Le Mercury Deuxième

This place was a disappointment. We stopped in on a whim, and ordered a few starters along with gnocchi for mains.
We didn’t expect a French restaurants gnocchi to be spectacular but these were burned, and over seasoned. The soup, whitebait and chicken parcels were quite bland
Staff were generally friendly enough, though one of the waitresses did give us an unwelcome vibe. Perhaps because we were in the «minority» in a particular respect…

The first Le Mercury has been a staple of the Upper Street community for years, over 15 at least. A little corner bistro offering affordable, but good food. Recently they took over a former Chinese Restaurant, with larger capacity to bring their value to even more hungry Islingtonians. So with two fine bistro’s on the same street you are spoilt.
We dined at the larger of the two, Le Mercury Deuxieme, great for groups with a more buzzier feel. Definitely check out the smaller one for a more romantic vibe. Le Mercury is a full on yes for me. Why? Let’s start with the service; for a full room of at least 40 covers, two waitresses owned the floor. I mean from greeting, to seating, to drinks order, to food order, to check-​back, to clearing and the bill. There was a runner with food, but these two girls were on point. They were totally aware of what was going on in the room at all times, so the service was seamless.
Now for the food. To be honest, I visited two nights in a row, so I am going to cover all the food we had in one go. For starters we had Ravioli de la Mer (Crayfish and Lobster Ravioli, wilted spinach with shellfish creamy sauce), Moules Mariniere (mussels cooked in wine, cream, shallots, garlic and parsley), Gambas (deep-​fried tiger prawns with chilli aioli). A resounding yes please. All were fresh, tasty, good sized portions for their price and delivered quickly!
For mains, Magret de Canard (Roast Breast of Barbary Duck with Garlic potatoes, savoy cabbage, red wine jus), Entrecôte a l’echallotte (steak with shallot sauce) and Selle d’Agneay au Romarin (Roast saddle of Lamb, courgette, sun-​dried tomatoes and rosemary jus). Slight hiccup on the steak with it arriving a bit more well done than we had hoped, but it was taken away promptly and a fresh medium rare replaced it. The duck was crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, the lamb was suitably pink. A couple of sides included the obligatory french friends and sweet potato crisps over wilted spinach.
I went against my normal rule of no desserts and we opted for White chocolate and mascarpone cheesecake with fresh strawberries and a Sticky Toffee Pudding with crème chantilly. Both desserts were essentially straightforward, no trying to re-​invent the wheel here. I am a fan. It ticks all of the boxes because it is quick, good food, well priced and in an area with theatres’, music venues, pubs and bars to have a drink, so you can make a day/​evening of it.
Pricing: It is made very simple, all starters are £4.45 and all main courses are £9.95. Desserts come in at £3.45.

Lovely food and environment.
For the price you pay, £20-£25 pp, u can easily get a lovely nice 3 course meal. Quite decent quality as well!
Nice service but a little hard to get a table.

Feeling some fancy French food that won’t make you shout ‘sacre bleu’ when the bill hits the table? Le Mercury offer £4.45 starters, £10.95 mains and £3.45 desserts. Yep, maths heads, thats a three-​course-​meal for less than twenty quid. And the quality is pretty darn impressive too.
Le Mercury’s Deuxieme venue has a small and intimate feel, with low lighting and candles. Definitely a great spot for date night! The waiters are friendly and helpful, and the speed of service is pretty quick, considering the quality of what you’re getting. I ordered a glass of the house white, a chardonnay, actually much more drinkable than house whites I’ve had in some places.
When my starter arrived on the table in front of me, I might have chowed down one of the best Goats Cheese dishes I’ve had in London so far. Seriously. Soft, full of flavour and served on a perfectly crisp muffin with artichokes, red pepper and a wonderful basil pesto — absolutely spot on.
For my main course, I reeled in the Filet de Loup de Mer (pan-​fried Seabass) with crushed potatoes and avocado salsa. It was absolutely DELICIOUS. The seabass was crispy skinned but the meat itself fell apart easily in my mouth.
Considering the price of the food, the quality is FAN-​BLOODY-​TASTIC. Cheap and genuinely tasty, I’ll definitely be heading back for repeated evenings out here.

