The best French cooking in London is in small rooms run by people who have decided, quite firmly, how you are allowed to contact them. Bouchon Racine asks you to telephone between nine and eleven in the morning, because after half eleven they have their heads down for service.
Casse-Croûte takes no online bookings at all: walk in or ring. Otto’s, at the other extreme, gives you the table for the whole evening and tells you to stay as long as you like.
And the name at the top of every French restaurant list ever written closed in January 2024. Here is what is actually open, read off each restaurant’s own site.
The one with the two hour phone window
Bouchon Racine, Cowcross Street
Upstairs at a pub that has been a pub for three hundred years.
Bouchon Racine
- Address
- 66 Cowcross Street, EC1M 6BP, upstairs at the Three Compasses
- Nearest
- Farringdon, two minutes
- Hours
- Bouchon Racine lunch midday to 3pm and dinner 6pm to 10pm. The pub below runs midday to 11pm Monday to Wednesday and to midnight later in the week
- Booking
- 020 7253 3368, and they still ask you to ring between 9am and 11am, though there is now an OpenTable link as well. Reservations open 30 days ahead
- Standing
- By Dave Strauss and Henry Harris, serving classics from Harris’s Knightsbridge restaurant alongside daily seasonal changes, inspired by the bouchons of Lyon and the bistros of Paris
How to get in
The booking rule is published and it is unusually honest: they are a family run restaurant with a small team, they cannot answer every request, and after half eleven in the morning they are cooking rather than answering the phone. So ring between nine and eleven. The book only opens thirty days ahead, so there is no point trying in March for June. They have also added an online booking link since the last check, which is new for a restaurant whose telephone window was the whole story. Downstairs the Three Compasses runs as a pub with a simpler version of the same menu, which is the fallback if upstairs is full. Their own note on hiring chefs tells you the register: they are not, in their words, a home for tweezer wielding water bath warriors.
The one where the table is yours all night
Otto’s, Gray’s Inn Road
Escoffier cooking, pressed duck carved at the table, and no turning of tables at all.
Otto’s
- Address
- 182 Gray’s Inn Road, WC1X 8EW
- Nearest
- Chancery Lane, six minutes. King’s Cross, twelve. Russell Square, ten
- Hours
- Lunch Wednesday to Friday midday to 2.30pm. Dinner Tuesday to Saturday 6pm to 10pm. Closed Sunday and Monday except for private dining
- Booking
- Request a table through their site. Once booked, their own line is that the table is yours for the evening and you may stay as long as you wish
- Standing
- Opened in 2011 by Otto Tepassé and Elin Hansen, serving classical Escoffier cuisine with tableside service
How to get in
The no turning policy is the rarest thing on this page. Almost every London restaurant of this standard works to a two hour slot. Otto’s states plainly that the table is yours for the evening, which changes what the evening is. The cooking is the other reason to come: pressed duck, pressed lobster and pressed pigeon prepared in a silver press at your table, Poulet de Bresse carved in front of you, Dover sole deboned and crêpes flambéed. Otto himself is described as an old school maître d’ and is at the tables most nights doing the carving. Note the days: closed Sunday and Monday, and lunch runs only Wednesday to Friday, so a Tuesday visit is dinner or nothing.
The one that rewrites the menu every day
Casse-Croûte, Bermondsey Street
A small bistro with a daily menu and no online booking.
Casse-Croûte
- Address
- 109 Bermondsey Street, SE1 3XB
- Nearest
- London Bridge, seven minutes. Borough, eight
- Hours
- Lunch from midday Monday to Sunday. Dinner from 6pm Monday to Saturday, so no dinner on a Sunday
- Booking
- Walk in, or telephone 020 7407 2140. There is no online booking
- Standing
- Authentic bistro cooking in Bermondsey, with a seasonally inspired menu that changes daily, from Alexandre Bonnefoy, Hervé Durochat and chef Sylvain Soulard
How to get in
The menu changes every day, which is the whole proposition and the reason there is no long carte to study in advance. Their booking policy matches the size of the room: walk in or ring, and nothing else. Lunch runs seven days but dinner stops at Saturday, so a Sunday evening here is not available. Bermondsey Street is ten minutes from Borough Market and holds three of José Pizarro’s restaurants as well, which makes it the most concentrated eating street in south London.
