French steak house chain, Bordelaise, opened the doors to its new Surbiton restaurant on Maple Road on 16 January.
The restaurant, which already has branches in Tooting and Ewell, is located in the site of the former Mems restaurant.
Upon seeing that the menu offered French Onion Soup and Dauphinoise Potatoes, I knew I just had to try it.
However, as a pescetarian, I knew I wouldn’t be able to try any of Bordelaise’s various staple steak dishes, so I decided to bring my steak-loving partner along with me and we booked a table for the early evening on Saturday (17 January).
We arrived at 4.30pm on Saturday for an early dinner, and I was surprised to see that it was already pretty busy so early in the evening with diners enjoying Bordelaise’s vast menu, wines, and cocktails.
According to one of Bordelaise’s waitresses who moved from the Ewell branch, the new Surbiton restaurant was “super busy 24/7” during its opening week and less busy last week. However, she said, it tends to get busy at the weekends.
The Surbiton restaurant boasts a small but cosy interior and has a back garden/ terrace.
Bordelaise Surbiton has a small but cosy interior (Credit: Tilly O’Brien)
As you first enter, you will be welcomed by friendly staff and see a pristine, French-style bar.
Bordelaise’s kitchen is on show (Credit: Tilly O’Brien)
To the rear of the restaurant Bordelaise’s chefs can be seen cooking and working their magic.
Despite giving off a fine-dining vibe, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the bistro-style restaurant was actually pretty chill with soft music playing in the background to set the mood.
Bordelaise’s menu includes various bar snacks, starters, salads (including a Steak Caesar Salad), mains, grill dishes, sides, and even Sunday roast options, including one for veggies.
To drink, it offers a variety of red, white, rose, and sparkling wines, apertifs, soft drinks, and liquors.
And the prices range from fairly affordable with the cheapest steak (200 GR Onglet Steak) costing £19.50 to pretty pricey with the most expensive steak (800 GR Cote De Boeuf) costing £79 – not surprising given London’s prices at the moment.
Now I said I was drawn to Bordelaise because it had Classic French Onion Soup (£8.50) on the menu, so of course I had that to start whereas my partner started with Homemade Duck Rilette (£9.50), which comes with Cornichon Toast).
Bordelaise Surbiton’s Classic Onion Soup was divine (Credit: Tilly O’Brien)
And for drinks, we began with a classic Margareta cocktail.
While Bordelaise Surbiton does not currently have cocktails on the menu, you can ask the staff to make your preferred cocktail, and they will do so if they have the necessary ingredients available. These include Margaretas, Aperol Spritz, Espresso Martinis, and Elderflower Bellinis.
A diner sat next to us with a big group of friends recommended the Margarita, saying “they [Bordelaise] do a wicked Margarita”.
Bordelaise Surbiton does a ‘wicked’ Margarita (Credit: Tilly O’Brien)
We non-surprisingly enjoyed the cocktail and my partner said he was a “big fan” of it and that it was “one of the nicest margs” he has ever had.
The waitress told us that the Surbiton restaurant plans to expand its cocktail menu soon.
Our starters came in decent time; not too long that we had finished our cocktails before we arrived and not too quickly that we might think the food was not fresh.
My soup, which included gratinated cheese and toast, was absolutely divine and I could smell how delicious it would be before trying it.
The stringy cheese mixed the strong onion flavour made it super tasty and hearty, which was perfect for a cold January evening.
I also loved how the toast came inside the soup as it saved me dipping it in.
While the soup’s ingredients may make it sound rather heavy, it was actually pretty light, which I loved so I wouldn’t be too full to enjoy my main. It was the perfect level of indulgent.
And I’m not the only person who loves the soup as another waitress said she always has it during her work break.
My partner enjoyed his Duck Rilette though said it lacked in flavour slightly.
My partner enjoyed the Duck Rilette (Credit: Tilly O’Brien)
However, he ate it all and loved mixing the soft pate with the crunchy warm toast.
For mains, I opted for the Lemon Sole Meuniere (£26), which came with baby potato, capers, samphire, and brown sugar, while my partner chose the classic Surf & Turf (£55), which consisted of Flat Iron Steak, prawns, fries, and garlic butter.