Excellent food and service. I recommend the Magret de canard, but not the raclette. The raclette had too much cheese and not as much flavour. The desserts were also great! The white chocolate cheesecake was wonderful.

First there were three Gallipollis and now there are are two Le Mercury restaurants. What the hell is wrong with Angel? Have they literally no original concepts left?
The thing with this one was I came on a date and didn’t even know it was a different restaurant. I only realised I wasn’t in the original Le Mercury by fact that it has Deuxième written on the menu, I thought they had just renovated. It is a nice place and very affordable, I just find it weird that there is the same restaurant about 50 yards down the street. Le Mercury is like the Starbucks of French food.
It’s good though. The pork belly was amazing and the mashed potato that comes with the duck is the creamiest, most decadent stuff you can ever put in your mouth. Go!

I had a very enjoyable evening here recently.
The food was really good. I had the mussels for starter and they were very nice perfect sized portion in a great sauce. For main I went for the Duck which was a lovely juicy perfectly cooked breast. The restaurant was busy and had a great atmosphere not an empty seat in the house good for a Wednesday night. Everything was all reasonably priced with great service definitely go back again.

Great food and reasonable prices, always get 3 courses when I am there!
Waiters can be very busy, so there is often a wait time, but certainly worth the wait.

Great little place on Upper Street, nice atmosphere and friendly staff! I would definitely recommend reserving a table, as it gets very busy (even on a tuesday!)
The food was good and I will definitely go back, as it is tricky to go out for a decent meal without spending a lot! Great selection of wines, all surprisingly affordable!
I had the lobster ravioli with spinach (very delicious but could have been a bit more flavourful), the duck breast with garlic mash (nicely done!) and the white chocolate cheesecake (amazingly delicious!).
A decent meal for a good price! I cant wait to go back!

Stopped here for late lunch on Saturday and I have yet to be disappointed with either branches of Le Mercury. Water (tap, sparkling, tap) were all offered right away. Advice on wine selection was honest and order was taken promptly. Modern food with a french influence. Starter of mussels in white wine & cream was fresh and steaming with a sauce good enough to drink! Mains of chicken and lamb saddle were also well cooked and seasoned. As far a price & service you would struggle to find similar quality. Highly recommended.

A very novel concept in London. All starters are £4.45, all mains £9.95 and desserts are £3.75. Even better than the prices is the quality of the food. I managed to sample a starter and a main and both were full of flavour. The mussels were servers in a creamy sauce and there was easily enough for 2 to share and the chicken breast was well seasoned.
A meal for 2 including wine worked out at £43 including service which for Upper Street in incredible value

Tasty and great value French food (tenner a main course) though they do pack you in. Loses a star for the «cheesecake» which was more like a load of whipped cream atop a digestive bisciuit. Perhaps pass on the desserts but the rest of the experience is pretty good (providd you’re not with vegetarians, definitely for meat eaters).

Had dinner here with four others plus a pram. Great food, great service and nice atmosphere. We’ll definitely be back.

Stumbled upon Mercury Deuxieme in an attempt to try something new in Angel. I had been to the original before — a couple years back with friends — and recounted it being a delightful experience. As it is christmas holiday season, none of the restaurants seem to be too packed so walking in on a Friday night at 8 without a reservation wasn’t a problem. The clincher that pulled us in was the lobster ravioli advertised as a starter.
To begin my partner and I both had bellinis. It appears from the blackboard over the kitchen that a new drink or two are featured each night besides the main menu drinks.
As I would be heading off to the states the following day for holiday (and meat meat meat!) I decided to go with the menu Seabass which comes with a side of new potatoes for my main. I can’t say anything was shockingly delicious here — the appetizers stood out as the more delicious seafood choice. — my partner went for swordfish and salsa on special which came out dry and rather unflavourful. For dessert we has vanilla panna cotta, which again was okay, but nothing to rave about. The whole experience reminded me of dining in London 4 years ago, prior to all of the great eats popping up all around.
The highlight here that needs to be noted was our service. Everyone was super friendly and spot on. When the waiter came and asked how our fish was, my partner mentioned the swordfish was a bit over cooked and he insisted on providing us coffee on the house, asked if we wanted to speak to the chef and thanked us for feedback. It was among the best service I’ve had in London.
In short, great service, a decent meal and a reminder to always go with the original!

