Bloomsbury French — the silver duck press, the classical menu and one of the very last rooms in Europe still pressing canard à la presse.
Otto Tepasse runs a small French restaurant on Grays Inn Road that has built a reputation around a single nineteenth-century dish: canard à la presse. The duck is roasted rare, carved at the table, the carcass crushed in a ceremonial silver press whose wheel guests turn themselves to extract the juices for the sauce. La Tour d'Argent and Otto's are essentially the only places left running the service. The rest of the menu is classical French in the unfussy bistrot register — sole meunière, foie gras terrine, île flottante — and the room is intimate, white-tableclothed, completely untrendy.
Canard à la presse must be pre-booked at least 48 hours ahead, minimum two guests, £250pp; verify availability — service paused at points in 2025-26. Worth the special trip even without the duck for the classical bistro register, but the duck is the reason.
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