Club Gascon

The former Lyons Teahouse near to Smithfield meat market presents a deceptively historic façade for the slick contemporary setting that is Club Gascon. The marble-walled space within is hard to fault: exuberant displays of fresh flowers add colour to a stylish confection of old oak floors and royal-blue banquettes, while black-tied waiting staff deliver polished, well-paced service whether you're here to broker a deal over a protracted business lunch or relax with a more romantic tête à tête. With its very name, Club Gascon wears its culinary heart on its sleeve, but if you are expecting unvarnished goose-fat-and-garlic peasant cooking from South West France, think again. For sure, Chef Pascal Aussignac celebrates the visceral idiom of Gascony's cuisine, but he explores it with a fertile imagination, building his menus around groupings of little tapas-style dishes under headings such as 'La Route du Sel', 'L'Océane', or 'Les Pâturages' - although the three-course format is available in a keenly-priced 'Chef's Special' lunch option. At the heart of it all is foie gras, served in a half-dozen ways - perhaps with sherry, prune coulis and toasted hazelnuts, or as a carpaccio with confit kumquat, Campari and lime. Raw materials are often hauled all the way from Gascony in the name of authenticity, and brought together with the sort of carefully-considered innovation that uses sea urchin foam to point up duck carpaccio served with a creamy purée and crispy florettes of cauliflower, plus a duck heart as a nod to the earthy Gascon style. Elsewhere, Aussignac's boundless creativity might yield rabbit and octopus teamed with confit fennel and braised chorizo, or coconut-glazed black cod with a white port and winkle risotto. Top-level technical savoir-faire is a hallmark of desserts such as chocolate truffle with parsnip emulsion, truffle ice cream and chocolate bubbles. The wine list offers eye-opening insights into the lesser-known areas of the South of France as an accessible foil to big-name classic bins available only to the stout of wallet.