Gazette

Real authentic french restaurant! Being from France i sometimes crave certain dishes but gazette in balham is just like home! I tried most of the menu and i have never been disappointed! The restaurant is very pleasant as well and i almost forgot to mention their wine list is pretty amazing!

This is one of this places that I thought I would like more than I actually did.
We were walking around looking for a place to have breakfast the other Saturday morning and stumbled upon Gazette. It looked nice enough, so we decided to give it a try.
Inside, it’s spacious and quite nice. We were seated quite quickly, but then again the place wasn’t that crowded when we were there.
Overall there was nothing wrong with my experience here. The service was quite friendly and everything we ordered was good. The main reason that I can’t give it more stars is that I wasn’t thrilled with the breakfast selection on the menu. That being said, I probably will try this place for lunch or dinner sometime to see if I just picked the wrong meal to have here…

Upsides:
Some of the best tasting food in London, and quite reasonably priced too. There’s a daily changing menu that is superb most of the time. Very family friendly too. Also shows football at the back if you prefer a footie meal!
Downsides:
Service is not very friendly. You’re sat down quickly, but food can take its time to come and trying to get the attention of a waiter or waitress is sometimes impossible.

Fabulous. I love everything about this place. The staff are incredibly polite and friendly and the setting is fab. The tables by the windows have chalk, so if you come with kids (or grown ups!) you can draw on the tables.
I’ve eaten here quite a lot and my favourites are: steak tartare — which they prepare at the table and you can choose how you like it (spicy, with or without brandy etc), muscles — great with chips and a lot of their specials (top right hand of the menu).
The puddings — wow! Love the chocolate cooked with patience and my husband always has the crème brûlée. The cheese is amazing as well. Sadly I’ve always been too full to have it; one day I’ll come in just for the cheese.
The portions are very large — so I wouldn’t recommend a starter and a main if you want a pudding!
Great place — I’ve taken lots of people here and they have all loved it!

Gazette is a super French restaurant on Balham High Road. I have been here a few times and tried sandwiches, their Brisket steak, Onion soup, and most recently — a pot of Comte-​Fried eggs topped with cherry tomatoes, basil and deliciously greasy fried bread. All have been brilliant and quite reasonably priced.

I’ve dined here quite a few times. Their brunch is quite delicious. This is also a fun place to dine. Cheeky I know but there’s tables in the front dining area with chalk to play games, draw pictures and etc. We played a short game of hangman just as our food arrived. FUN stuff! The food is fantastic. Never had a bad meal an only one minor issue of chicken undercooked being served to my Mom. Geez, my guest and her first time visiting the city as well as our first meal as she arrived. The server was quite nice about it and promptly remedied the situation. Anyway, back to our brunch… yes, this is another MUST-​TRY. The omelets are delicious and you’ll enjoy the baguette with brie melted on top. Dishes are served in rustic pieces that compliment the interior. The space is quite large and usually very lively. They use Open Table so get your points. If you’re also looking to sip some café and have a pastry with a friend or alone this is a wonderful place to enjoy as well. The American boy had a nice French experience in London at Gazette. Bön appetite, y’all!

Very nice food and lovely staff in a well kept venue.
Was a little bright for my liking, could have felt a little more relaxed if they dropped the dimmer a notch or two.

Seven of us had a really great meal in here. All the food was really excellent although some of the starters were really miniscule in size so they lose marks for that. Waiters were super helpful and attentive. Stonking wine list. I’ll be back.

Can’t understand all the bad reviews! Gazette is just what Balham needed — a good, honest, unpretencious French restaurant. Infinitely better to the one on abbeville road, whose name escapes me at the moment…
It has lost a bit of charm having moved to the new, bigger premises on the high road, but still delivers decent nosh. recommend the bavette a l’echalotte which comes with a buck of the best chips you’ve ever tasted! the rillettes (salmon or rabbit, last time I went, but does change) are also well worth a try.

A disaster of a dinner for us. Bavette de boeuf that was tough and stringy — I left most of mine on the plate — and Ile Flottant that was like cotton wool but with less taste. Unbothered staff. Table by the stairs and kitchen and cramped. Go to Harrison’s or Brasserie James instead for an evening meal.

