Le Haricot is a French-themed cafe that recently opened in Sheffield
My delicious beans on toast and black coffee from Le Haricot(Image: Andrew Dowdeswell / YorkshireLive)
After a new cafe received a negative review from a vegetarian customer, it hit back with a strong response.
Vegetarian Casey Fordacchino criticised Le Haricot, a French-themed cafe and bistro in Hillsborough, Sheffield, after dining at one of their bistro evenings. Casey compared it to Fawlty Towers and said she was offered chips as the only vegetarian option on the menu for her main meal. Le Haricot hit back, saying they “post our menu everywhere” and assumed Casey would have looked as she booked via Facebook.
Given the argument between the customer and the bistro, we thought we would give the cafe a try – and we were duly impressed.
I ventured down to Le Haricot for lunch on a Friday. As a lover of French food, I was quite excited to see what Le Haricot had to offer. And it is, as you might expect, a quintessential French cafe and bistro. You can expect nice, smooth coffee, lovely morning pastries, some delectable cakes, and a range of French-inspired lunch options.
On the menu, there was, of course, croque monsieur and croque madame. There was also French toast, which was very tempting, pan bagnat, a tuna sandwich hailing from Nice, and a cassoulet beans on toast. I ventured for the latter.
The cassoulet featured butter beans and smoked bacon, slow-cooked in a tomato sauce and served on toasted sourdough. It was a delicious, zuked-up version of beans and toast, with a lovely acidic kick from the tomatoes and a natural sweetness throughout. The butter beans are soft and beautifully cooked, while the toast is crunchy – the ideal complement to the bean stew.
The two madeleines I ordered(Image: Andrew Dowdeswell / YorkshireLive)
I have to admit, I couldn’t taste or notice the smoked bacon, which was slightly ironic given the controversial vegetarian review. But the stew was very tasty, and fairly well priced at £7.50.
I also ordered a beautiful black Americano, and polished it off with two madeleines, a plain vanilla, and a chocolate chip. They were absolutely delicious. Slightly crisp on the outside, fluffy and soft on the inside, with a delicate flavour throughout.
All in all, I was very impressed with Le Haricot. What a welcome addition to the Sheffield cafe and restaurant scene.
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Dining and Cooking