Cafe du marche:restaurant review

I recently started a new job so have been trying out restaurants near my new offices in Farringdon. As part of this I took my girlfriend out for a nice romantic meal at a French place that came highly recommended (the person who told us about it was sworn to secrecy by a guy who took her there on a date, it turns out she likes us more than him!)

The restaurant is hidden down a side street just off a quaint square halfway between barbican and farringdon station.

It definitely feels like you have made a special discovery when you walk through the door into the brick lined walls, there is a piano in the centre which was being played by someone when we arrived giving the whole place a warm and friendly feel.

Whenever I go to a new restaurant I am alway nosey and look at what the other guest have ordered, just so I can get an idea of size and also to maybe give me a hint about what I may have order myself, looking quickly from table to table I couldn't see a single thing I wouldn't want to eat, beautiful cuts of meat, fresh poultry and salads where pretty much everywhere accompanied by some very nice looking wine.

Once we were seated (right next to the aforementioned piano) we got to peruse the excellent menu, which offers 2 course for 28.50 or 3 courses for around 35 we also got told about some really very interesting specials, including quail and partridge. For started I went for the gratin of black pudding, which tasted sensational while my girlfirend chose the mushroom tartine. These were both generous in size and passed the clean plate test (there was nothing left of the tartine for me to try again, although I am told it was really good).

For mains we both went for specials, I chose to pay a supplement and had partridge, which was suuculent, tender and very tasty, servered with some chips and a salad while my girlfriend went for the quail, I did manage to get a mouthful of the quail (as I have never tried it before) and I have to say it was even better than my partridge, with a really nice flavour and texture.

I would highly recommend the Cafe du Marche as a great place for a date, it is everything you would expect from a quaint little french restaurant in the side streets of Paris, but stuck in the middle of London.