Joe's Southern Kitchen, 24th March

I’m all for getting bang for your buck but sometimes a little warning of how much food is about to come your way would be a good idea! We totally over-ordered at Bird because of this, and then, seemingly due to a quirk of fate, my friend and I did this at Joe’s as well.

I know that Stephen and I can easily eat a whole chicken between us so ordering a half chicken and another main between me and my friend seemed like a pretty sensible decision. It wasn’t. So we ordered the beef rib. What came to the table was not just one rib to share as I would have expected, but two! Yes… two! I asked Joe’s on Twitter and they confirmed that this dish is normally the one rib at 1kg. But they said sometimes, if the chef thinks it looks a bit small he’ll give you extra. So this must have been the case here which ordinarily is great but it did mean we couldn’t face finishing the equally good chicken. Without a beef rib each to eat I think we would have polished it off with room for more quite easily. But sadly we got well stuck into the beef and it was so good we couldn’t stop so we ended up leaving half the fried chicken languishing. And what I did eat of the chicken I ate out of a duty to try it, I certainly didn’t have any need to eat more! Should have asked for a doggy bag. (Or better yet – UK restaurants – start doing this as standard!). 

Joe’s Southern Kitchen first caught my eye when I noticed they had spinach and artichoke dip on their menu, something I haven’t seen on UK menus at all. This was my sole reason for putting it on my List. But in the interim, from following their twitter account, I began to want to try some of their other food as well. For ages they were known for their beer can chicken (another American standard) but lately they’ve got quite a following for their fried chicken (and even changed their Twitter handle to reflect this). And so it was the fried chicken that we tried.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. I got there at about 6:15 and I noticed that happy hour finished at 6:30 so I quickly ordered me and my friend a margarita for £4 each. Worth noting that cocktails are £8 otherwise for the classics which isn’t a bad price at all for central London.

I did indeed manage to get the artichoke dip to start and we also got the corn bread with paprika butter and green tomato chutney. They have a strong ‘snacks’ menu – even better than their starters menu I would say. Jalapeno poppers and popcorn shrimp also feature so it was hard to narrow it down. I was a little disappointed when the dip arrived. It was in a tiny bowl. Typical England, I thought, thinking about the vat it would probably have come in in the States. Oh Joe’s – you totally fooled us with this serving size – we had no idea of the portions to come! The dip was ok – very cheesy, but could have done with being a tad warmer to make it easier to scoop. A bit more seasoning wouldn’t have gone amiss. Also, it was supposed to be toasted bread but as you can see this has barely seen the inside of a toaster. Crunchy bread would have made for easier dipping. Pita chips might have worked nicely.

The cornbread, however, was fantastic. It was much cakier than cornbread I’ve had in the past and we smothered it with the paprika butter which melted into the warm bread. Just yummy. The tomato chutney was nice enough but I didn't think it was needed here.

Then came the mains, which we ordered with southern fried potatoes (or home fries). You can't go massively wrong with fried potatoes but I have to say they did get them massively right, having a really good crunch and seasoning. I’ve already said how defeated we were by the mains. The chicken was spot on – succulent, with a crunchy, well flavoured coating, though it didn't seem to come with the tabasco honey I'd heard so much of. Perhaps this was the hot sauce provided on the table anyway. The beef had a nice bite and a great taste. Can it compete with somewhere like Pitt Cue or Hot Box? It’s not quite there (few places are) but it is much more than just lip service to BBQ food. I would happily order the same again. It's just what you want out of this kind of restaurant - nothing fancy, just tasty, dependable food.

Unsurprisingly for this part of town, there seemed to be quite a lot of tourists. You could tell by the conversation that the two parties next to us were on holiday (there was talk of trains to catch and ‘treating themselves to dessert cos they’re only here once’) but unlike many other places in Tourist Hell (Covent Garden), Joe’s isn’t just phoning it in. I need to go back and work my way through the rest of their snacks and give the beer can chicken a try! Or I might just have to try their new outpost in Kentish Town. That area is ripe for exploration…

Hotbox, 4th January

I said on my Twitter that I died and went to ‘cue heaven when we went to Hotbox and I stand by that. It was everything I had expected and more. Expensive, sure – the beef rib will set you back 24 squids, but the quality is superb.

