The Brunner Club

Thursday 13 April 2017 at 06:15 with ≡

soft launch season is back! which is a pain because it's also study season, but I'll squeeze in as many as I can because I gotta eat anyway, right? Here's Florentine Restaurant & Bar's soft launch back before the break began!

Florentine is on a nice spacious spot south of the river right by Lambeth North station, and H & I checked it out on a sunny Saturday afternoon (if only it was a sunny sunday!!)

Started with this ricotta, wild mushroom and truffle flatbread to share because these looked really interesting on the menu! Didn't disappoint, and one could probably eat that as a main, haha. The mild but rich flavours really worked here, and my only gripe is that maybe the flatbread could be slightly fluffier because this was on the crispy side! Then again wild mushrooms and truffles always win me over + nice charred sides on the bread ahh.

I went for the steak with fries and bearnaise because I was craving a good slab of meat. This is not normally my choice of food during soft launches because they are so unrepresentative of a menu & not as inventive as the other options! But then it's also 50% off steak so ... I did enjoy this bec good meat + cooked well + seasoned well + good bearnaise. The fries I would totally appreciate if they were just slightly crispier on the outside because while these were nice and fluffy on the inside, they were also bordering on soggy. Also slightly underseasoned fries - I ended up stealing H's lamb shank sauce to eat with my fries.

H got the lamb shank which I think was a pretty good choice and I ended up eyeing it throughout the meal - it was tender, fall-off-the-bone, flavourful, and basically ticked off all the boxes of a good lamb shank. The mash was also smooth and fluffy sooo probably get this instead, haha.

these. doughnuts. tho.

The masala venetian donuts are BOMB. They look so unassuming and soft on the plate, but I swear! This is the reason I would possibly go back to Florentine, and the reason I seriously contemplated going back the next day. They are light, fluffy, melt in your mouth and have the perfect texture of CLOUDS. Or what I assume would be the texture of clouds. Perfectly matched with the cream inside that is not too sweet, and dusted with sugar that, as the waitress informed us, you lick off your fingers after eating the donut because that is apparently the Best Part. (ok this are her words not mine because I still say that the donut is the best part)