28th May 2007
My First Snails
After this place featured in the newsletter I was determined to find it, and it just so happened I stayed at a friends house yesterday in what seemed like the middle of nowhere, and it was 10 minutes away from the pub!! Set in the Putney Heath it is every bit the country pub, but so nice. Over 2 levels there's quirky art nouveau prints on the walls and flat screens telling you what's on each night in cute montages interspersed with Charlie Chaplin skits.
As mentioned there's a French chef, hence the snails. So my first snails were great! I'm sold, garlicky buttery, and with an attractive texture not unlike the best part of mussels, without the grittiness and beards. I've got some rather unflattering pixt's of my very first one but you wont be seeing them, I think grimacing is the adjective(or verb?) for what my poor face was doing.
I also had the goats cheese salad, loved the caramelised red onion, but it needed a bit more salad as the there was a lot of cheese. Further on my entre tip (or as an indecisive little piggy) I ordered the fish soup as well, which wasn't really to my liking, brown, medium consistency with unidentifiable ground fish but the pesto toasted fresh ciabata was beautiful. My darling lunch companion had what he described as the best battered fish he has ever tried, served as the traditional fish'n'cips with bright mushy peas and tartare sauce A big call, it was good, fresh and thick cooked to perfection.
The room we ate in was children friendly with a big open fire, they all seemed very well behaved and happy children, playing quietly and giggling, occasionally counting with their parents out loud. The room had a number of sofas and armchairs mixed in with table's chairs and benches. The bar where you order the food was more bar-like (funnily enough) and upstairs seemed to be a more formal dining space again.
Lovely place, reasonable prices (compared with central) and smoke free, the garden must be stunning on sunny days and in summer, I can see my self sipping pimms there already, popping over to the clearing in the heath for a spot of social cricket.. what what?