We were assured by our waiter that the Hotbox Smoked Selection was big enough to share between two, as long as we got at least a couple of sides as well, and so, wanting to try everything, that’s what we did. We also threw in an extra smoked chicken thigh so we’d have one each. I’m so glad we did as this was exceptional. So smoky and sweet, I would make sure I had this again.

In fact, I wouldn’t be able to choose what to have next time if not the selection again as it was all so good. The only thing I didn’t really like was the sausage which was a little coarse for me. We’d had it before at hawker House and Stephen liked it a lot. I know it is just my personal preference, not a reflection of the actual sausage’s quality.

The slice of beef rib was perfectly tender, and charred, good enough to eat on its own without any of the sauce that accompanied the plate. Same goes for the pork rib. Both were meltingly soft with a robust flavour. The pulled pork (collar I believe) was some of the finest I’ve ever eaten. Not dry at all, and again not really needing any sauce, although we did drizzle some over.

Beware – if you don’t like a bit of heat with your ‘cue then you might want to stay away. It was never overpowering but it was certainly there in almost everything, and the plate came with some extra jalapenos and onions as garnish.

For our sides we had the pickled jalapeno coleslaw (excellent) and the ham hock pinto beans. This seemed to be a mix of two beans – black and pinto, and the black beans were a little too firm for me. We eyed up other customers’ dishes and the sweet potato fries looked just right, as did the grilled elote (Mexican corn).

When we finished our main we were so disappointed. We wanted more! I would say that one person could order the selection and eat it all but they’d be stuff to the gills, whereas for two it makes for quite a light dinner. Getting a more stodgy side like fries would help. However, ignore all of that if you plan to have a dessert because they do not skimp on the size of these, and they are worth leaving a bit of room if you like sweet things.

I had to try the deep fried oreos whereas Stephen went with a less adventurous sticky toffee pudding. Deep fried oreos are, as you can guess, amazing. I don’t love normal oreos so much but when they’re warm and chewy like this they’re wonderful. I could probably do with a little less of the dough they are encased in, especially as you get four of them and they can become quite sickly. I gave one to Stephen. They come with a dark chocolate sauce and ice cream, which is a nice contrast of hot and cold. We chatted to one of the staff and he said they were considering swapping out the chocolate ice cream for a lighter flavour, which I think would be a great idea. A plain vanilla, or even the butterscotch ice cream that Stephen had with his pudding would work really well.

Stephen’s sticky toffee was a brick of a pudding (in size, not texture) and came with toffee sauce and the aforementioned butterscotch ice cream. We were so full after this! Full and happy.

I was quite surprised by the style of Hotbox – it’s dark and sleek and feels more like a bar than a restaurant. I expected something more Americana-themed. But the food is much more than befits a theme bar so the surroundings suit it. I can’t wait to go back - probably now my favourite BBQ joint in London. 

Ribstock, 27th September

I have wanted to go to a Ribstock for about three years now but things beyond my control, rather than inability to get a ticket have always got in the way. Not this year though. I was there, at noon, finger on the mouse, ready to get my ticket, and before 12:01 I was one of the lucky 200 to have nabbed one. They did things a bit differently this year – previously tickets are around £50 and that entitles one person to try all the competition ribs  and cast their vote for their favourite. Being a Tweat Up event, they normally throw in a free drink or two with that, and I think there’s normally about ten competitors.

This year, the ticket was a whopping £79!! BUT, it was a plus one ticket – so you could go on your own and eat ALL the ribs, or you could bring someone with you for ‘sharesies’. And believe me, doing ‘sharesies’ did not mean losing out. There were only three competitors who served up a single rib, and these were gargantuan examples of a rib. Otherwise you would get at least two ribs, or, where they were baby back (by Roti Chai) we actually had four! I was stuffed by the end of it, and we had to seriously slow down our eating after four servings to make sure we didn’t ruin our judgment by being too full to enjoy them.

On top of this each ticket got you a pint glass which entitled you to unlimited refills of Frontier lager. I’m not a beer drinker myself, but Stephen made ample use of this and got through five pints in the evening before we called it a night and headed off at 9:30. Had we stayed until the end he could easily have made that seven.

On top of this – yes, there’s more! We got a free old fashioned, and a free shot of tincup whiskey – lovely stuff – smooth and sweet. But wait, there’s more!! With each ticket you also got a free bottle of The Ribman’s Holy Fuck Bacon sauce, plus some pork scratchings.