And of course, in true French fashion, we shared a side of Dauphinoise Potatoes (£6) just to increase our carb overload.
I also had a glass of prosecco (£10 – standard price in London these days) and my partner had a glass of Merlot to pair with his steak.
Like with our starters, our mains came out in good timing, though our side was a little late. I loved how the waitress was honest with this and said that this was because the chef decided to try something new with the recipe, but this didn’t work, so he had to make it again.
With the restaurant having only been open for a week at the time and being super busy, a couple of mistakes was expected.
My main was absolutely delicious; the lemon broth mixed with the fishy flavour of the crumbly, soft sole created a burst of flavours in my mouth.
Bordelaise Surbiton’s Lemon Sole Meunière (Credit: Tilly O’Brien)
However, my only criticism is that the fish was not deboned, and I found myself struggling to get to the meat without picking out bones. However, the meal did come with a steak knife, so perhaps this is common for Sole, and I should have prepared myself.
My partner really enjoyed his main. He asked for the steak to be rare, and it was. He said that the steak was “really nice” and that the garlic sauce was “super tasty”.
The meal came with several king prawns too, so as a fish lover, I had to steal one, and they were absolutely delicious and very succulent.
Bordelaise Surbiton’s Surf and Turf (Credit: Tilly O’Brien)
Upon request, my partner also asked for some Blue Cheese sauce to pair with his steak and he loved it.
While my partner really enjoyed his meal, after seeing other diners enjoying the more expensive steak dishes, he was slightly jealous, so said he will have to go back and try one.
We loved the Dauphinoise Potatoes too, which like the soup, was the perfect hearty dish for a winter meal.
The Dauphinoise Potatoes were delicious (Credit: Tilly O’Brien)
While we were pretty full after our mains, we could not resist that Bordelaise’s menu offered traditional Crème Brulé in its dessert section, so we decided to share one.
The Crème Brule was our favourite part of our meal (I have a major sweet tooth so not surprising). The flavour had a perfect mix of vanilla and custard which warmed our bellies and the mix of the crispy, sugary top with the soft base was satisfying for the mouth.
As the night went on, the restaurant got progressively busier and I applaud Bordelaise Surbiton’s staff for remaining calm and professional under the pressure.
The staff were excellent, being attentive but not overwhelming and answering all questions from diners when asked.
A diner next to us who had waited 20 minutes for her prosecco, praised the staff for apologising and offering to comp the drink without her even asking.
Despite the restaurant’s fine-dining vibe, it is child-friendly – one of the waitresses was super friendly to a child diner, offering her recommendations on what she would enjoy most.
Bordelaise Surbiton is also dog friendly, I believe, as a man brought his dog in.
Another thing I loved about the restaurant is that its manager, Olivier, is actually French. And while Bordelaise is predominately a restaurant, customers can just enjoy drinks and various bar snacks while sitting at its fashionable bar.
Our experience at Bordelaise Surbiton was that perfect mix of fancy but wholesome and despite my fish being full of bones, the chefs have done an excellent job of adding bursts of flavour to each meal.
However, hile the restaurant has a few veggie and vegan options, including a winter vegan salad, roasted squash, and truffled rigatoni pasta, for any veggies out there, I am not sure that Bordelaise, being a steak house, is for you.
Now, I have not yet tried The French Table, which is located a couple doors down from Bordelaise, so I cannot compare the two, but I think Bordelaise is a perfect new addition to Surbiton’s trendy hotspot.
Bordelaise Surbiton is open from 12pm – 11pm Tuesday to Saturday, 12pm – 9pm on Sundays and is closed on Mondays.
While the Surbiton restaurant already has a couple of table and chairs set on the main road, Bordelaise has recently submitted a licensing application to Kingston council seeking permission to have an outdoor seating area at its Surbiton venue for the “sale of food or drink for consumption on or off the premises”.
The area will consist of a “streetfront 6.6 metres by 4.5 metres for the purpose of consuming food or drink” and will be open 11am – 10pm seven days a week.
IIf the application is approved, it will have 16 “bistro style” chairs and eight tables.
Dining and Cooking