Located between Soho and Covent Garden, next to the original Ivy, Louie first launched back in 2020, in that weird “are-we-still-in-lockdown?” era. Since then they’ve moved away from the Creole-inspired menu, focusing instead on contemporary French dishes (unless you come for brunch, where you’ll still find the likes of buttermilk fried chicken and BBQ shrimp).
Set over four floors in a 19th-century townhouse, the first floor dining room is the type of good-looking space that instantly makes you feel welcome. With plush velvet sofa chairs and moody lighting, it’s the type of place you’ll find yourself calling your PA and telling them to clear your afternoon’s meetings. This is not a place for a quick pit-stop, but a place to be savoured over many courses and many bottles of wine. Really this comes as no surprise when you learn that the team behind Louie was also responsible for Chiltern Firehouse and Annabels.
We bypassed the very appealing raw section, in favour of the chilled lobster salad — a plentiful dish of baby gem lettuce, avocado and pink grapefruit, all tossed in lemon mayonnaise. And we were pleased to see it contained more meat than we’ve had when ordering a whole lobster in other establishments (I’ll name no names). Elsewhere snails in puff pastry are retro vol-au-vent bites of garlicky flavour bombs — which lets face it, is the only reason one eats snails anyway.
Mains hover around the £30-mark, going up to £130 if you’re in the market for a kilo of steak to share. Our roast turbot with wilted kale and horseradish beurre blanc was pure decadence, made better with a side of green beans and what tasted like quadruple-cooked, crispy french fries. Roast chicken breast was beautifully presented in the pan, alongside morels in vermouth sauce, and again, was very generously sized.
And if you’re keen to experience a bit of the original Creole magic, spicy Southern pecan pie from the dessert section, is just the ticket.
It is, undeniably, expensive, but that seems to be the case more and more, across the board these days. And with lovely attentive staff, beautiful decor and decadent food, at least here you leave feeling like it was money well spent.
After dinner the Alligator Bar beckons for those that wish to continue the evening upstairs over a cocktail or two.
