Sophie's French Restaurant

Sophie’s is a popular family run French restaurant located in a Grade II listed building in the heart of a pretty Cotswold village. It offers a daily changing lunch menu Tuesday to Friday and also opens on selected evenings (usually Saturdays).

Sophie cooks in the French country way: dishes are simple, with no fuss or pretension, as taught by her Basque mother, the type of food you might enjoy when visiting a French family home.

The evening menu is also uncomplicated: a set price for a two, three, four or five course meal, It is fantastic value, reflecting the overriding French restaurant philosophy: high quality well cooked and affordable.
The 100% French wine list is selected and imported by Sophie's husband, Mark and concentrates on wines and vignerons personally known to them. Wines are also sold through Le Midi - Sophie's French Shop - and are all available online at:
www.le-midi.co.uk (see below).

Lunch:
12 noon to 2pm, Tuesday to Friday.
Sophie presents a daily changing menu (see typical menu below).

Evenings:
Sophie's Restaurant is open only on selected evenings (usually Saturdays from 7.30pm). For this reason it is wise to book in advance to reserve a table. The following evening dates are currently available in 2010:

January:
February: 6, 13, 20, 27
March: 6
Apri:
May:
June
July:
August:
September:
October:
November:
December:

To book your table at Sophie's please call:
Tel: 01453 88 51 88 or
Fax: 01453 88 99 15 or
Email: hannah@consentics.co.uk

Sophie's Restaurant is in The Priory, 20 High Street, in the centre of Minchinhampton, a pretty Cotswold village a few miles out of Stroud/Cirencester. There is limited FREE parking outside The Priory but plenty of FREE parking in the car park (around the corner) or on the Common (by the church).

Here are two samples from Sophie's Restaurant menus; one from lunchtime and the other from an evening session. Sophie changes her menu every day depending on what is fresh and what is in season and what is available at that time of year. A speciality is fish; different types of fantastically fresh fish are often on the menu (weather and season permitting).

Typical Lunch Menu

Starters
Winter Vegetable Soup £4.50 or Sophie's Fish Soup served with Rouille & Croutons £4.95, Pork, Duck and Armagnac Terrine served with Quince Jelly and Crudites £5.95, Caramelised Red Onion Tart £5.95 or Moules Marinieres £6.95

Main Courses:
Loin of Veal cooked with White Wine, Green Peppercorns, Mushroom and Creme Fraiche £11.95, John Dory Fillet with a Lemon and Fresh Herb Sauce £13.95, Duck Confit served with Puy Lentils and Roasted Tomatoes £11.95, Dover Sole Meuniere £16.95, Roasted Medeterranean Vegetables and Puy Lentil gratin £9.95, Fillet Steak served with Roquefort Sauce £15.95

All Main Courses are served with Fresh Vegetables and Potatoes
All Starter & Main Courses are served with Fresh Homemade Bread

Side Orders:
Tossed Green Salad £2.50
Homemade Chips £2.00
A Selection of French Cheese

Dessert:
Chocolate and Pear Tart or French Lemon Tart or Crêpe filled with either Chocolate and Chestnut Purée Or with Apples and Calvados or Chocolate and Vanilla Profiteroles. All Desserts are served with Sophie's homemade Ice Cream
All Desserts: £4.95
Coffee £1.20

Typical Evening Menu

Soup:
Fish Soup served with Rouille, Croutons and grated Gruyère or Roasted Vegetable Soup

Hors d’œuvres:
Pork, Duck and Armagnac Terrine served with Quince Jelly and home-made bread, garnished with green salad or French Winter Salad (Lardons Roquefort and Toasted Pine Nuts on a bed of lettuce or Mushroom and Gruyere Gougere

Main Course:
Roast Organic Salt Marsh Lamb served with Roasted Mediterranen Vegetables & Puy Lentils or Wild Sea Bass Fillet cooked with white wine and Fennel or Fillet Steak with either Roated Tomatoes and Homemade Chips or with a Mushroom & Green Peppercorn Sauce

A green salad (optional) is served after the main course

Cheese:
A selection of French cheese

Dessert:
Chocolate Delice with Sophie's Homemade Ice-cream or Blackcurrent Tart or Raspberry Creme Brulee or Riz au Lait served with Pears and Cherries Poached in Red Wine or Tarte Tatin.

Coffee

5 course menu £ 31.00
4 course menu £ 28.90
3 course menu £ 26.50
2 course menu £ 24.50

Sophie and Mark Craddock have been running Sophie's Restaurant in Minchinhampton, Gloucestershire for over eight years now. Sophie, a Fine Arts graduate, making use of the culinary skills gleaned from her French mother, Mark calling on all his marketing and specialist wine knowledge. Their central philosophy is that the food used should be of the highest quality, be it Free Range, Organic or Real Meat Products, and that it should be cooked without fuss or pretension to bring out its true fresh flavour. A new menu is created every day to take advantage of the freshest produce available – fish is a particular speciality. Wines served with the meals are specially selected to complement the food and the atmosphere of the restaurant is reminiscent of the very best found in rural France. Sophie's Restaurant was a great success within a few months of opening. So much so that after giving birth to triplets Sophie relocated the business to The Priory in Minchinhampton High Street, a grade II listed 18th century building, with a large kitchen, vast cellars, four dining areas and a wealth of extra space. After extensive renovation it was opened in May 2003 and customers old and new greeted it with approval. Sophie's Restaurant has won many awards locally and nationally.

Sophie’s philosophy has always been to use the best quality produce, from
locally-sourced organic, Real Meat, fish, fruit and vegetables. As well as
cooking, Sophie is personally involved in sourcing all produce and is pleased
to list her major suppliers.

Meat: Taylor’s in Minchinhampton (Real Meat Co.); G. Cullimore & Son, New House Farm, Glos.; Duntisbourne Traditional Meats, Daglingworth

All Fish & Seafood: David Felce: the local Stroud area fishmonger

Fruit & Vegetables: (all seasonal and locally sourced as far as possible); Malcolm Monkman - who runs a stall in The Shambles Market, Stroud: Rosa Wilkins - Chapel Farm, Minchinhampton

Fresh Free Range Eggs: Rosa Wilkins - Chapel Farm, Minchinhampton

Bread, Jam, Wine Vinegar & Herbs: Home produced and homemade. Flour from Shipton Mill, Tetbury.

The idea for Le Midi came to Sophie and Mark when they were in France one summer. They were much influenced by the fact that they had bought a house in Cuxac Cabardès in the Montagnes Noir 20 minutes drive from Carcassonne. It seemed obvious to them that the regional products they and their children enjoyed so much on holiday: the wines, the patés, the olives, the oil, were of such high quality that they could be brought over to the UK to be made available to their many Francophile customers. They now had the room to set up their own French Shop in The Priory and so Le Midi was born. The shop opened its doors in November 2003.

Visit Sophie's online French Shop on www.le-midi.co.uk