The 30-Day Countdown and 9am Phone Drill for a Table Above a Farringdon Pub
Henry Harris is back at the stove above The Three Compasses in Farringdon, cooking the Lyonnaise bouchon menu London didn't know it was missing. Getting in is its own event.
A blackboard travels from table to table in a small upstairs room in Farringdon, and on it are the words tête de veau, sauce ravigote. That the dish exists on a menu in London in 2024 is unusual. That it is one of the best-selling things in the room is the point of Bouchon Racine.
Henry Harris ran Racine in Knightsbridge until it closed in 2015 — a restaurant Londoners of a certain stripe still talk about in the past tense with visible mourning. He is back above The Three Compasses pub with Dave Strauss, cooking Lyon rather than Paris this time, and doing it with enough conviction that the Association Authentiques Bouchons Lyonnais has admitted the place to its ranks. In London. Above a pub. That should tell you what you need to know about how serious this is.
The best French bistro cooking in London is happening in a room above a Farringdon pub, and the phone is the hardest part.
Editorial Deep
What comes back to the kitchen tells the story. The plate that held the tête de veau has been scraped past the point of politeness, ravigote-slicked. The bavette bone is bare. The pot de crème aux griottines has been eaten to the ceramic. This is a room where the food is finished, not sampled — which is what happens when the cooking is confident enough not to leave you room to be polite.
White tablecloths, thick enough to sit properly under a wine glass, over close-set tables in a room that would seat maybe thirty people if everyone breathed in. The light is low without being dim, and it lands on cutlery and wine bottles rather than on faces, which is the mark of somebody who has thought about this. The blackboard moves between tables in someone's hand.
Open your calendar to exactly 30 days from the night you want, and set an alarm. That is when the online window opens on SevenRooms, and tables leave inside the hour. Missed it, or looking closer in? Phone 020 7253 3368 between 9:00 and 11:00am, Tuesday to Saturday, and be prepared to redial. This is where cancellations and tables not shown online are released, and it is the only way in on short notice. The restaurant asks — plainly — that you not call after 11:30am, and they mean it: the small team is heads-down for service. Party size caps at six. Closed Sunday and Monday.
The bill covers a chef who has cooked this food for three decades, a room capped at a size that keeps the service attentive rather than nominal, a wine list built rather than bought, and produce that arrives daily enough to change the board. It is not paying for Mayfair overheads or a design consultant. That is what earns the number.
Bring the friend who has spent a week in Lyon and misses it — this is the room that will settle them. Bring the parent who cooks and reads menus properly. Do not bring the table that shares three small plates and drinks sparkling water; the format will misfire, and so will the bill. Do not bring anyone with a light appetite to dinner — lunch is the kinder introduction to how rich the cooking runs.
What to eat
Don't miss.
Tête de veau, sauce ravigote; grilled rabbit with smoked bacon and mustard; bavette and chips
“Henry Harris cooks a Lyonnais bouchon menu above a Farringdon pub, and the phone is the hardest part.”
Go for the tête de veau, the rabbit, and a Henry Harris menu Londoners have wanted back since 2015. Skip if three rich courses is not your night, and try Quality Chop House down the road for the same neighbourhood at a lighter register.
The Verdict
