Café Pistou

Not sure for the reason they have 3.5 stars. Food is quality and ambience is quaint neighborhood French country bistro. Staff were attentive and friendly. Lamb Shoulder is delicious and the green bean side was cooked perfectly. Terrific place for a casual evening dinner at very reasonable prices.

This place looks great and the atmosphere is on the whole pretty good. However there’s quite a lot wrong with the overall experience.
The food is decent if unremarkable, and portion sizes are small while prices are high. Service is slow at best and as others have mentioned, the staff seem to hang around chatting to each other rather than looking after the customers. They messed up a couple of things about our order, and the place wasn’t even half full.
And it’s very overpriced. A meal for two with drinks — even choosing the less pricey dishes and drinks — came out at £90 when you include the unwarranted service charge they automatically put on the bill. You could get a meal of similar quality at any decent gastropub and pay around half as much for it. It’s really inexcusably expensive for what it is.
Will not be returning.

Lovely atmosphere — mint-​green walls, rustic décor and candle-​lit in the evening. Super-​attentive and friendly waiters. The food was delicious, on the pricey side but it felt like we were paying for quality. We had burrata and a bread basket to start. For the main, I went for the braised lamb shoulder with a side of insanely good dauphinoise potatoes. Dessert was the only slight let-​down, I had the pistou (named after the restaurant itself, so I figured it had to be good) which was an interesting combination of baked plums, mascarpone, blackberry sorbet and a crisp with a sort of basil pesto on top. The soft plums and creamy mascarpone worked well together, and the sorbet was refreshingly fruity — but the crisp was a little too oily and I wasn’t a fan of the basil at all. Not to my taste — had to push the pesto to one side. Someone else might love it though! Overall would highly recommend, and I will definitely come here again (and order 5 portions of dauphinoise potatoes…)

The food is good but really overpriced. The portions are tiny. After eating there we had to go somewhere else because we were still hungry! Anyway, the ratatouille tastes nice and the range of plates is representative of Southern French food.

When my friend and I arrived at the restaurant, the team was very welcoming. I really liked the classic decoration with different chairs and the brick wall painted in a light green-​turquoise colour.
We were seated on a small table by the window.
We started our meal with a plate of sliced Bayonne ham with Comté cheese to share with a glass of red wine. ‘So French’ you must think… YES but it is so good!
The bread was very nice and served slightly warm, probably homemade. If not, it is a nice touch to warm it first (tastes better). My thoughts when I ate it was, that I would like to be able to find a baguette like this every morning at the corner of my street.
We shared one of the light bites: Barbajuans, dishes from Monaco which literally means uncle Jean.
I am very easy to please when a dish involves goat’s cheese. I love goat’s cheese so much I often have some slices for breakfast too!
The dish was very nice, the wontons were crispy and tasted light considering they were deep fried. The sauce was very sweet with a little kick with pepper. It really goes well with the melted goat’s cheese curd.
The Provençal Sheperd’s pie dish was nicely presented, the ratatouille was topped with a spiced feuille de brick and served with chickpea purée. It was a good ratatouille. The feuille de brick added a crispy and spiced dimension to the dish. It was a good dish but I would have preferred it with more ratouille and less chickpea purée. I didn’t think the chickpea bring something special to the dish.
The spatchcocked poussin was my far our favourite dish of the night. The chicken was moist and tender with crispy skin. Razz-​el-​hanout spice was well balanced with the yogurt sauce and the sweet and sour apricot.
The lamb was well cooked, slightly pink. It was served with pistou sauce. The dish was nice but nothing special compare to the poussin.
Both desserts were very good and well executed. The pistou dessert was very refreshing and fruit was tart but sweet.
The crème brulée was very nice and had the perfect sugar caramelised on top.
Overall my dinner at Café Pistou was really pleasant. Food was good. All the spice and ratatouille reminded me my holidays in Provence in the middle of the garrigue with cicadas sounds. Only disappointment was the way they organised the service. Food comes as soon as it is ready. I don’t really like this concept as you always end up with too much food on the table and most of it cools down. The lamb cooled down while I was eating the poussin…

I am so glad I found this place! It is charming and nice. I had two small plates which was a full meal for me. If I lived in London I would go there often. I had the ratatouille and fennel salad which were both really tasty. They have complimentary wifi too which is lovely.

