L’Autre Pied - but is it quite ‘autre’ enough?

L’Autre Pied in a nutshell
Food: Over-elaborate bistro food, well cooked but slightly too fussy. The set lunch is a bargain though for this quality of cooking
Wine:  A strong list with plenty of options by the glass and carafe
Style/Decor: An awkward space with decor more suited to a Michelin-starred restaurant. Tables are a bit cramped.
Service: efficient but rushed
Who to go with: A fellow foodie. A wine lover
Who not to go with: Someone with a hearty appetite. Portions are definitely on the small side.
Verdict: Hasn’t decided whether to be a casual restaurant or a fine dining establishment. Has potential but needs time to settle.

Normally when a Michelin-starred restaurateur decides to expand he (for it usually is a he) opens an inexpensive bistro. The logic being that Michelin starred restaurants are expensive to run - the bistro, trading on the restaurants reputation, will provide some useful cash flow. So I think most of us expected David Moore, owner of the very successful Pied-à-Terre in Charlotte Street to do exactly that with his new venture L’Autre Pied in foodie hotspot Marylebone village.

In fact in everything but the price it’s a virtual clone of Pied-à-Terre. Same high quality, elaborately worked food. Same discreet ambience, and neutral colour scheme. Same strong wine offering. That should, you might think, be a cause for rejoicing but somehow it doesn’t quite come off, mainly because of the service which on an early visit was bistro-style rushed, and portions which were in some instances supermodel-small.

We ate - and drank - well though, no doubt about that. Moore knows his wine and there’s a very intelligent list of options available in two sizes of glass (125ml and 175ml) and a fashionable 500ml ‘pot lyonnaise’ which makes spot-on wine matching quite feasible. We didn’t quite hit the spot though with our choices.

A silkily smooth butternut squash velouté with crushed squash and sage beignets from the well-priced £16.50 lunch menu paired well with a 2006 Rudera Chenin Blanc from Stellenbosch. But not quite so pitch perfect was a ‘surf’n’turf dish of slow cooked monkfish cheek with oxtail beignets (beignets are a bit of a recurring theme) and celeriac cream which would have probably been better off with a 2003 Lalande de Pomerol from the by the glass list than the slightly short Sardinian Vermentino Cantissa from Cantena Trexanta my husband had picked as an aperitif. It was also more of a main course than a starter.

A rustic-sounding dish of braised blade of beef with horseradish-flavoured purée and beetroot consommé (delicious but slightly too fussily presented) was great with an accompanying glass of smooth, dark rich Cahors Le Cid 2002 from Domaine Cosse-Maisonneuve but a 2004 Vino Nobile de Montepulciano from Poliziano carried too much new oak to flatter a surprisingly delicate dish of steamed and roasted hare with root vegetables - beautifully cooked but again much better suited to a Michelin-starred establishment than what sets out to be a casual restaurant.

We skipped wine with our desserts but there would have been plenty of options to choose from with a fresh-flavoured dish of bayleaf pannacotta with poached apples and I’d have probably opted for a Spanish Moscatel (the Ariyanas from Bodega Bentomiz in Malaga) with a sinfully decadent banana ice cream with a pain d’epice (gingerbread) flavoured caramel sauce, the hit dish of the meal.

It’s early days yet but I think Moore needs to decide what he wants L’Autre Pied to be - a fine dining restaurant (for which there’s arguably room in that part of London although Texture and Orrery are within walking distance) or an upmarket bistro like Galvin round the corner. With the chef he’s got (Marcus Eaves) being perfectly capable of getting at least one Michelin star, I suspect he’ll go for the former. Go now while there are still bistro prices.

L'Autre Pied is at 5-7 Blandford St, London W1U 3DB. Tel: 020 7486 9696