Throwing a party next weekend for the UK s first Coronation in 70 years? Then push the boat out with pork pie castles, a Union Jack tart… and this pudding as the crowning glory.
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‘Pristinely fresh’ crab comes wrapped in ribbons of mooli
There’s something reassuring about Cépages, a Notting Hill bistro with French wine coursing through its veins. It may be the unselfconsciously bare brick walls, scuffed wooden floor and sherry casks that serve as occasional tables. Or the soft, dusky light (a sort of electric gastro-gloaming), cheerily Gallic waiters and battalions of empty wine bottles, featuring the superstars of Burgundy and Bordeaux. Most of all, perhaps, the easy, unforced feeling of a true neighbourhood restaurant, in a part of London where such things are all too rare.
The menu (don’t be put off by the French ‘tapas’ chat) mixes the heartily bourgeois with an occasionally elegant flash of haute. So a half-dozen snails, blisteringly hot, drowning in garlic-sated butter. And a small Camembert, spiked with rosemary and dribbled with honey, baked until oozing, then attacked with thick hunks of sourdough toast.