French bistro central London early noughties

[MarshaMarshaMarsha]

Can anyone help me remember the name?! All I can remember is it was small, loads of photos on the walls of famous visitors/politicians….think it had been around for a number of years so was fairly well known. Not Michelin starred or anything. I just remember being taken there for a corporate lunch in 2001 and can’t for the life of me remember the name. It’s not l’escargot. It’s probably long gone now.

Mirabelle?

https://www.shutterstock.com/editorial/image-editorial/marco-pierre-white%27s-mirabelle-restaurant-mayfair-london-514810ac

The French House.

Still there.

Nope neither of those. I can’t even give any more clues, potentially a woman’s name in there somewhere. It’s driving me mad!

Elena's L'Etoile?

When you say central - do you have any idea what area?

Langans?

That’s what I thought of, too!

Oh Elena's Etoile then!

YES!!!!! Thank you so much!!!

Ah I can see it is permanently closed :(

I came to say Elena’s L’Etoile! It was lovely there and always proper celebs at the next table! It’s been closed for years now, sadly.

Didn’t Elena fall out with the owners and demand all of her photos back? Or did I dream that?

Just googled and she died aged 95. Ah thank you so much for filling in the blanks, it was my first experience of a “business lunch” in my first London job and remember it being amazing. Just found an old Jay Rayner review of it too.

Ahhh my boss used to go there a lot and I always wished I could try it. Apparently the lady owner was quite a character. Shame if it's gone?

Only went there once to Elena’s Etoile. She came round and greeted the tables. Holly Hunter was at the next table. Lovely memories of a great time in my life.

How interesting, did not know of it before but it looks a great place with history and character.
I wish there were more places like this the the generic chains.

Soho/Fitzrovia has changed for the worst so much in the last 20 years. It feels like everything has gone ,😕

Several places have gone, but I’m not sure it’s changed for the worse overall. Lots of the newer restaurants are great. And some of the places which closed weren’t.

And I loved Elena’s L’Etoile, but in the last few years it was open I had a couple of distinctly average meals there. Elena was always fabulous and the atmosphere was good, but the cooking really dropped off at some point.

I was going to say AndrewEdmunds - a favourite of mine

Yeah I know what you mean. But the vibe, the kind of characters you'd see during the day, there was a whole community of people and little shops etc that seems to have just vanished.

I know what you mean. Soho has really spruced up and become more welcoming to tourists and families (which I have appreciated!), but the trade-off is it’s just a little more plastic, and some of the places replacing the ones that are gone have a distinctly different character. I do miss some of the old Soho stalwarts like Tatty Bogel (now the very shiny Kingly Court!) and Madam JoJos, and the dance floors at St Moritz and the Limelight… and going even further back, the Marquee on Charing Cross Road!

Places I’m glad are still there: The John Snow, French House, Bar Italia, Maison Bertaux…

Yeah you're right. It's lost a lot of it's sleaziness and become more glossy and corporate. But some gems remain.

I think I heard Tricia's closed down? And Kettners changed beyond recognition a good couple decades ago.

It feels like all the working class people that used to live there have moved out or died off.

The smoking ban I think was a big nail in the coffin of nightlife in general.

That and people have less money to go out during the week. I remember the coolest clubs were on Mondays and Wednesday nights. It really felt like a 24 hour mini city back in the day.

https://www.legarrick.co.uk/