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Reader rating
Description: "Better value than big brother next door"; this (somewhat) cheaper brasserie-style operation -- sharing the "top view" and "beautiful" wines of its neighbour -- is a "lively and buzzing scene", where the food is generally "enjoyable".
Food:
Service: 
Ambience:
Phone: 020 7403 8403
Website: http://www.lepontdelatour.co.uk
Open: Lunch Fri-Sun 12.00-15.00 (closed Sat lunch). Dinner Mon-Sun 18.00-23.00
Dress code: City/New Labour suits
Good for: Good food, Ambience.
Payment options: All major cards
Ready for action: waitress Diana Espinel is one of the eager staff at Pont de la Tour
Towering presence: Pont de la Tour offers spectacular views of the river
In France, a restaurant full of French people is invariably a good indicator of quality. In London, a restaurant full of French people comes with a little portent.
The well-heeled Europeans lunching at Le Pont de la Tour on Monday, giving the place a more exotic form of familial chaos than we have become used to, were an early indicator that a weaker pound will oblige our restaurants to take more notice of foreign holidaymakers than us locals. My companion and I appeared to be the only Londoners in the place, wincing at the cost of eating out as our fellow diners rounded off their holidays with a lunch that probably worked out at 50 cents a head.
Le Pont de la Tour — formerly a Conran restaurant, now owned by D&D — has clearly made its way into some superior French guide to London, and it is hard to see how any tourist would be disappointed by the sight of Tower Bridge looming nearby, while the on-site wine merchant and grocer offer superior souvenirs.
All very nice for Jean-Baptiste but how does a cash-strapped Londoner fare? Pretty well, if you choose your moment. In the posher section, the menu of head chef Lee Bennett is upmarket French with a bit of British lobbed in. But in the brasserie bit, if you can resist the crustacea, there is a set lunch menu costing £13.50 for two courses and £17.50 for three. A recent innovation is a monthly-changing menu focusing on different French regions with matching wines. December, I had been informed on booking, was the turn of Alsace, and I arrived anticipating trout, choucroute and fragrant Gewürztraminers.
Frustratingly, when we sat down, the eager staff told me this was not available and pointed me instead to a special of roast venison with red cabbage and a glass of red wine at £12.50. Factor in a pair of £4.50 starters and a £5 pudding to share and two could eat very happily for less than £50. I was riled to have been misinformed but the food that arrived was so well-judged we felt we had hit on if not a bargain, then notably good value.
My partner chose a winter vegetable salad with truffle dressing to start, a simple, fresh assembly of beetroot, carrot and celeriac. Less confident chefs are often over-eager with easy luxuries such as truffle oil, but this was dressed judiciously.
My chicken and leek ballotine, served cold with marinated prunes, was closer to a terrine but none the worse for it. Good-quality, well-seasoned chicken, wrapped in leek to form a cylinder and thickly sliced, it presented a satisfying variety of textures. As with the salad, a little time away from the refrigerator would have drawn out its flavours better. A decent white Côtes du Rhône, at £6.50 a glass the cheapest on an interesting list, was a worthy foil.
This was upstaged by the convivial 2001 Minervois that arrived with the venison, which complemented the rich, lean meat and tangy red cabbage obligingly.
My partner consumed fillets of plaice in soft egg batter with pommes Pont Neuf. Like the name of the restaurant, this was a slightly cheesy French approximation of an English landmark — fish and chips — and even arrived with an unadvertised side of petits pois purée and sauce tartare. Like all we had eaten, it was well judged.
We didn’t feel the need for pudding, though blackberry and sherry triffle [sic] nearly tempted (Christmas pudding crème brûlée somehow didn’t). Instead, we drank espressos and watched a table of European children play on miniature laptops. Emerging on to the cobbled wharf, we suddenly felt like tourists, as if we had had a little holiday from life. Which, in a credit crunch, is exactly what you want from eating out.
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
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