REVIEW: St Tropez Lounge

We celebrated my mother-in-laws birthday at St Tropez Lounge on Saturday, and we had such a wonderful experience I felt the need to share it with our readers - if you are looking to go out for a special treat then look no further!

Severine and Fred, the owners of The Guildhall Tavern and St Tropez Lounge sold the Tavern recently to focus on their additional venue, The Guildhall Lounge on Poole Quay which has been re-branded and re-named to St Tropez Lounge. 

In all honesty, I was surprised by this move as I thought the charm and character of the old tavern building was a large contributing factor to the success, and I thought the light and airy lounge would lose the cosy and special atmosphere.

As my husband said of our experience on Saturday though - Severine and Fred simply know what they are doing and have the magic touch. 

Everything from the staff and customer service, to the menu, wine selection, decor and outlook is exceptional. It's wonderful that the venue is open plan too and you can see the chefs at work in the kitchen who take so much pride in what they do.

We were greeted very warmly by Sebastian who has been working with Severine and Fred for over 20 years and is arguably one of the best Maitre D's around. He made a lovely fuss of the birthday girl and was very quick to keep the Champagne and wine flowing. As we are dry white fans, Sebastian recommend the Finger Post Sauvignon Blanc (with punchy notes of tropical fruit and gooseberry bounce over a lime soaked palate, complimented our fish dishes beautifully).

The menu and food is just exquisite. For our starters we had the Fresh Cold Water Prawns with shells on, Large Scallops in Normandy Butter, Twice Baked Cheese Souffle, Soupe de Poissons, and our main choices were; Seabass Flambéed with Pernod (which made for a real piece de resistance) Hake with prawns, Monkfish Medallions in garlic, lobster and crayfish sauce and Rose Veal. All were a heavenly amalgamation of the quality of produce and Fred and the teams love of food.

Two side orders were generously included, with a choice of french fries, new potatoes, dauphinoise, garden salad and fresh mixed vegetables. I was expecting these to have been an additional charge so given the exceptional quality of the produce and recipes, it's incredible value for money.

We didn't want the evening to end so ordered puddings and I had mentioned that we were celebrating my mother-in-laws birthday when we booked and she was surprised with a little cake and candle and all of the staff and guests sang her happy birthday! It was wonderful.

To keep the fun going a little bit longer, we finished off with a digestif of Espresso Martini's - perfect!

Thank goodness it's not a time slot system - the evening whizzed by, and we were there for at least 3 hours. We had a truly memorable experience at St Tropez Lounge and a huge thank you to Severine, Fred, Sebastian and all of the team for making us feel so welcome.

We can't wait to return and make our way through the menu.

To view the menu and book a table click here.