But wait, there’s EVEN more!! Some of the stalls had other freebies they were giving away with the competition ribs. Roti Chai had an apple and cinnamon whiskey shot, Breddos had a pickleback (love them!) and Texas Joe gave away packets of his fruity, lip tingling, chewy jerky (seriously – it’s delicious). Yeah, I did the math and we got our money’s worth that day that’s for sure. (I literally did the calculating as we were going along and we easily ate and drank £80 worth.)

Roti Chai's baby backs with apple and cinnamon whiskey shot

So. The Ribs. There were seven traders taking part and I won’t go into detail on them all or this post will last as long as it took to eat them. For Stephen and I there was a definitive Top 3, and we were actually split between our two favourites, it was such a close call. We enjoyed all of the ribs but there was something we couldn’t quite define yet which we knew we were looking for when it came to choosing the best. It couldn’t be too much like any old slow-cooked meat. It had to have some BBQ char, flavour and texture to it. A bit of bite, a bit of its own unique taste, not relying simply on its sauce. For us, Smokestak and Hotbox ticked all these boxes. I slightly preferred Smokestak with the rib tips it came with and a very good hot coleslaw and pickled chillies.

Winning ribs from Smokestak

Stephen preferred Hotbox, which came with some delicious pickled onions and also chillies. In the end, I voted for Hotbox in the name of romance.

Our third choice were Breddos tacos, although the public chose otherwise, with Roti Chai coming in third. We both liked the Roti Chai ribs but we felt they were more about the sauce than the rib – a lovely satay-esque sauce with a good hit of chilli. I really loved the Breddos boys’ short rib offering though, topped with the best mole I’ve ever had. I had thought I was running out of room and yet I got that in my stomach without pausing for breath. What kept it from the top spot for us was that it seemed more like a slow cooked pot roast than a barbequed beef rib. Damn tasty though!

We began our feasting at 6 and it took us three and a half hours to get to the final rib, and I’m sad to say we were far too full to try any of the other porky offerings for sale as part of PorkLife which was running concurrently. The pork belly croquettes from Breddos looked delicious, and I think Stephen was sad he couldn’t fit in a Bleecker burger. But what an amazing event. I’m now in my semi-non-drinking month so apart from all the free shots, I didn’t buy any drinks, and Stephen had his beer refills so we didn’t spend any money the whole night. Tweat Up, I salute you (again).

Here are the rest of the competitors’ ribs:

The Ribman's with Holy Fuck 'slaw

Texas Joe's beast

Q Grill's sticky ribs

Smokestak's pig

Caboose, 11th April

Bloggers often lament that it is much easier to write a post about somewhere you loved, or somwhere you hated, but somewhere that's just middling is much more of a challenge.

And so it is with Caboose, a little shack in Dray Walk off Brick Lane serving up smoked meats either in buns or boxes.

They were already a little in my bad books; I've tried several times to get down there only to discover they're not open, and they aren't always great about keeping you informed on Twitter. Finally, I got there and the hatch was open. I took several minutes eyeing the short menu before deciding that, what the heck, I'd go for the Derailer - a combination of 10 hour pulled pork and 12 hour rib of beef, and gosh darn it, I'd have cheese on it as well.

The guy before me had a similar idea but was told they were all out of beef because they'd had an event earlier that day. I almost flounced off in a fit of pique, annoyed at being deprived even when they were finally there for once, but Mother Clucker had too long a queue and I didn't fancy Orange Buffalo again so I just settled for The Fat Controller – pork on its own. Actually, I did add the smoked cheese. I'm not normally a pork and cheese proponent but seeing them melt it with a blow torch decided me.

The sun was out and I hadn't yet eaten anything that day so I sat on the curb and had my breakfast. And yeah, I liked it. It was a touch too sweet for me – probably as a result of the pork being smoked over fruit wood chips, and being served in a sweet brioche bun, with quite a sweet BBQ sauce. It came with pickle but that was marooned in the very middle of the bun – I would have liked the vinegar tang with every bite. I craved some hot sauce on it. The cheese on it, however, was pretty good – I hadn't been sure I would like cheese with pork but I was converted.

It wasn't incredibly filling either, but then, it was only a fiver.

So yeah, I enjoyed it but it's not one of the big-hitters in the pulled meat and bun arena. Maybe the Derailer or the 3:10 to Yuma (beef on its own) would have set it apart from the crowd but I can only judge it on what I had. Pleasant enough. I'd go back if in the area (and if the Rib Man wasn't around), but I wouldn't make a trip for it all on its own.

