Aubaine Deli, Covent Garden

As the title of this blog post may have given away, Aubaine have opened a deli. In Covent Garden. And because I enjoyed my evening at their Mayfair restaurant so much, I was very keen to head on down and pay a visit to their latest venture.

Inside, the interior is just like Aubaine's restaurants, with lavender on the tables and the deli counter displaying an array of enticing-looking baguettes, pastries, salads and cakes.

My lovely friend Ellie and I, however, decided to sit at one of the tables outside as it was a beautiful balmy summer's evening.

The menu is simple but the concoctions are interesting and there's a good selection of food from which to choose. There are four different salads and an array of sandwichy type things including French classics like croque monsieur and British delights like sausage rolls. Each are served with one of the salads, which I liked.

We started with a couple of refreshing juices.

Yum!

I was a tad disappointed to learn they'd run out of the potato salad with peas, pine nuts and ricotta, and although I liked the sound of the quinoa superfood salad (#health), our charming French waiter told me he thought it wasn't actually anything to rave about. I appreciate honesty like that from restaurant staff.

Our food arrived, along with a couple of flutes of champagne. I am always OK with that.

I decided to go for the lemon and rosemary chicken brioche roll with herb mayo, and the grilled aubergine and butternut squash salad with pomegranate seeds and a yoghurt dressing.

The brioche roll was nice and sweet but to be honest I thought there was too much bread in the bread-to-filling ratio, meaning overall it was a little dry. The chicken itself was lovely, it just needed more of it and more mayo in my opinion.

I also thought both my salad and sandwich were slightly too chilled unfortunately. The salad, however, despite being chilled, was great. I loved it. But then again I just go crazy for butternut squash and aubergine.

Ellie's hot Croq' Aubaine was infinitely better than my choice.

Phwooooaaar!

Essentially, Bayonne ham and Gruyère cheese in a toastie with béchamel on top for good measure. I tried it and it was excellent. #foodenvy

So pleased with her choice. (Ells had the same salad as me.)

I thought the portion size was good and the service was quick too.

We definitely had room for pudding...

Dayum, the cake selection was tempting. Again, there was a mix of British and French delicacies - think lemon meringue pie, crumble tart, brownie, mille-feuille, carrot cake...

We decided to share the carrot cake and the pistachio raspberry cake.

The carrot cake was great. The icing was more like buttercream than cream cheese in texture, but there was definitely some cream cheese involved. The crumb of the cake was spot-on too.

The pistachio raspberry cake was dense in texture and more like a blondie than a cake in my opinion, but it was absolutely scrumptious.

Sipping a couple of teas as the sun went down, Ellie and I appreciated the lovely setting and the feeling of being pleasantly full with delicious food.

It had been a delightful late-summer's evening and I'll definitely be back.

Ellie and I were guests at Aubaine Deli but all opinions are unbiased, promise.