Bouchon Racine is the restaurant above the Three Compasses pub and was inspired to be a French-style bistro.  It’s a small place that offers menus created by Henry Harris with seasonal daily offerings.   Opening about a year ago it got Harris back into cooking after his restaurant ‘Racine’ closed in 2015,   It serves hearty fare that wasn’t prepared with tweezers.  Harris had done Michelin-style cooking and wanted to present French classics with’ indecent amounts of butter and cream’.  The place has 2 rooms, one the inner portion and the other the conservatory overlooking the street below.  The menu is on a moveable chalkboard and the tables are covered with white cloths.  Pictures are on the walls and music is in the background.  Dinner reservations are super hard to get but lunch is a little easier, so try for a lunch there.  Staff are helpful and friendly and the food is terrific.

Set-Up

 

Food

Baguette and butter was 4.5 pounds and well worth it.  So many places have moved to sourdough it was great to have a chewy baguette and fine butter to munch on while we decided what to order.

 

Tomme on Toast with Perigord truffle was bread topped with Mangalese pork and cheese then fried in chicken fat and topped with a cheese sauce and truffles.  One slice was cut in half and it was tremendous.  The toast kept a nice crispness while the truffles added heavenly aroma, more than taste.  The pork added lots of flavor and the sauce added richness.  This was truly delightful.

 

Lamb rump was served with spiced aubergine and topped with mint yogurt.  The lamb was cooked medium rare and sliced and also in a sausage form.  The meat was tender and the sausage had good spiciness.  The eggplant was very ‘perfumed’ with lots of seasonings.  It was a great plate of food.

 

Filet au Poivre came with frites.  The baseball cut of tenderloin was cooked rare as requested and wonderfully tender.  It had just the right amount of pepper in the coating to compliment the meat not overpower it.  And the sauce- well it was truly plate-licking good and there was plenty of it.  The fries were a 1/2 inch dice and perfectly crisped with good potato flavor and texture inside.  They were outstanding and a few of them may have found their way into that marvelous sauce.  Highly recommend this plate.

 

A side of Haricot Verte was a generous portion of lightly cooked beans.  They were good and made you feel okay about eating fries and buttery sauce.

 

We split a slice of Pear and Almond Tart with cream fraiche on the side for dessert.  It was made with Frangipane almond paste.  The sweet buttery very crisp crust was wonderful with the lovely filling.  Slices of pear graced the top of the slice.  It was outstanding.