I’m just not sure of this place. I have eaten here a few times now and each time I feel as if something is missing! The food is ok, the service borders on the poor side (I have never managed to get exactly what I ordered) and the atmosphere well. it’s lacking! The only good thing is the wine was quite cheap!
To be fair I have only eaten mid week here and so at the weekend it may be a different scene completely. I’m not going to rush back to find out.

Came out the cold into this Brasserie on a Sunday afternoon. It has a great feel about it and there were a few other tables. The menu was very interesting and we both settled on lunch baguettes which are served on boards and come with salad. We both really enjoyed them.
To drink my wife had a glass of wine, she did not like the first one she ordered so they gave her a different, recommended by them on the house which was very good. I had one of there smoothies which again was good.
Overall really enjoyed it and would go back to try the Belguim beers and some of the dinner dishes.

Great new little restaurant just off balham high road, with an outside eating area at the front. I think they must have recently refurbed or bought out what was here before, as I remember getting a bacon sarnie here of a morning. No longer!
With an interesting menu (including really lovely salads and a cote de boeuf to share at £37 for two) and a great selection of wines, this new jazzed up café is a great way to while away the lazy summer evenings. Give it a try.

This seems to be a new place (although from their business card, it seems there is an older sister restaurant in SW11), in the spot of the Patisserie Ann Marie, which closed recently.
It’s very French, with a seasonal menu that contains much of what you’d expect in a French brasserie. Our starters (pan fried foie gras and moules mariniere respectively) were excellent, and the main course, a cote de boeuf for two with dauphinois potatoes, was perfectly cooked and could easily have fed three!
Service was very friendly and helpful — when we asked for our daughter’s bavette without the shallot sauce, the waitress happily suggested they could serve it with a pepper sauce instead. Which, judging by our daughter’s comments, was excellent as well.
Definitely worth a visit!

I rarely review restaurants and tend to follow the lead of others enjoying their recommendations as a result.
However, I feel that when a restaurant is so poor and disappointing it is only right to warn others to help prevent any more people having a meal ruined.
So… the charcuterie plate had mortadella and chorizo on it (not French) followed with garlic sausage and saucisson all of which sang of poor quality, cheaply processed meat served in doorstop sized wedges, all for about £8. Really sad when one considers the basic quality available to even large supermarkets.
The snails were OK but had a distinctly odd/​off flavour that was a bit too earthy to be comfortable. I can maybe put that down to the snails themselves but you’d hope a chef would have noted that too.
For the main course, we ordered medium-​rare bavette steaks and chips priced at £13 each. Now, being half French I’ve had a few bavettes in my time and it can be a delicious cut of meat from a hopefully happy cow. What arrived were two grey pieces of flesh sitting in a le cresuet style pan covered in a grey/​brown gravy with onions. They tasted tired, were cooked through and were not dissimilar to what you’d expect from a school dinner.
Not good at all.
In fact it would be what the French would say if asked to stereotype bad English food, an irony I felt was not lost when mentioned to our very helpful waiter. The very hot pan with steaks in them meant that they had to be transferred to our very hot plates by us, at the table, with no implements whatsoever. Burnt hands anyone? I guess that also contributed to them continuing to cook past medium-​rare. No salt or pepper either… however at that stage there was little point as I am not sure it would have contributed anything.
The layout also struck me as odd. The toilet door opened onto the restaurant floor with the bowl no more than a couple of feet from the nearest diner and only separated by a thin wall. If you do decide to go, make sure you do not sit here unless you want unwelcome contributions to your conversation.
On the positive side the wine list was good with some interesting wines like a Madiran and Alicante all sensibly priced. It would have been good to have seen some cheaper wines by the bottle but one can’t have it all.
Sadly for my girlfriend and me this meal was a resounding disappointment and we will not be going back anytime soon. It all felt overpriced, poorly thought out, lazy and complacent. I still felt that they tried to us for a ride and thankfully we stopped by sending the steaks back and heading home.