Q Grill, 23rd March

Reviewing a place while it is in its soft launch might not be entirely fair. But I'm going to do it anyway. However, please do bear in mind that it WAS their first week and so I'm sure any little niggles will soon be resolved.

I hadn't intended on heading to Q Grill so soon after its opening but we happened to be in the area (after seeing the Scene and Heard plays) so it seemed silly not to take advantage of the 50% discount!

Stephen and I did our usual of ordering a couple of things to share. The menu isn't exactly extensive but each of the seven or so choices under each section sound so good that it took a while for us to settle on something.

Eventually the wild garlic sauce on the southern fried chicken dish called to us and of course, choosing to have short rib wasn't a hard decision to make. I knew I wanted beans, and we thought a good measure of a place is its fries so we had some of those as well.

The chicken arrived and I was a little disappointed. Instead of maybe a thigh and a breast a la KFC, what arrived was basically a chicken escalope which had been cut into slices. It really wasn't the most appealing presentation I had ever seen. And no sign of the sauce which had prompted us to order it!

The short rib on the other hand looked delicious and easily fell apart as we portioned it out. It came with a sweet potato (we think) puree and two strands of cime de rapa which were like a cross between brocolli and celery. In layman's terms it turns out they're turnip tops and they were a nice bit of veg. The short rib was beautiful and full of meaty, savoury flavour. I didn't even bother adding any BBQ sauce to it.

We called our waiter over to ask about the lack of sauce with the chicken. He took a look at the menu and agreed it ought to come with some and said he'd go back to the kitchen to ask. In the meantime I decided to give Stephen his share of the chicken and as I moved a strip I saw that the sauce was underneath it all! This seems a bit odd to me as it's such a pretty vibrant green, why hide it? I felt a bit silly and tried to call the waiter back. However when he reappeared it was with a whole pot of the stuff. Must admit, it was wonderful so I was rather glad we'd wangled more of it without meaning to. The chicken was fine – nicely breaded and not greasy at all, though a little pedestrian. I wouldn't order this again, though I might ask for the wild garlic sauce as extra to whatever I did have!

Peekaboo! Hiding sauce

So, it was pretty evident that our waiter was new to the waiting game and the whole place hadn't quite found its feet yet. He checked and double checked our order, and obviously had yet to completely get to grips as proved by not knowing that the sauce was served underneath the chicken. We did notice a little confusion over where orders were going, but like I say, the soft launch is all about figuring this stuff out so they deserve the benefit of the doubt. 

I thought the beans were perfect - a good texture and a nice BBQ taste, and the chips were crunchy and came with a smattering of chip spice on them, which was slightly sweet and very moreish. The only point of complaint I would have about the food is that most of the dishes could have been warmer in our opinion. The chips especially. The prices are average for this kind of food, though we thought the chicken, at 13.50, was a little expensive for what it was. Overall I think they're onto something good here - the josper ribs we saw as we left looked fantastic.

And the restaurant itself is a good-looking place, classy but with the woody feel you expect of a BBQ place. It actually feels like a mid-level New York steak restaurant. And it's huge! I loved that they've really thought about the space you need if you're eating at the bar, not a table. And I got a kick out of my swivel chair. 

A while ago I went to Porky's and wasn't too impressed but said they'd probably do alright as there was no competition in the area. Well, now there is, and Porky's ought to be worried.

Find the menu & restaurant information on Zomato

Smoke n Roll at The Black Heart, 21st February

Smoke n Roll have quite the prosaic name for themselves. They smoke meats, and then they serve them in a roll! And right now they're doing it at The Black Heart in Camden, where we went to check them out last week. 

There are a lot of places doing BBQ right now, but for me, as long as it's good, my appetite does but wax for smoked meats, ribs and sticky wings. 

First - the rolls. You can either get pork or beef, and I expected something similar to what we had at The Joint - buns of pulled pork and shredded brisket. Not so. The meat here is bucking the trend by coming in thick slices, rather than shreds. And it was nice to have something a bit different for a change. The pork had a really good, smoky taste to it, although my first bite was mostly gristle, so not a great start. However, I got over that and enjoyed this sandwich a lot. 

