Guess where we went for tea last night….
Nope. Not Pizza Hut.
Balthazar.
The brand new London version of the fantabulous New York brasserie.

Picture the scene.
SATC Season 1, (I’m pretty sure) enter Samantha and Carrie.
The girls try to blag their way into the restaurant and Samantha explains to the stone faced girl at the door that they are both ‘kind of somebody’. In the end, it takes Carrie to give the receptionist (apparently the most powerful woman in town) a tampon in the loo. This is all to show how exclusive the restaurant is. Or something.
So we went. Pre-theatre. Not dressed as Sex and the City characters (imagine!).
And we hadn’t booked. Which Mr F always freaks out about.
And we were seated at the bar.
Which was nice.

And it was busy.
Really busy.
No Carrie Bradshaw
No Harper Beckham who has been papped there twice since it opened last month.

(FYI this is my fave Balthazar photo of all time…)

Wait!
Zoom out…

How we laughed..

Meanwhile…
I ordered some wine which was really expensive for house wine delicious.
And we looked at the menu.
And it was stupidly expensive. £4.50 for a portion of chips. Well you can imagine Mr F’s reaction.
But I was going for one reason.
Well two if you count pretending I was Carrie Bradshaw.
The reason was the French onion soup (£6?).
Which looked a bit like this…

Thanks Guardian for the image. Here’s the recipe apparently.
And it was amazing. And if I’d had a sandwich beforehand and only ordered half a lager and lime then it would have been a cheap night out.
Almost.
But it is stupidly overpriced. And even though the staff are possibly the nicest in London, I can’t eat them.
What’s sad is that it could be amazing if it was the same price as Zedel which is only the other end of Soho and is my current fave dining room. You can order whatever you like in there. You know nothing is a million pounds.
Balthazar is just a brasserie. But it’s more expensive than, say, Soho House/Dean St Townhouse which feels way more of a treat.
And I didn’t like the soap. It smelt all soapy. It was Occitane. But not one of the nice smells. Just soap smell and in that Occitane way it lasted all through Act One at the theatre.
But I would go back for the soup.
Maybe.
End of review.