Excuse the cheesy pun of a title but Langans really is a very lazy, loungey type of place.
Situated on right of Green Park tube station in London is Stratton Street and half way down on the left is Langans.
The reason I first heard of Langans was that my first ever boss used to love the place. He'd get me to book him a table there for lunch with various business associates, and always insisted on a downstairs table. A few years later I had 4 friends come up to London for a few days and decided to give the old place a whirl for an evening meal.
Booking Langans is very much a media haunt during the day, and possibly a few tourists too because of its location. But in the evenings it seems to be a very mixed crowd. Because I knew how popular the place was I booked up a couple of weeks in advance. I dont think Lagans is as busy as some of the top London places, or rather it is as busy but they dont operate stupid policies like table turning, in my opinion pretty rude, or reserving a quarter of their tables automatically for celebs etc. So we got a table pretty easily.
Layout and Staff
On arriving at Langans you walk past the long windows full of people dining and people watching. You enter the hall and from here are either led into the brasserie or upstairs to the resturant, which is also incidently where the bathrooms are.
You are led into the main brasserie which is large, and must house at least 50 tables. We booked for 8pm and the place was packed and buzzy with lots of different kinds of people chatting away and enjoying themselves. Our table was in a little alcove at the very back of the resturant which was perfect as it meant we almost felt like we had our own private area. As soon as we were seated our waiter came and introduced himself, he was Italian, obvioulsy a career waiter which I liked, very friendly and obviously wanted to please. He chatted to us about the resturarant its history and answered a question from one of my friends about the art work displayed there, which is pretty eye catching. All this put us well at ease and set the tone of the evening. Bread and water arrived at the table within 5 minutes which gave everyone something to nibble on while looking over the menus.
The wine list was well priced with something for everyone, cheapest wine was around Ģ11 a bottle, we ordered some nice Aussie Semillions for around Ģ18 a bottle and they were lovely.
Food The food is French/British so a bit of a mixture. You could choose from a range as diverse as lobster, duck, sausage and mash, souffle, soups, ham off the bone with potatoe salad, steak, roast dinners, salads, the list was long and mostly very much solid, hearty food which wouldnt leave you feeling empty by a long shot. Lovely desserts too, from sticky toffee pudding, to apple pie with custard. Lovely, Lovely, Lovely.
Starters were priced from Ģ5 and mains from Ģ10 which isnt at all expensive compared to other resturants of its type, location etc. We spent a good 4 hours at Langans enjoying catching up over a brilliant meal and soaking up the atmosphere.
My friends all said they had a wonderful time, I was glad my old boss hadnt been exagerating about how good it was, and I will definately be going back again at some point soon.
Suitable for
Langans does still allow smoking, which may put some diners off, but I didnt find it a smokey resturant. I would say this place is most suitable for couples or groups of friends. You could take children here, and the window tables are probably most suited for people with their families, but its not a family centric place as a speciality, for example Im not sure where they would store buggies, and I didnt notice any baby changing area in the ladies bathrooms.
Location & Tube
Nearest Tube - Green Park
Stratton Street Piccadilly London W1J 8LB
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The only trouble with your reviews is that my list of places to eat when I'm in London next, would need me to be there for a month - lol - sounds goo, though - Trevor
Silverback 01.04.2006 08:12
Good, readable review - sounds pretty reasonable given its reputation. Paul
Chouchinciao 31.03.2006 15:07
Nearest I've got to Langan's is their Brasserie on the P&O Dover Calais ferry. That's very nice, but it's time I upgraded and you've made it sound very appealing.
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