Buvette London WC2: French café charm in Neal’s Yard
Buvette has opened in Neal’s Yard, bringing a French-leaning menu and a polished café interior to Covent Garden. Guardian restaurant critic Grace Dent describes the food and setting, while noting that the London restaurant had plenty of empty seats during her midweek visit. The menu lists 25 dishes, none priced above £18.
In Neal’s Yard, Buvette London WC2 is serving croque monsieur, rillettes de saumon and salade niçoise in a polished French-café setting. The London restaurant, an offshoot of Jody Williams’ West Village gastrothèque, has opened in Covent Garden with a menu of 25 dishes, none priced above £18, according to The Guardian’s review by Grace Dent.
The room makes a confident first impression. A cute red frontage opens onto marble-topped tables, bentwood chairs and a zinc bar, with staff Dent describes as chipper. The restaurant has 80 covers, but during her midweek lunchtime visit, many seats were free. “In fact, almost all of them are empty,” she wrote.
What Buvette London WC2 puts on the menu
The menu leans into familiar French café fare, presented in French names and with a little flourish. Diners can choose croque monsieur with roast mushrooms and gruyere, rillettes de saumon, or salade niçoise with haricots verts and a mollet egg. The drinks list includes a Macvin champagne and muscadet spritz, while warm scones with jam and almond croissants add a café-style option.
Dent’s meal included a croque madame, grilled salmon and a shared copper pan of pommes frites. She describes the sandwich as thick toasted white bread layered with melted cheese and thin ham, finished with more grated cheese, an egg yolk and crunchy cornichons.
The salmon came with sauce ravigote, a sharp vinaigrette with herbs and capers, alongside dressed green beans and a small green salad. Dent praised its crisp skin and moist flesh, writing that it had been cooked “as if someone downstairs truly cares.” The meal also included a sharply dressed chicken salad.
A familiar French style in a busy neighbourhood
Buvette sits among Covent Garden lanes lined with holistic therapy rooms, massage spaces and nearby food businesses, including Neal’s Yard Remedies and 26 Grains cafe. Dent says the restaurant brings “a touch of Gallic glam” to the area, though she questions whether its approach feels fresh. She compares the style to the recognisably French dining associated with Café Rouge, rather than a radical new take.
That familiarity may matter to diners choosing where to eat. The menu offers recognisable dishes without demanding specialist knowledge of French food, while the room and French-language presentation give the café a more dressed-up feel. For a quick café au lait or a longer lunch, Dent suggests, there is a clear range of ways to use the space.
The restaurant’s quiet lunchtime also raises a practical question for the new opening: who will make it a regular stop? Dent sees a gap between the venue’s cool, carefully styled image and the tastes of both local residents and food-focused diners. Her account is a single critic’s review, not a measure of how busy Buvette is at other times.
This is the London arm of Williams’ New York restaurant. A previous London attempt in Notting Hill opened in 2020 and closed within four years, according to Dent. The new Neal’s Yard location therefore marks another try for the brand in the city, with a menu built around approachable French dishes rather than a reinvention of the format.
Dent’s verdict is affectionate but not uncritical. “Even so, and to make a plaintive case for Buvette, it’s actually rather lovely,” she wrote.
