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Le Piaf

Mediterranean Restaurant in Wimbledon
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No longer at this address

Our records show that Le Piaf is closed.

Address
40 Wimbledon Hill Road
Wimbledon
London
SW19 7PA
Map
Current
Cuisine
Mediterranean
Region
Wimbledon
Nearest Station
Wimbledon
0.14 miles
Restaurant Facilities

Smoking Area

Children Welcome

Credit Cards Accepted

Music Played

Outdoor Area

Booking Advisable

'Mediterranean food, freshly prepared, every day'

We offer our customers FRESH food, every day! Our informal and relaxed setting creates a true Mediterranean experience, great for special occasions or just catching up with friends. Our staff is attentive and friendly and will make your visit a memorable one.

Classic to contemporary dishes are carefully selected by our top chefs to ensure that there is something for everyone - the warm ambience, attention to detail and rustic charm create what we call 'Piaf magic'. At the heart of the community, our 150 seater restaurant is well established in Wimbledon and has a lovely garden conservatory for parties of up to 70 guests for a seated meal.

Our famous £9.95 Family Sunday Roasts are just one of our specialties. For the person on the trot who requires a quick lunch we offer a £7.95 lunch rapide which includes a free softdrink. If you are a breakfast lover, we serve our full English breakfast ALL DAY. So there you have it three quick reasons why you should come and try us out!

Le Piaf Picture Gallery

Le Piaf Picture

All In London Review

Warm and comfy – like an old pair of slippers

Feeling lucky that we found a parking space so near the library from where we could see Le Piaf we realised that we were early – so faced with the choice of good wine at the All in London or good beer at The Alexandra (which also advertised mussels) – I won the debate and we entered the All in One – which was busy, air-conditioned overcooled and rather noisy.

The outside of Le Piaf is not very welcoming – there’s a big old battered promotions board outside and a couple of tables on a small raised area. It would be easy to pass on by and focus on the nearby more modern and classy looking establishments. However, we ventured into what felt a little like the past. Wooden floors, stripped wooden tables, dark red covered chairs, gilt mirrors – and a small bar that wouldn’t be out of place in a small, quiet French village – shame that there are no bar stools though. The blackboard alert you to some classic cocktails – but we move swiftly to a little table in the corner which had a welcoming tea light flickering.

There’s a further, large restaurant area at the back – if you pass by the ladies loo and along a shelved corridor affair (nice candles here which gave a romantic glow) and, if you dare to go down a further narrow corridor, there is a spacious, light conservatory area – which wasn’t open when we were there.

At 745 the place was about 60% full – there were several couples and a fair few family and after work groups – although it should be said that this isn’t the young set. There is a relaxed, gentle buzz about the place which makes the background music hard to hear – although it was definitely playing 80s music – I strained to hear Rose Royce and Marvin Gaye. I should imagine that it’s popular with the lunching ladies and late breakfast set.

The service was quietly attentive – there was Iain the manager, two older male waiters and a younger woman looking after us throughout our time there. We ordered tap water to start and were given chunky glasses with ice and lemon. My companion had a peroni blue (£3.40) and I had a small glass of sauvignon blanc (£4.25) while we studied the menu.

I started with mozzarella, avocado, tomato, basil and balsamic (£4.95) which was super-fresh and rather pleasant. I liked the avocado twist on this classic salad – and it was properly ripe. My companion had the sautéed chicken livers in a Madeira and thyme sauce with smoked bacon on toasted brioche (£5.95). We were a bit surprised when it arrived as it looked like those beautifully cooked livers were on two slices of white bread – however, they were warm and lightly char grilled brioche on further investigation. He enjoyed the livers and could detect all the promised flavours in the sauce. Apparently, the loyal locals here really like the sizzling tiger prawns (£6.95) and the meze (bruschetta, garlic ciabatta, roasted vegetables, olives, hummus and tzatziki) which is £10.95 and often shared with drinks.

For the main course, my companion had the recommended 8oz rib eye steak (£14.95) which he requested to be cooked blue (it was – at one end anyway), which came with cherry tomatoes and a few leaves. He had also ordered sautéed new potatoes (£2.50) which were a little soft and sautéed field mushrooms (£3.50) which were plentiful but plain. He had a glass of house red (chevalier delatour - £3.75) which I also sipped.

