New Restaurant Tuesday: Le Mercury

Meg has been busy so she hasn't written up about last week's NRT but we'll forgive her and go right on and hope she'll catch up...



Meg picked Le Mercury which conveniently is right in our neighborhood. I go in and am offered the choice of downstairs or upstairs and since I'm still sore from my sad little half-marathon I choose downstairs. I sit down and am promptly ignored until Meg comes in. The vibe is very French bistro and a bit like Lucien in NYC which used to be our favourite place for a mildly celebratory dinner so that's good. The restaurant is crowded but unlike a crowded NYC restaurant you aren't putting your elbows in your neighbour's soup.


Tiny paper napkins and diner-standard flatware/glasses are all that's on the table. Meg arrives, we get the menus, and order drinks. We get glasses of tap water, which are never refilled, and a bottle of chenin blanc which turns out to be a 2008 from Long Beach winery in South Africa. This is a little sweet, but very nice - I like it a lot. The bread is pretty plain-jane white bread, but it has poppy seeds on the outside which make it better than expected.

Meg has Tian au Crabe which is described on the menu as "Tian of crab and avocado emulsion." What is a tian? We don't know which seems as good a reason as any to order it. It turns out to be something like crab salad. Meg seems to enjoy it.

I have Chevre Chaud, grilled goat's cheese with fresh leaf salad and basil pesto. This is quite good although I think rather too heavy on the goat cheese and not heavy enough on the pesto as it's a little dry. The salad is nothing special and in fact I was hoping for more leaves. Weirdly, I guess, I'm asking for them to have more of the cheap ingredients in this dish.

For mains, Meg gets Supreme de Poulet Roti - roast breast of chicken, garlic mash, green peppercorn. She seems to like it. I have Filet de Loup de Mer - sea bass with cauliflower puree, raisins, and chili lemon zest. Everything individually is good but they don't seem to go together that well.

And that's it. We're tired, Meg seems to be coming down with something, so we skip out after just over an hour for under 40GBP. A great deal, convenient, decent food. We'll definitely be back.

Le Mercury, 140a Upper Street, Islington, N1 1QY. 020 7354 4088