A trip to London is never complete without a visit to a pub. The word pub is short for Public Houses and has been a traditional establishment in Great Britain. This is where the community gathers in social settings and where alcoholic drinks are served.
There is a pub around where my hotel is, about 10 minutes walk. Many people in my company recommend that I try this place as they serve very good meals too. It’s called the Pheasant Pub and Restaurant. I went just as the sun set and took a few HDR shots of the colourful pub. This is one of my favourite HDR shots. It’s so sharp that I could literally see into the windows (click on the picture below and see for yourself). I heart his shot.
Pubs sell a wide range of beers, wine and soft drinks. I did not get any alcoholic drink as I went past the bar and straight to the back of the pub where the restaurant is. There were hardly any moving room as there were some soccer game on the TVs. I think it was the Euro 2008 Qualifying matches going on. The English are so soccer crazy … OK, football crazy.
I am surprised with the wide range of food served there. I expected this to be a lot of snacks and finger food but they are all full meals. There were a lot of deliciously sounding menu items that I find it hard to decide what I want.
I had the image of pubs being a smoking place. I am glad the restaurant section had no smoking signs all over. Anyway, I place my order at the counter, paid up and was given a wooden ladle with the number “11” — that was my order number. When they come around shouting my number, I am supposed to put the ladle up to show the server that it’s mine. How’s this for informal dining?
Hey, errr … the three squeeze bottles, I am sure they are color coded and for a Brit they know what’s in it. I can guess that the red one is ketchup and the yellow one must be mustard (them Brits love their mustards, don’t they?). But what is in the one in brown? If I hazard a guess, I would say it’s BBQ sauce … am just guessing.
What’s the pub grub I ordered? I was a bit adventurous and ordered the “Best English Calves Liver and Bacon”. It came in a large squarish plate. The meat were served on top of some of the tastiest mash potatoes I had tasted and there were lots of it.
The vegetables were cold but really nice. I could be wrong but I think they are all cooked and then chilled as they don’t taste a bit raw to me. BTW, if there is no dressing on top of this, do you still call this a salad or is it better described as vegetables?
The bacon was heavenly. That slab was evenly cooked throughout and is soft and tender. I am beginning to like English bacon a lot.
The best part was the calves liver. Do you find it repulsive to eat liver? I don’t. I think they taste wonderful although I know it has an unusual taste to a lot of people. This must have been at least 12 oz of liver. And the gravy that came along blends itself nicely to the entire dish.
The dish costs 13 GBP. I am getting used to London prices and would say it is quite reasonable price. I mean, don’t convert it to CAD … CAD 40 is certainly to much for a main dish.
I am certainly going to come back to this place to try their other unusual dishes the next time I am in London again. Listen to what else they have on their menu:
- Pan Fried Chicken Supreme filled with Boursin Cheese wrapped in Parma Ham
- Homemade Steak and Kidney Pie
- Mixed Seafood a la Creme
- Traditional Burchers Cumberland Sausage, Mash and Onion
- Scottish Baked Fiillet of Salmon with Salmon Mousse
- Homemade Fillet of Beff Strogonoff served with Saffron Rice
- Traditional British Beer Battered Cod and Chips
- Best New Zealand Herb and Mustard Crust Rack of Lamb
- Best English Half Shoulder of Lamb
- Grilled Dover Sole with Baby Prawns and Almonds
Feeling hungry? I am writing this. Anyway, this is it … my trip London trip report. More coming up … Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam. Tell me, seriously, what do you want us to do? Me continuing with the trip report or have Suanne do a few recipe entries. We want to keep you entertained. 🙂
Hi Ben:
Keep on with the trip report. Is very entertaining, especially for us that can´t travel for the moment. Of course that Susanne always post very great recipes, but she can continue with her recipes after your trip. Don´t you think Susane?
Hey Ben, thanks for your nice feedback about my new pictures. I started shooting the pictures in RAW format and use the Canon “Digital Photo Professional” to adjust the brightness, white balance, saturation, color, and sharpness. Mostly brightness and skip the White Balance because I do not know how to use it yet. The software does wonder. But I did shoot my pictures with natural lights, but not ideal natural lights.
i think you’ll find the sauce in the brown bottle is hp sauce, also known as brown sauce. it’s very popular in england…
i find £13 a little pricey for a pub meal… wetherspoons do 2 mains for £5.99, or the hop house has fantastic large dishes, 2 for £10…
Depends if you want a proper meal or a bland, portion controlled wetherspoons. You pay for what you get and this is proper restaurant fayre.
Keep up the great travel commentary. It serves to let us learn more about the cities you’re visiting and about the great restaurants and the food you’re eating.
Many thanks
more trip info please 🙂
also, the large version of your HDR image appears to have a lot of JPG artifacts or HDR noise. 🙁
Does anyone know what “sauce” (the brown bottle) actually is? I’ve asked a number of UK expats, and none of them know what goes into it.
I love bacon and liver.
Hi All: More trip reports it is then.
Hi Matt: Hey, you are right and have a keen eye too. You seem like an expert and I think you use the expensive CS2 for your photo post processing. So, how do I avoid these JPG artifacts? Shot in RAW? Shot in low ISO?
Hi Chubbypanda: Someone did comment that the brown bottle contain HP Sauce. HP Sauce is quite common in the states too … except that they are always in their original bottle at the breakfast table.
Hi RasaMalaysia: I gave up shooting in RAW … too much work processing them and they work so slowly and the files are so huge. So, my pics are all in JPG these days. I am still using the old Photoshop Elements 3.
Thanks for explaining the meaning of Pub! And yes, English are really crazy about football (Thanks to my husband, I’m getting more into it as well).
Anyway, 13 Pound for a pub meal is a bit expensive, maybe this pub is a bit posher than normal? I think the brown bottle one is Brown Sauce, or HP sauce. Oops, I realise that ‘Anonymous’ has commented on it already… 😛
Wow the pub meal sounds good, but a big slice of liver is a lot to shove down. thx