Aubaine

This is a nice restaurant in a lovely place in London. The food is a bit overpriced but very enjoyable. Unfortunately for us, we took a walk on the wild side and sat outdoors. Usually we don’t dare because the smokers make it impossible to enjoy outdoor seating without inhaling their smoke. We told our waitress what we were doing and why we were sitting so no one would be upwind of us, but to no avail. Our enjoyment of the meal was brought to a premature end when upwind of us two blokes (other employees?) standing on the pavement decided to light up. And who was chatting them up? Our waitress.

Aubaine in Hampstead is a friendly French restaurant with an upmarket spin, while having an approachable and somewhat casual, relaxed ambience. My fillet steak was great, the sauce unfortunately not so much.
One rainy Friday evening, I was on my way to a concert of the brilliant Ligeti Quartet in Hampstead, and French restaurant Aubaine was right between the tube station and the venue, making it the perfect dinner spot for this occassion.
Sadly, I had to skip a starter and went straight to the main course.
I ordered a beef fillet with peppercorn sauce. To be honest, I was a little bit disappointed by the sauce — it was not distinctly peppery, and really, did not add anything to the dish. I was not even entirely sure if it actually was peppercorn sauce, it was almost more like a bernaise sauce.
However, the meat itself was expertly cooked, medium-​rare to medium with a great texture and a nice beef flavour. The spicing of the fillet steak was well-​balanced with a delicious crust.
The fries were not really memorable. They were alright, without anything that would make them a stand-​out side.
Following my current preference for white wine, I ordered the cheapest white on the list. Not because it was the cheapest, but due to the kind of limited selection by the glass — the other options simply did not sound tastier to me. I would say that it was a good choice together with the steak. The somewhat sharp flavour is not what I usually value very highly, but in combination with the meat it was fine. Anyway, next time I will go for a different wine.
Overall, the wine list reads decent, it’s just that the ones offered by the glass did not excite me at all that evening. As wine lists change regularly, maybe, at my next visit to an Aubaine restaurant, I will find a more compelling selection by the glass.
Throughout my dinner, I was served by one waiter and two waitresses — all were really friendly and professional, while one was particularly nice. The service was good, only slightly impaired by me being under time pressure.
As I was in a hurry, I had to leave without dessert. I was a bit unhappy about that, but I decided that this just gave me a reason to go there again soon!
On my way home, after the concert, I did not pop in again for dessert, but instead decided to checkout another place and stopped by at the excellent food stall La Crêperie de Hampstead just up the road. Highly recommended — I would say even as a second dessert after you have already enjoyed a first one at Aubaine.

Well… hmmm…how can I put it in a nice way (?) An omelete that you can make at home with organic ingredients, you have to pay it there 9−14£ (Brunch)… So yeah I cannot be really a fan of the place.
Plus the fact that the Maître was so not polite and without a smile on his face… made me not to like the place at all.
Our orders (that were all egg related) were late, making us wonder whether they were waiting for the chicken to produce them at that time in particular… and when they arrived on the table I was socked on the size of the portions — you know XL plate with an XS omelete in it…
Waiters where really friendly, polite and smiling.
Female toilets were OK… just!
p. s. and of course do not forget the ‘discretionary’ but unacceptable 12.5% charge for tips…
p.s1 they need to re-​visit their decoration (wall colours) again!

Went to Aubaine yesterday for dinner with the fam. We were visiting and thought that it would be better to travel to hamstead for food rather than overpriced Knightsbridge, where our hotel was located.
When we first got to the restaurant, the service was very attentive and they tried to make you evening a pleasure. Also, the food was very good. However, a piece of my chicken seemed to be very undercooked but I will not deduct stars because the rest of our meal was great. The prices were not extremely overpriced for the quality meal that we had. If I lived near Hamstead, then I would probably go to this fine restaurant quite often.