14th July 2008
Should be great, but only good.
The Marquess Tavern should be great. Winner of the Best Brunch in the Observer Food Monthly Awards for 2008 and set in a gorgeous location, off the beaten track in Islington, it almost feels rural. It's a beautiful pub retaining alot of the original features. It has a gorgeous dining room serving great pub food - well sourced and cooked beautifully. The menu featured beef ribs, a whole leg of lamb for 4, salmon with crayfish mash, samphire and veal reduction, rabbit (which was divine) and lots more.
So, why only 3 stars? Half of the wines were off the wine list and we weren't advised that some of the dishes were off until we had had the menus for 20 minutes and had already made our decisions. They were very accomodating though and gave us the beef ribs which should have been for Sunday lunch the next day.
The service in general was chaotic, we were served by a number of different people we had to go find them a number of times. We only had 3 courses and started at 8.30 but didn't get our desserts until after 12. Trains were missed and people were unhappy. It could be the service is better if you are in the dining room, we were in the pub itself and so, perhaps, it's treated differently. That shouldn't be so though, it's the same menu. Perhaps they were just understaffed. On the other side, when we did see them they were lovely.
I am hopeful that my next trip will be better. We're all entitled to our bad days, I just hope it's not a regular thing for these guys. I want to like The Marquess Tavern and to make it a regular haunt. And I want those beef ribs again. YUM.
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