The one that closed
Le Gavroche shut its doors on Upper Brook Street in January 2024, and it says so on its own site. It opened in 1967 under Albert and Michel Roux Snr, at the time the only French restaurant of its kind in London, and was run by Michel Roux Jr from 1991.
The name survives in pop-ups in Britain and abroad, and there is still a website, which is precisely why it keeps appearing on lists. If a guide recommends booking a table at Le Gavroche, that guide has not been checked since 2023.
What to know
Ring, and ring at the right time. Bouchon Racine asks for calls between nine and eleven in the morning. Casse-Croûte takes no online bookings at all. The best French rooms in London are small enough that the telephone is still the system.
Six is the limit at Bouchon Racine, and the book opens thirty days ahead. Both of those decide whether a plan is possible before you start making it.
Mondays and Sundays are the problem. Otto’s is closed on both. Casse-Croûte serves no Sunday dinner. Bouchon Racine has a pub downstairs if the restaurant is shut, which is more than most offer.
Lunch is not served every day either. Otto’s runs lunch only from Wednesday to Friday, against dinner from Tuesday to Saturday. Casse-Croûte is the reliable lunch, seven days from midday.
One table for one evening is worth paying for. Otto’s is the only restaurant here that publishes a no turning policy. Against the two hour slot that is standard in London, that is a different kind of dinner.
Everything here was taken from each restaurant’s own published information and rechecked on 28 September 2026, including the closure notice. Menus at two of the three change daily. Confirm before you travel.
Where to go next
Josephine in Chelsea is the Bosi bouchon on the Fulham Road, and it is the only kitchen in that postcode publishing a corkage policy: £35 a bottle, and nothing at all on a Monday or from half past five on a Sunday.
The restaurants guide holds the wider field, and the other cuisine pages are built the same way: Italian, tapas, seafood and Japanese.
The Michelin starred rooms put these in context, and the smarter restaurants cover where a jacket is still expected.
Tapas covers the three José Pizarro restaurants a few doors from Casse-Croûte on Bermondsey Street, and the wine bars cover the drinking afterwards.
Questions we get asked
What are the best French restaurants in London?
Bouchon Racine, upstairs at the Three Compasses on Cowcross Street, from Henry Harris and Dave Strauss. Otto’s on Gray’s Inn Road for classical Escoffier cooking and pressed duck carved at the table. Casse-Croûte on Bermondsey Street for a small bistro with a menu that changes every day. Le Gavroche, which appears on most lists, closed in January 2024.
Is Le Gavroche still open?
No. The restaurant on Upper Brook Street closed in January 2024, which its own website states. It opened in 1967 under Albert and Michel Roux Snr and was run by Michel Roux Jr from 1991. The name continues in pop-ups in Britain and abroad and the website is still live, which is why it keeps appearing on out of date restaurant lists.
How do you book Bouchon Racine?
By telephone on 020 7253 3368, and they ask you to ring between 9am and 11am, because after 11.30 the small team is preparing for service. Tables are limited to a maximum of six people and reservations open thirty days in advance. They also say plainly that they cannot answer every request, so persistence helps.
Where can you eat pressed duck in London?
Otto’s at 182 Gray’s Inn Road, where canard à la presse is prepared in a silver press at your table, alongside pressed lobster and pressed pigeon. It is classical Escoffier cooking done as tableside theatre, with Otto Tepassé himself usually carving. Lunch runs Wednesday to Friday and dinner Tuesday to Saturday.
Which London restaurant lets you keep the table all evening?
Otto’s on Gray’s Inn Road. Their own booking note says that once you book, the table is yours for the evening and guests are welcome to stay as long as they wish. That is unusual in London, where a two hour slot is the norm at restaurants of this standard, and it is a good reason to choose it for a long dinner.
Are London French restaurants open on Sundays?
Partly. Casse-Croûte on Bermondsey Street serves lunch seven days a week from midday, but its dinner service runs Monday to Saturday only. Otto’s is closed on both Sunday and Monday except for private dining. A Sunday evening plan around French cooking needs checking rather than assuming.
Written by Robert J Wills, no. 128 in the guide.
Last checked 28 September 2026 against the venues' own published information. Nobody pays to appear here and we take no bookings.
