La Fromagerie
2-4 Moxon Street
W1U 4EW
Tel: 020 7935 0341
Date of Last Visit: Sunday, August 10 2008
The Victim: Me
The Damage: £12.50
The Background: My parents are good, decent hard-working people. And they’ve raised a total snob.
How else to describe my decision on a Sunday morning to take myself off to Marylebone for breakfast? I don’t live anywhere near Marylebone.
But it would be nice to live there. I can imagine myself, wandering the High Street, with my brother-and-sister West Highland White Terriers. And big sunglasses. Of course.
Instead I’m there trying NOT to look conspicuously American. I did leave the baseball cap at home…
The Entrance: It’s just a little after 10 when I arrive at La Fromagerie. The place is comfortably full but not overbearingly so. There are still tables to be had. I set myself up in a corner and ponder the contents of all those cardboard boxes.
I also ponder the menu…
And I’m concerned by rules on it. They can’t reheat food. They can’t cook to order. You must spend £10 between 12:30 and 2:30.
I understand maximizing the bottom line, but just because I order "just" an orange juice on Monday at 1 p.m. doesn’t mean I’m not going to go whole hog on Tuesday. Or Wednesday for that matter. Doesn’t it all just average out? I think I have spent too much time calculating expected values.
The Service: They’re nice. I get concerned by the mention of filtered water on the menu and how if I spend £1 on filtered water, they’ll donate it. I just want tap water and wonder if this is a possibility. "Of course it is!" says my server. Thank goodness.
The Food: I try for the Croque Monsieur, but they’re out of Croque Monsieur. I find this fascinating. How can one be a cheeseshop and be out of cheese and meat and bread? Hmmm. Maybe they were missing special bread. Or special ham. They couldn’t be lacking in cheese! So instead I get the gravadlax and it arrives, beautifully so. And it is good.
The Verdict: I like La Fromagerie. I can’t help it. I should note that I had a better experience here than at their Highbury cousin.
4 comments
Wow, I’ve heard of fussy customers but this fussy restaurant is a first for me! Thanks for a Friday afternoon chuckle.
I moved to this neighborhood with the idea that I would have lunch at La Fromagerie every weekend and dinner at Providores’ Tapa Room twice week. Providores is overcrowded and the waiters borderline incompetent or obnoxious (sometimes both!)
La Fromagerie does seem to have a slightly aloof Euro thing going on. But they’re efficient and polite. Good enough.
But there is no arguing with the cheese! And they serve decent wine as well. Who needs love?
Load up on the unpasteurized cheese while you can!
BB
Next time you’re there try La Biere a Frometon and pair it with camembert. It’s brewed near Boulogne in collaboration with a nored cheesemonger.
“noted”, not “nored”. Sorry!
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