With who: A whole load of us, for Mrs International Traveller's birthday
How much: £7 /£9 for starters, £11 / £18 for mains
Come here if: you're looking for good quality if unexciting food without the price tag of the main restaurant.
Caveat - some two hours and some more wine after this dinner, I was in a small room in a karaoke bar belting out musical standards and Elton John hits after way too much white wine. Some details may not be well remembered.
Bleeding Heart Yard is a little cobbled church to the consumption of meat and the libation of wine. Their own vineyard supplies the later, house red, white and rose all coming from Hawkes Bay in New Zealand and exceptional quality for the price.
Thee are four venues clustered round the yard, each different but with strong similarities and approaches. I've eaten at the main restaurant before; gutsy and accomplished, if not anything spectacularly unique. Luckily the local suits don't appear too bothered, filling the rough wood hewn space daily. They also run a little tavern and cater for events under nearby St Ethelred's church, an atmospheric crypt seemingly designed for the timeless menu of steak and sundries. I've been to a couple of evenings there too and enjoyed what they're capable of for event dining, so while my expectations for the bistro weren't impossibly high, I was looking forward to seeing how the menu translated to a more casual setting.
As mentioned, the kitchen doesn't attempt anything too tricky, and serves up no shocks. A starter of foie gras and chicken liver terrine was perfectly competent, if a little too smooth in consistency. A week later I struggle to recall it. The rib eye steak was likewise, a perfectly acceptable accompaniment to an evening with friends, but not something that should trouble the Premier League players at Hawksmoor or Goodman.
The 'safety first' approach extended to the waiting staff too it would seem, a wry smile came with the whispered argument between the waiting staff and one of the guests over the steak hache, a rough French patty of chopped beef steak, lightly cooked as a very loose hamburger. He, son of a French butcher and wise in the ways of meat, wanted it blue, they were initially very unwilling, fearing who knows what, if a steak isn't 'safe' enough to be served blue, it's probably not safe to serve at all...
Overall, the bistro didn't hit the (albeit safe) highs of the main restaurant, but is a good quality local standby in an area that loses out gastronomically to nearby Clerkenwell. It won't cause you any problems, unless you're a Frenchman who likes his meat raw...
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