You could probably count the number of restaurants in London which have a Josper Grill in their kitchen on two hands and the French bistro that is Bistro Du Vin is one of them. The Josper Grill, for meat lovers, specifically steak, is a hybrid oven and charcoal grill rolled into one. It has been the in-thing with steak/meat restaurants for the past year – and you could well understand why with its ability to cook steak or meat in half the time, deliver a charcoaly smoky outside and a juicy tender inside. Supposedly it works equally well in roasting shelled seafood such as lobster, crayfish and mussels.

Bistro Du Vin has an appealing open plan kitchen so for food geeks like us it afforded us a view of the Josper Grill at work. Eating at the bar would be fun but tonight we sat at one of the tables surrounding the bar. The menu at Bistro Du Vin is typical of Anglo-French (safe) offerings including a mixture of meat, seafoods and salads with your foie gras and pates, sweetbreads, lobster bisques etc. and of course their Josper Grill offerings.

If only I’d had more of an appetite! For once I wasn’t that starving but knew I had to try something from the Grill. Both Pat and I opted for the “BdV burger with relish and fries”. The food is served on a chopping board and pleasingly comes with a side of Béarnaise sauce, whether it was for the burger of the fries I don’t know but I was happy to use it on both. The burger bread is almost a brioche type bun so sweet in contrast with the seasoned burger. And didn’t the Josper Grill produce a very amazing burger. Full of charcoal flavour but so juicy and tasty. I’d love to come back and try one of their steaks on for size! The fries that come with the burger come as a giant portion though they were slightly disappointing as they were kind of soggy though I did like the fact they were kind of in between the size of French fry and fat chips.

Definitely one to keep on the list.