B A R B I C A N L I F E
£4.50 – and helped in our choice by the sommelier. As the Coq d’Argent is also open
Crab cocktail at the Coqd'Argent
The excellent prawn starter at
The Modern Pantry
without wine or service. However, the excellent value set menu mentioned above and from which my companion made her selection, comes in at £26 for 2 courses and £29 for three and gives a choice of four starters, four mains, three desserts and cheese (£5 supplement). There are also a grill menu – served in the bar area - and a bar snacks menu. The Coq d’Argent wine list is
The Modern Pantry
enormous. One could probably spend the best part of an hour perusing it and negotiating a mortgage on some of the top end offerings – there is a 1955 Chateau Latour at £2500 a bottle and a good number of others at over £1,000!. However we settled for some of the wines on offer by the glass, of which there was a big selection starting at
online (
www.coqdargent.com) or call 020 7395 5000. Reservations are definitely advisable.
Coq d’Argent is at No. 1 Poultry, EC2R 8EJ. Restaurant opening hours: Monday – Friday: Breakfast: 7.30am - 10am, Lunch: 11.30am - 3pm, Dinner:5.30pm - 10pm. Saturday: Brunch: 12pm - 4.00pm, Dinner: 4.00pm - 10pm. Sunday: Lunch: 12noon - 3pm. Grill opening hours – Monday to Friday 11.30 - 3pm. Bar and Terrace hours: Monday - Friday: 11.30am - 11pm Saturday: 12noon - 11pm Sunday: 12noon - 5pm
years ago (how time flies). Barbican Lifedid run a brief review at the time when only the ground floor part of the establishment, now the cafe, was
T 36
Real fusion food at The Modern Pantry
he Modern Pantry in St John’s Square opened to great critical acclaim just over 5
ajowan is a southern Indian spice and krupuk is perhaps better known as prawn crackers! Nam jim sauce is a hot, sour and tangy Thai dressing. This was a dish where the combination worked brilliantly to make a great starter. Our other starter was perhaps not
quite so successful – Cornish crab rarebit – which was effectively crab served on top of cheese on toast. In my opinion – and maybe others would disagree – the cheese completely overwhelmed the crab. Our main courses again were
mixed. We had the pan fried monkfish, with fennel mash, curly kale and New Forest winter chanterelles – a great combination. Again the other main we chose was perhaps not so successful – Mojo marinated lamb rump, anchovy roast delica pumpkin, purple sprouting broccoli and a Kalamata olive salsa.
for breakfast there is a fairly comprehensive breakfast menu available from 7.30 to 10.00. At weekends Coq d’Argent, as well as being open on Saturday evenings, serves a Saturday brunch (a la carte) and Sunday lunch (at the same prices as the weekday set menu), but given its French menu roots don’t expect a traditional English style roast! For a venue to impress, for a special
occasion, or just for a lunch or dinner (and presumably breakfast) with impeccable service, a great atmosphere and top notch food it would be hard to beat Coq d’Argent in this part of London. You can book
open, while the main restaurant section upstairs was still being set up. Now we have, at long last, tried the main restaurant and had an enjoyable Friday luncheon. The menu makes interesting
reading in its own right trying to perhaps envisage how the various combinations work – some work better than others and some are truly excellent. For example, our starters were
Ajowan, turmeric and krupuk crusted prawns (no we didn’t know what ajowan and krupuk were either) with nam jim dipping source. Our very helpful waitress was luckily very well versed in the dishes – one suspects she may have aspirations as a chef herself – and informed us that
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