
An almost stubborn unwillingness on the part of Langan's to change will either endear this restaurant to your heart or ensure a hasty retreat in the other direction. It has not for example been embraced by the blogger community, where Urbanspoon shows just a single blog post dated 2008, (so all those people who want to avoid bloggers when you eat, this is a good a bet as any). The menu is broadly unchanged since opening and one imagines that staff are similarly long serving. The result is however that Langan's has a traditional English feel to it and it put us in mind of the much older Rules, and there's certainly nothing wrong with that.
The menu is described as Anglo-French and is quite extensive, running to a choice of something like 16 starters and close to 20 mains. There's a lot of 'old familiars' on there, nothing too challenging and starters include the likes of smoked salmon, parma ham with melon, duck liver pate etc. Don't expect any molecular craziness here, it's not that kind of place. We chose the Spinach soufflé & anchovy sauce, and the Smoked haddock and poached eggs, incongruously, the only thing on the menu written in French.
The soufflé seemed to have gained its perkiness through a liberal dose of corn starch, but getting over that factor (and the impact on texture), it actually tasted pretty good. The haddock and eggs dish let itself down with the poached eggs being overcooked so no longer having a runny yolk, but it seemed determined to make up for that fact with quantity, there being two eggs on toasted muffin with generous amounts of haddock generously topped with a very creamy sauce. Just a shame about the overcooked eggs though as this again was an otherwise decent starter (though left me so full I was ready to move to dessert).
We're too full for desserts.
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