My girlfriend and I stumbled off Upper St into Le Mercury Deuxième, lured in by the attractive prices and romantic ambiance. It’s good value for money with pleasant servers but mediocre dishes.
We were promptly seated to a candlelit table, offered cocktails and listened to the specials. The lobster ravioli was an average starter though too small to share. Tiger prawns were accompanied by a tangy dipping sauce that really made them pop. For main, I ordered the swordfish special and was disappointed with a dry, overcooked hunk. The sea bass, which my partner chose, was far more tasty and came with a side of rich potatoes.
Our server was courteous and efficient and, following feedback on my dish, offered us drinks on the house.

Solid place. Good prices, tasty food (not michelin, but does the job), affordable wine selection, nice buzzy atmosphere, and friendly service.
–Duck breast was great
–Calamari starter pretty good
–Lamb was really tasty
–Cheesecake ftw

Dont go here… it’s bad.
This is NOT a good date place.
You will NOT enjoy the atmosphere and romantic setting.
And you will certainly NOT eat the best duck breast in your life… ever…here.
(Real, Non-​sarcastic review: the waitress was a bit too keen to refill our waters and instead refilled my wine glass, with wine in it… could have offered to get me at least a half glass or something… just laughed and apologized and then tried to do it again later… poo)
Great place for a date night with a budget. Decently priced french food.
Make a reservation as its getting fairly popular now a days. But also there’s a sister restaurant just down the street, so you got a good chance of snagging a spot.

Le Mercury Deuxieme is pretty much a carbon copy of Le Mercury, located just a block or so away (maybe even at opposite ends of the same block, can’t remember). They have the same, extremely streamlined menu: £4 for starters, £9 for mains, £3 for desserts. And you get a lot for those extremely reasonable prices: my moules mariniere featured a *ton* of mussels, the equivalent of a main course at many restaurants. My sister had a crispy lamb salad, which was great. I got lamb and she got steak for the mains: both flavorful (though mine was a bit more done than I’d have liked) and generously portioned. My sticky bread pudding for dessert was good (the homemade whipped cream was great), and little sis’s mascarpone cheesecake was superb. And we shared a bottle of their very decent house red for £13. All told, that very full dinner – bottle of wine, and two each of starters, mains, and desserts – came to just £46 (service not included). A pretty unbeatable deal, especially since the service was really good too.
It’s not fine dining: none of the dishes were blow-​me-​away awesome, and the selection itself is pretty standard fare. But the value, lively and friendly ambiance, and general yumminess all make this a go-​to place if you’re in the area and want good, unfussy bistro food. Heartily recommended.

the food is well priced and tasty, and the atmosphere is dark and romantic. i liked the general vibe, and would enjoy coming back here on a date as opposed to a group.
two things to work on: originally i made a booking for 8 people. 2 of my friends couldn’t come at the last minute because of an ill relative, so i called ahead to advise the booking would be down to 6. fine. just before our arrival time of 9pm 2 of my other friends informed me that they could no longer make it due to a 1.5 hour delayed flight, so as soon as we got in i apologised and informed the guy on the door. we were served with some proper attitude. really disappointing and there was absolutely no need for this. he didn’t even have any problems moving us to a 4 person table and filling up our original 6 person table with other people, so i really don’t understand the need for this. i was going to give this review 4 stars, but actually recounting this has left a sour taste in my mouth, so 3 stars it is.
secondly, the bathrooms were absolutely freezing! there was also no bin by the sinks, so people were just leaving tissues living around everywhere, so it also looked disgusting. some care of the bathrooms and some warmth would be appreciated.
i would definitely come back for the food and atmosphere, and i hope next time i have a better experience with the service… which was generally fine, other than the door guy incident.

I’ve visited the first Le Mercury and I prefer Deuxieme because it’s more spacious. The first one gets soooo loud in that small space.
The food is good for the price. The beef carpaccio starter lacked in umpf and flavor. The braised beef special was delic, until I had the second piece which dried up and was super chewy and dry. The first one melted in your mouth and was great. I advise to eat quickly and tuck the other piece of meat under the plate’s other dressing. I think it was potatoes.
Good spot for a casual dinner. Don’t expect much for flavor punches, but it is OK, and price is great.