Then I had serious dessert envy. Being a stereotypical woman, my eyes are often drawn towards the word chocolate on a dessert menu, but I had given up chocolate for lent so I went for vanilla ice cream with salted caramel sauce and praline. The ice cream was creamy, smooth and full of real vanilla seeds and the sauce was delicious but there was not nearly enough of it. The praline was made with peanuts which I am not a fan of, I would have preferred hazelnuts any day. But this is a personal taste and the overall dessert was very nice, if not amazing. But then I saw Dan's and got jealous.

He chose the Cafe Decouverte; a beautifully presented plate of miniature classic desserts, and to top it off, a coffee on the side. There was a mini ramekin of creme brule, and a tiny wedge of rich, dark chocolate tart, a profiterole filled with ice cream and topped with chocolate sauce and crushed nuts, a baby rum baba, a little droplet of meringue and who knows what other yummyness. Dan declared every individual piece to be as delicious as it looked. Suffice to say I felt a little short changed. I did help polish off the creme brule though.

Le Basilic is a wonderfully cute, romantic little restaurant run with great passion and friendliness. The owners and chefs obviously really care about their food and service.

A great restaurant for any occasion, from a lovely long indulgent evening to a quick bowl of delicious homemade gnocchi and glass of red at lunch.