Oh my! If you read my blog regularly, you’ll be very aware that my lifestyle content is somewhat food-heavy. This post is no different. What a feast we had on recent our visit to Bordelaise, the new French restaurant, tucked inside Broadway Market, off Tooting High Street.

Despite being best known for their Steak +Frites with Bordelaise sauce (a steal at £15!), they also do a fantastic French Sunday Roast, with Dauphinoise potatoes & green beans – served on Sundays from 12pm-4pm, priced at £14 or £24 with bottomless bubbly, if you’re feeling that way inclined… 

I often use my food review opportunities as a chance to catch up with my nearest and dearest. This time around, I took one of my best mate’s, Laura – a foodie after my own heart – as my Sunday dinner date. I knew full well that she would be a great judge of quality and guaranteed great company too.

I shall preface this review with the following story, just to give my appetite a bit of context: I’d actually gone out on the Saturday night, for my friend Patrick’s 31st birthday… and got a bit boozed. However, despite seeming like I go out all of the time, it’s usually only during the week – and that’s mainly because of one blog event or another. (If you follow my Instagram stories, you’ll know what I’m on about…) But, the thing is, I don’t actually go out out that often, especially not partying at the weekend… These days, it’s only usually when a friend’s birthday rolls around, that we make the effort to go out to a club, and have a good dance. That’s what happens when you hit 30 kids. Sad, but true. But it does means that you enjoy those get togethers so much more! 

Anyway, we ended up in the Namco Funscape (Patrick’s choice – I got there and felt like I was 14 again, and going on a date with a boy to the Trafford Centre!) for a bit of classic arcade game madness. 

Back to present day, think: bowling, air hockey, dodgems, car racing games and other silliness – such as being told off for drinking in the wrong area – OOPS! We were acting like teenagers again… This juvenile joy was followed by a short walk to The Wellington pub, near Waterloo. Where we finished watching the end of the Haye vs Bellew fight. It turns out I’ve become quite a fan of boxing over these last couple of years! Before, finally, ending the night at another of Patrick’s friend’s birthday parties, at The Joker in Angel. Cue innumerable bourbons, shots and a funny game where we had to get a Zoltar Fortune card into the pocket of a stranger, without them seeing/feeling us doing it. Messy! Oh dear… We eventually rolled home in an Uber XL at 4am. What a night! 

And so, I’d strategically timed this restaurant review to be the perfect Saturday-night-out-out-in-London hangover cure. But did it live up to expectations? 

Hell yes! Oui! Oui! Oui! C’est bon! Tres bien!

We drove the 40 minutes or so from my house in Richmond to Tooting, and it being a Sunday, parked on one the residential streets nearby for free. If you don’t know anything about Tooting Broadway Market, you really should make some time to check this place out. Time Out did a handy piece, back in April 2016, on the nine stalls that you really must visit in Tooting Market. If they’d done it 4 months ago, I reckon Bordelaise would have been on there too!

What we ate at Bordelaise…

• French bread and butter – sprinkled with coarse sea salt

• Olives

• Roast pork belly with dauphinois potatoes, green beans, and some sort of incredible gravy (probably a jus!)

• Braised Ox cheek with mash, lardons & carrots

• A side of Mac ‘n’ Cheese (because I couldn’t resist the carbs – I blame the hangover!)

• A side of Frites (Again, a house speciality, so I had no choice but to taste test them!)

• French sparkling wine

• Vignes d’Oc Merlot red wine

• Chocolate fondant

• Cheese selection (The cheese is incredible!!!)

Bordelaise is very well priced for such exceptional quality food. We really felt like we’d spent the afternoon in a pretty, French bistro in France – not London town! I was really blown away by Chef Stace’s cooking, and would love to come back here for a date night, one evening – when the lights are low and the candles are lit. 

I’m embarrassed to say that, after living in London for almost 5 years now, January 2017 was the first time I’d ever visited one of the restaurants in Brixton Village. I mention Brixton Village because that’s the only place that I can compare this place with.

So if you’ve like what Brixton Village has to offer the discerning foodie, you’ll adore what Broadway Market has in store for you – just on a slightly smaller scale. They’ve got a handful of great restaurants including Franco Manca, and some Jamaican beauts!

If you want to try Bordelaise for yourselves, it’s advisable to make a table reservation, as it’s a petite little place and I wouldn’t want you to turn up and be disappointed if they can’t fit you in.

Where is Bordelaise, Tooting?

Unit 9-11 Broadway Market

Tooting High Street

London SW17 0RJ

Make a booking: Telephone: 020 8767 5008 or Email: enquiries@bordelaise.co.uk

Take a look at the Bordelaise menu

* Thank you to Bordelaise for inviting us down to do a review for the Lucie Loves blog. It was food porn at its very finest! One of the best meals I’ve had to date in London. The Ox Cheek was succulent, the pork belly tender and more-ish. Stunning grub!* 

Photography © Lucie Kerley