102-104 Farringdon Road EC1R 3EA lafermelondon.com
I’ve never really been a regular patron of a French delicatessen. I’m certainly not Frenchist or anything, it’s more of a geographical point rather than anything else – I’ve never lived close to a French delicatessen. Now I do. There’s a new French delicatessen called La Ferme London that’s sprung-up in Farringdon, or Clerkenwell if you’re a bit more of a Hyacinth Bucket.
At the very top end of Farringdon Road, close to where it meets the end of Exmouth Market, is La Ferme London. Savina and I stumbled across it during a leisurely stroll around the area. It was their second day when we walked in and despite being snowed under with the laborious tasks of opening a new premises the staff were positive, happy and helpful. A really good vibe, some really good products like the Creme de Marrons that we bought, as well as some more unique items such as the whole beetroot cooked in charcoal.
La Ferme London has expanded since its early days as a small stall at the Angel Market. Now the team has managed to progress into the restaurant world, with the Farringdon store encompassing a restaurant area too – altogether giving a sort of farm shop / bistro offering. Proper old school family recipes and on the whole a South-Western France offering in terms of dishes – filling, rich and hearty.
I invited notre Capitain to come and sample the place during a lunchtime – he’s a lot more au fait with the Frenchy side of things than I am. In all fairness, he’s got plenty more experience with practically every other type of food compared to me. Possibly not with pork scratchings. I’m an expert on them. Thought I’d tried all the variations until I sampled some pig uterus scratchings the other week.
Le Capitain seemed pretty impressed – he knew the dishes, he knew the regions they came from, he seemed pretty darn happy with the taste. I’ve cut my meat intake down considerably – so I’d gone for Cod whilst he’d taken the braised beef option. The cod came with a petits pops mash and some black rice, pretty darn tasty and plenty of colour on the plate.
Early days for La Ferme but each time I go past there’s an improvement in the shop layout, an improvement in the products range, there’s more customers and the staff are still happy. So I’d say there’s definitely a lot more to come from these recent addition to the area. Nice bistro-style dishes to order and obviously some cracking wine and cheese to buy and take home. Go. Just go.