I had hoped to try the duck confit (£12.50) which is one of the most popular dishes here but they explained that having served so many that day they had run out. So I had the fillet of sea bass on sautéed garlic potatoes with olive and sundried tomato salsa (£12.95). The fish was cooked well and there were several large potato slices underneath and the salsa was really tasty. I had a side of sautéed spinach with garlic (£3.50) – and the garlic was present but not overpowering.

Our appetites were satisfied and we had not intended to eat anything more but the surprisingly eclectic dessert menu (meringue, banoffee pie, Belgian waffle, chocolate orange pot – all at £4.50) persuaded us to try something sweet. Sadly, the lemon and lime tart with raspberry coulis had sold out so we shared a homemade sticky toffee pudding with vanilla ice. A huge hunk of hot pudding where you could really taste the sultanas and dates. Delicious. Our large espressos (£1.80) were perfect.

The total bill was £67.60 (without service) which I thought was reasonable bearing in mind the quality of the food. As we left at 930pm the place was full.

OK, the décor’s a little tired but it is kind of warm and comfy – like an old pair of slippers. The other diners in there (of which there were a lot) all appeared relaxed and happy. They use good, fresh produce which is cooked in a straightforward, no nonsense manner and the staff are kind and seem genuinely keen to ensure that you have a pleasant time.

Reviewed by KimT
Published on Aug 16, 2010

User Reviews

JW11

May 9, 2011

We thought we'd try Le Piaf on Wimbledon Hill, as we'd heard some good things about it from friends.

Like the last reviewer, we found this restaurant a bit old, tired and a touch shabby around the edges - but the welcome was warm and friendly!

The food was a bargain and the quality exceptional for the price. We had an excellent (and big) rib-eye steak and some perfectly cooked calves liver & bacon as our main event, starters were some prawns and a yummy soup. My other half was persuaded into what she said was an excellent sticky toffee pudding.

The wines were ok and after commenting, we were promised that there was work in progress to bring in a new list for summer.

There's nothing hugely inventive about the menus - it's all familiar restaurant and brasserie dishes, however the cooking sets Le-Piaf apart - everything was made very well, at a price that makes it a feasible alternative to cooking at home, when you want a night off!

I'd recommend this place to everyone - a very pleasant surprise! We've already re-booked!
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Anonymous

Jan 17, 2010

Being somewhat sceptical of food review sites, and due to the fact the restaurant we had intended to try was fully booked, we decided to give Piaf a go.... Wished we hadn't! The service was laughable, a comedy of errors from the start to the eventual finish of our two courses - 3.5hrs later! Do not have the space or time to describe all the blunders, but to give you an idea, we waited 20 minutes from ordering some wine to receiving it, after reminding the waitress twice, and eventually had to go to the bar to get it ourselves. When two of our four starters arrived, approx 1 1/4 hrs after arriving, we were advised to start by the waitress as the othres may not arrive at the same time. She returned five minutes later to say she had only put two of them through - what did we want to do, advising to change the sizzling prawns as they would take a while being cooked from frozen....?! The food decidedly average, steaks were nice but cod could not be seen under the kilo or so of olives poured over the top. None of it very hot, except the chips but only because they forgot them and arrived ten minutes after mains. Off course the 12.5% service charge was added to our bill, and when advised that we didn't think this was appropriate, the waitress told us we would need to go and find the manager as she had to take the full amount....! Avoid at all costs!
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Anonymous

Apr 9, 2009

Went here one Saturday for lunch. I ordered the steak sandwich on ciabatta without onions. The dish I received was a steak sandwich on poppyseed bread with loads of onions. When I asked about the bread, I was told they had run out of ciabatta (they could've told me beforehand as I'm not a fan of poppyseed bread). I also reminded the waiter that I wanted no onions, after which he took the plate back and returned with it two minutes later with most of the onions gone, but a couple remaining. It was obvious they had just been scraped off, and not even well enough to remove them all. As I cannot stand the taste of onions, I put the meal aside and didn't eat any of it. I wasn't charged for the meal in the end, but I left starving and had to go across to All Bar One for lunch.

The two other diners with me that day also had problems with their meals (things missing, substitutions made without asking us first) and for these reasons I will never again return to this restaurant.
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