Cute ambience, but food is nothing special. Service is a bit slow.

Cute décor and great small plates. The atmosphere was incredibly good. Complimentary wi-​fi was a definite plus for someone who is traveling and in need to connect.

Great for brunch. Pity they’d run out of scrambled egg though. A little bit of flexibility would have changed a poached egg to scrambled.

Although it’s a bit pricey, it more than makes it worthwhile with the best service I have had in London and incredible French cuisine. The staff is very attentive and resat us quickly to a warmer table when the first was too drafty. They also frequently made sure we were enjoying the food and were very patient as we took a while to decide on our order. The food was excellent– really distinct flavours and beautifully presented. Would definitely recommend!

While staying in London I visited here with a friend for a weeknight dinner. They serve French style tapas in a moody slightly-​industrial slightly-​French café style space.
I admit I was a little wary when I saw the prices on the menu, and unfortunately I was even warier when I saw the size of the first tapas that came to the table. I’m not adverse to spending on good food, but there’s a balance to be had between cost, quality and value for money and frankly when it comes to portions I don’t think Café Pistou is providing the latter. Four pounds for three tiny balls of deep friend goats cheese? No. Sixteen pounds for two very small pieces of (admittedly wonderfully cooked) sea bass… maybe as a visitor to London I’m just not used to the increased cost/​value ratio of the city, but I figure even for London, this place is a little overpriced for food.
The food, small as it was, was carefully prepared and pretty tasty. My one caveat was the créme brulée, which was fridge cold underneath (obviously prepped and refrigerated and then just topped with sugar before coming to the table) and the texture wasn’t quite right, too jelly like, and not creamy enough. After spending 30 pounds each on food, I would expect to be full and satisfied, instead I was a little hungry and ended up eating a banana when I got back to the hotel!
The staff were fantastic, cannot fault the service at all; they were attentive and relaxed and never let our water glasses go dry or plates linger on the table. All in all I might visit again, but probably for nibbles and drinks (lovely beer) and the atmosphere (which is also nice), just not dinner. Oh, and definitely don’t go in there hungry. ;)

The design of the room is great despite the drafty windows. The concept though is odd. Small plates and large plates (which are actually quite small) make ordering a chore. The pissaladiere is served on a chopping board in tiny bite size pieces and is mean. the Fougasse is consists of three small pieces albeit with a fine Comte cheese and piece of Bayonne ham. The cod brandade with potatoes was tiny and somewhat tasteless. Everything was under seasoned. It all comes in a jumble when they feel like bringing it out. Service is cool and not particularly sincere or warm. The fries though are excellent.
There are so many better choices on Exmouth Market. Sadly, it made me miss Strada!

I was sad to see Strada — yes, a chain, but yes, perfect for a cheap work lunch — go from this site, and very nervous about what would appear in its place. To a point (a price point…) I needn’t have worried, thankfully.
What has appeared is a ‘french tapas’ restaurant, with the now-​ubiquitous ‘small plates’ and ‘large plates’ on offer. There are far more small plates than large, and the costs do add up, but the food is good. We shared a fig and roquefort (or was it gorgonzola?) tart, which was lovely, on flaky pastry with just the right amount of cheese and fig. Then I had braised lamb shoulder which was delicious, with olives and a perfectly caramelised hunk of onion. I hear the steak was good too — as it should be for upwards of £20 with a tiny pot of sauce, but not including even a basic salad or fries which are extra at £3.50.
But my goodness those fries are excellent. Seriously very excellent.
So the food is good and not your everyday fare, and the service was really lovely — smiley, friendly and helpful. It didn’t feel particularly french but that doesn’t particularly bother me. You need side dishes with the large plates, and the small plates are pretty small so you guessed it, this is an expensive place for lunch. It’s no cheaper than Caravan, king of the small plates, situated directly opposite.
Let the not-​really-​tapas-​but-​similar war on Exmouth Market begin.

Lovely spot for a leisure afternoon… friendly service. Will definitely come back to try the menu (very temping pastries)