The speakers come up first. Mark Gurney, who co-founded Cassette and also DJs, has installed a pair of rare 1970s Grundig Audiorama 8000s, and the restaurant is named for his playlists. They sit in a 19th-century building on Maiden Lane that was once a stained-glass workshop, opposite a Catholic church, and more recently a branch of Grind, where Gurney and his partner used to meet. Cassette opened here on 23 September 2026.
The Levan family tree
Gurney and Matt Bushnell are best known for Levan in Peckham, which brought bistronomy, the relaxed Parisian way of cooking seriously, to south London in 2018. Bar Levan followed in 2023 on the site of their earlier Larry's, and Levan has won the UK jury prize at the Star Wine List of the Year. Before that came Salon in Brixton, opened with the chef Nicholas Balfe. Cassette is their first restaurant in central London, and where Levan ranges across Europe, this one is purely French: a homage, in Gurney's words, to family holidays in France and to the Paris bistro Bistrot des Tournelles. The head chef is Essa Fakhry, founder of Note in Dublin, who most recently worked in the kitchen at Planque.
“French cooking with the volume turned up just enough.”
The room
It is a Victorian Gothic shell with double-height ceilings, exposed pipes, whitewashed brick and an aluminium bar, softened by a large cream curtain that keeps the noise down enough to talk. Tables are irregular and angled, there are flea-market touches, and the music tilts to funk and soul rather than anything dutifully Parisian. There are two floors, an open kitchen in the downstairs dining room and a terrace on Maiden Lane, which was on the owners' checklist from the start; the opening slipped when European suppliers shut for August. It suits a pre-theatre table, a long weekday lunch or a pavement perch for oysters and a Lillet and soda.
What to order
Start with the endive salad, with walnut, celery and Bleu d'Auvergne, quite possibly the best dish on the menu, all bitterness, cream and crunch. Oysters come in a warm beurre blanc, which makes them rich and soft in place of sharp and cold. A cauliflower and comté tart is cloud-like, and a vol-au-vent of ceps with smoked egg yolk and raw beef croustades are also worth ordering.
Then the headline act: a pie of coq au vin jaune for two, with a chicken claw poking from the crust. Gurney defends it as honesty about where food comes from. A Tamworth pork chop arrives blushing in sauce Talleyrand, a Madeira-based sauce, with fluffy pommes frites that are hard to stop eating. Starters are made to share; mains are meant to be kept to yourself, which is how Gurney prefers to eat. Watch the chalkboard and Instagram for specials, including a homage to the stuffed pig's trotter of Pierre Koffmann, served only when supply is good enough. Finish with black fig clafoutis, still in its skillet with vanilla ice cream, or an île flottante with peach.
A fair hedge: timing is not yet the house strength, so expect to wait for your table. The cooking is lovely rather than life-changing. Go in the right mood and have a drink while you wait.
Drinks
Calvados is the quiet obsession. It turns up with tonic as a stand-in for the G&T, in an espresso drink and as the Jet Fuel shot of coffee liqueur and Get 27. Martinis come small or large. The wine list changes quarterly, sets Burgundy and Bordeaux beside low-intervention bottles, and hides a few in tiny allocations.
Levan's generation taught south London to eat like Paris. Cassette brings the lesson to the West End, with a DJ choosing the records.
- The vibe
- Victorian Gothic workshop, whitewashed brick, cream curtain, funk and soul, pavement terrace.
- The food
- Parisian bistro: endive salad, buttery oysters, claw-topped coq au vin jaune pie.
- The drink
- Calvados and tonic, or a small martini while the table is readied.
- A tip
- Check the chalkboard for specials and expect a wait; book via the website.
