I have to confess, the older I get the less patience I have for restaurants that chase the next big thing. Give me a place that knows its onions, literally and figuratively, and I'll happily settle in for the long haul. So when word came that Brasserie Olivia had flung open its doors on Sloane Square, I made the trip with the sort of quiet optimism usually reserved for a properly aged Comté.
The place is the first overseas outpost of La Nouvelle Garde, the French group founded in 2019 by Charles Perez and Victor Dubillot with their original Brasserie Bellanger in Paris. They have built a reputation across the Channel for accessible pricing and the sort of seasonal, homemade cooking that feels both nostalgic and sensible. Now they have brought that ethos to 1 Sloane Square in Chelsea, a site previously occupied by Côte, and the result is a proper brasserie that operates from breakfast right through to late-evening service.
A menu rooted in craft and common sense
What strikes you immediately is the commitment to doing things properly. Everything on the menu is made from scratch. Whole carcasses of meat and fish are filleted on site, vegetables are prepared completely to keep waste to a bare minimum. They use British produce where it makes sense, teaming up with suppliers like The Dusty Knuckle for bread, Volcano Coffee Works for coffee and Harbour Brewing Co for beer. The classics are all present and correct: steak frites, cassoulet, lobster and fries, those perfect croissants in the morning, a galette complète, even an egg gribiche sandwich that sounds like the ideal hangover cure.
There is an oyster and seafood bar, wood-fire cooking, and the whole operation runs every day from noon until midnight, with lunch from twelve to three and dinner from six until half nine. Breakfast and the downstairs Venus Bar, available for private hire, will follow shortly. It is the antithesis of those fly-by-night concepts that open with a blaze of influencers and close before the paint is dry.
Tradition that actually delivers
In an age when too many openings seem designed to generate hashtags rather than repeat custom, there is something deeply satisfying about a restaurant that simply gets on with the job. La Nouvelle Garde has expanded across France by sticking to what works: in-house preparation, respect for the seasons, and prices that do not make you wince when the bill arrives. Bringing that approach to London feels like a quiet vote of confidence in British appetites and in the enduring appeal of proper European heritage done well.
The setting helps, of course. Sloane Square has always been a fine spot for people-watching, and the corner site with outdoor seating is perfectly placed for it. Inside, one imagines the checkerboard floors and open kitchen doing their timeless work of making everyone feel welcome without a hint of stuffiness. This is not another exercise in culinary one-upmanship. It is a brasserie that understands its role: to feed people generously, consistently, and with a bit of pleasure along the way.
