AUBAINE - In the Secret French Garden

The Hill. Gloriously dominating the lower lands of the Broadway. Only a 10-min walk but a far away land of tennis, great mansions and village-like feeling. And for the first time we adventured in these lands for a relaxed dinner. Aubaine is one of the latest addition to Wimbledon Village, part of a London chain bringing French cuisine in upmarket parts of London. The outside may not be as striking as you would imagine, especially with the tinted colour tones. The inside has a lot of table capacity and aims at reproducing a plush, upper middle class villa with a lot of chromatic games around white, grey and purple on furniture and walls. It somehow reminds me of lavender from a field in France.

The great surprise of the evening was out at the back as we seized opportunity on the last hot summer day of the year. The garden is nicely enclosed at the back of the building and it is wrapped in green foliage and French-windowed mirrors, which slowly fade out the contour of the village and make you forget where you are. Just be careful not too hit the mirrors...
As we sat on some sort of art nouveau metal tables, the staff approached on several occasions, with some bread, some water. They wore aprons as uniforms in line with the light colour theme of the place. Although very friendly, polite and accommodating throughout the evening, their moves were not as smooth and as suave as the restaurant aimed to be.

There were 2 menus to choose from: à la carte or barbecue meal (Thursdays only). The former was two pages long, listing a good variety of French-Continental dishes put together with Michelin-style combinations, but the French description of the dish was more appetising and at some point more realistic than the English one. You then come to look at prices and you may find them above the overall Wimbledon average, and may appear overpriced at first if you base yourself on ingredients commonly listed in the English language. The other menu was a choice of barbecued meat, side dish and a glass of rosé for £20, with options listed in English only. Again, value for money was not easily filtering through and we were starting to be suspicious if quality of food would match it.

We were brave enough to order some starters, a variety of mains from meat to fish, and also dessert, all accompanied by French wine. Fried squid with garlic mayonnaise (camouflaged as aioli) and salmon tartare with cream of avocado were suddenly a hit with all of us as the starters. Squid was crispy and not oily or soggy, mayonnaise was freshly made. The salmon tartare melted in the mouth with a nice smooth texture, toning down the fishy taste with the sweet flavours of the avocado.
Moving onto the mains, there were suddenly mixed feelings in the group. We had one order from the barbecue menu, and the Toulouse sausages with cabbage coleslaw did not seem plenty on the half-empty plate. Yet, our taste buds soon confuted most of the prejudices held and the flavour of a true European sausage was truly welcome on the table. Mussels cooked the Belgian way were great and came as a good sized portion although there could have been slightly more fries. Disappointment was more frequent on the next three dishes. First, the seared scallops on pea purée were cooked nicely and a had delicate smoky taste but lacked the portion size you'd expect for paying. It was easily vanquished by the fried squid, which in the end was only a starter. We then moved on to the chicken Caesar salad, which looked less exotic than the other dishes. Although fresh and well seasoned, the chicken skin felt rubbery to the taste and ruined the overall image of the dish. Once again, the starter of salmon tartare was better. Last but not least, lobster spaghetti was a heavily-discussed dish being one of the most expensive mains on the menu (£24)  and expectations had been set high from the beginning. The pasta was seasoned to perfection and the tomato-based sauce was unexpectedly cooked with pastis (aniseed-flavoured liqueur) which can only make it a truly French fish dish. Despite the low amount of lobster, it still infused the pasta and sauce amazingly if it wasn't for the overdose of double cream that was added to the sauce. It ruined the whole dish.
We then moved to desserts, which were presented to us on a nice trolley and we were eager to test the restaurant further. The large coffee macaroon was insanely delicious, paraphrasing our Dr. Petrescu (another alias), and it is strongly recommended you eat it by hand although it may seem uncouth. Both the gluten-free chocolate cake with ice-cream and the lemon tart with coconut biscuit base were perfect, yummy and sweet enough.

Aubaine is of course on the high end of the price scale but with a good weight on quality food and presentation skills. It look pretentious but it is not a place to frown upon. By the time we paid and stood up to leave, the garden had filled up with customers and a louder buzz was in the air. It seems the secret garden was no longer a secret anymore!

Our verdict is as follows:

Quality of Food        4.40
Hygiene                     4.80
Value for Money      3.00
Speed of Service       4.40
Quality of Service    4.60
Ambience & décor   5.00

Aubaine gets an overall rating of 86.8%