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Reader rating
Description: The "distinctly average" bistro fare is "totally secondary" to the "very interesting wine" on offer at this "lively" basement bar, just off the Strand; "despite being barely sign-posted, it's packed, so they're doing something right".
Food: 
Service: 
Ambience:
Phone: 020 7836 3033
Website: http://www.bedford-strand.com
Good for: Good food, Ambience.
Payment options:
Oenophiles' oasis: Jonathan Willy, managing director of the Bedford & Strand, takes his wine seriously
When a handful of friends working in the restaurant business and wine trade say they have got together to open the sort of establishment where they would like to hang out, the outcome could be tediously self-serving.
Or it could be Bedford & Strand. Located on the fringe of Covent Garden, this is precisely the area where some decent places to eat and drink were desperately needed.
Don't let the fact that the premises are in a basement put you off. Once down the stairs you enter a time capsule with a zinc-clad, well-stocked back bar and glazed, painted wooden screens delineating a dining area that could be from the 1970s. One look at the menu and wine list, though, and you realise that, with any luck, this is the future. They call it a Wine Room and Bistro.
The passion of the owners is not exclusively for wine, but when a collection is as interesting and attractively priced as this - and apparently soon to be extended - food can, and maybe should, take a bit of a back seat.
In fact everything we chose to eat - apart from a measly side order of spinach - was better and more meticulously prepared than I had anticipated. Blushing pink chicken liver pâté with warm, soft-toasted brioche and a runny homemade chutney was excellent. A salad of Roquefort cheese, walnuts, apple and chicory was artfully arranged and dressed.
Bedford's own pork-and-leek sausages with pomme purée and shallot jus (aka mash and onion gravy) featured very superior bangers. Open lobster lasagne with enoki mushrooms and a little frizzy salad had delicate, floppy sheets of pasta, a coral sauce and large chunks of lobster including the curved bit from the claw. From the homemade desserts, lemon tart looked a bit depressed but had a sharp-tongued wit about it.
Because I visited at lunchtime I was relatively abstemious and followed a flute of Perrier-Jouet NV (£7) with a 175cl glass of Viognier Altas Cumbres Argentina at £4 - and then another because it was so persuasive. The seven bottles sold by the glass - divided by the insouciant headings of Honest, Decent and Good - are soon to be expanded to 20.
The main list has the makings not so much of a lost afternoon as an vinously explorative and educative one. You might end it by deciding to join the Bedford and Strand Wine Club to learn (and drink) more at their tastings.
Staff are delightful, maybe coached by the not-particularly-famous five who started this remarkably likeable bistro and wine room.
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
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