Restaurant Review: Duke of Cambridge

This weekend I trotted past the ranks of pub nobility - The Prince of Wales and The Earl of Essex, The baron of somewhere else - before arriving for dinner at Britain's first and only fully accredited organic gastropub The Duke of Cambridge.  I really liked The Duke  as a boozer and everything about me wanted to like it as a restaurant as well.    Outwardly it hits all the marks for this kind of place; it's local, it's seasonal and being able to get themselves a Soil Association badge highlights the care the team here takes with sourcing.  And a fully organic gastropub is a great concept in a time when people are thankfully becoming more aware of the shocking treatment meted out to the majority of animals that end up on our plates.  So given I want to like it and approve so thoroughly of the thinking behind it why didn't I enjoy myself?  Easy answer; a restaurant's main function is to produce great food and if you can't do that consistently the goodwill you win elsewhere goes out the window.

Restaurant Review: The Old China Hand

There's not many independent pubs around these days.  Even less with a list of around thirty different beers from around the world.  And certainly basically none with a ping-pong table.  Well the Old China Hand has all of these things and it serves dim-sum along with all that beer.  Sadly no one's going, which is a shame because it's a nice place.

Restaurant Review: The Charles Lamb Pub

Sunday's are difficult.  You have to work the next morning.  You're hung over from the night before.  You're tired and irritable.  You wanted a lie in and some idiotic birds woke you up with their tuneless warbling.  All a bit rubbish really.  But, there is one thing that makes Sunday's great and that's Sunday lunch.  Given the aforementioned problems, however, not everyone feels up to making one.  The promise of going out instead is tempting, but often disappointing.  Not so the Charles Lamb in Angel!  This lovely pub has a great selection of Meantime beers on tap, good cider and great hangover smiting Bloody Marys at only £4.50 (only in London prices, overpriced in the rest of the world).  Most importantly they have board-games!  No that's not right, sorry. I meant to say most importantly they do a brilliant roasts lunch.