I was especially pleased that the brisket came in slices as that's my preferred method of serving. I remember being disappointed when I first went to Pitt Cue's trailer and instead of slices of melting, smokey brisket, a la Fette Sau in Brooklyn, I had a carton of the pulled stuff. Here they've done a pretty good job, and the pickles with it were welcome, but I have to say that if you want slices of smoked brisket, then Texas Joe's pulled this off better (though I wasn't a fan of the rest of their menu).

There was a big group of us, and the menu is short so we ended up ordering everything on there and sharing it out between us. We had one portion of ribs, and enough wings for everyone to have two. The ribs were pretty bad. They were tough and chewy and this was so overwhelming I can't even remember the taste. It seemed so pointless to have them on the menu if they weren't going to cook them until they fell off the bone. 

Everything, twice 

Chicken wings had a great tangy flavour (I dipped my chips in their sauce instead of the BBQ sauce we were given) but by the time I got round to having mine, they were pretty cold. So I imagine they'd be even nicer piping hot. However, I do wish they'd been separated into their separate halves instead of being served whole and having to be cut apart (I'm squeamish about pulling bones apart).

The grande surprise was the fact that we all loved the sides so much. I mean, who really cares that much about sides normally? Well - these guys. Their baked beans (with carrot!) were some of the nicest I've had, if not the nicest - just the kind of texture I like in a bean, not too 'al dente'. The carrots? Yeah, they worked.

And the coleslaw was really, really good. It's a light touch coleslaw, not the claggy mess many a place gives you. It had a distinct taste to it I couldn't quite put my finger on. Kimchee? It reminded me of the crunchy salad that rainbo do. 

And the chips... actually I didn't love the chips but the others seemed to like their fuzzily-seasoned coating. They did go rather well with the cheesy dip we were given.

Smoke n Roll are making a decent stab at joining the BBQ scene and have managed to do some things differently enough to make them stand out from the crowd, but just don't quite have the wow factor that would entice me back. 

This was all in the setting of the rowdy, rockin' Black Heart which was, unexpectedly, pretty busy on a Friday night. This place is rock kitsch, with weird Mexicanesque shrines everywhere, and rock music playing loudly. They do gigs upstairs. The Smoke and Roll dude food totally suited the place. Unfortunately, we probably would have had to be doing tequila slammers in there to have the motivation and enthusiasm needed to compete with the music in order to have a conversation, so after our food we scarpered to the more refined Craft Beer Co round the corner. Still, I liked the chutzpah of the place, and can imagine if I was 'on one' this would be a fun place to return to.

Beard to Tail, 8th October

To post or not to post? That was the question. As you can see I have gone with the former, and sincerely hope this is not bad blogger etiquette. You see, at the end of the meal I noticed that every table but ours had a little folded card on it. Thinking it might contain some specials we’d missed out on, I got my friend to grab one from the next table. It turned out it was a note, telling diners that their meal would be discounted by 50% but with a plea to customers not to blog or tweet about the place while it was still finding its feet. They suggested people come back again once everything had been got down pat. And it wasn’t that our table hadn’t had one of these cards, it was just that my other friend had moved it out of the way to another table before I’d seen it. 

I had from the outset intended to blog about the place. Now what was I to do? Succumb to their imploration, or proceed? What was the right thing to do? The fair thing? Something about their note seemed a little off – they know people rely on word of mouth, twitter and blogs these days, and they were trying to circumvent the system. I was sure they wouldn’t mind if people blogged about it if they enjoyed it, but it rather seemed like they didn’t have much faith in themselves if they were asking for no reviews. Unfortunately, having already eaten by the time I saw this, I knew their lack of faith was understandable – the meal was not a huge success. Surely people have a right to know, and not just hear only positive reviews?

But then again, maybe they did have the right to iron out the kinks before inviting criticism. Maybe it wouldn’t be right to ‘badmouth’ the place and put off other people who would, by going, otherwise allow Beard to Tail to get things right in the end. After all, they were offering a 50% discount to diners to compensate them for being guinea pigs. Or... Could it be seen as a bribe not to say anything bad about the place? We, as it happens, were getting the meal completely free because my boyfriend had won their facebook competition to name a pig. There was a bit of a gap between us winning and them opening and they did need a gentle reminder as to what the prize was - a meal for four (not two as they'd though) and a welcome drink.

Anyway, what has decided me to post was the fact that they’ve had two practice runs in the form of their pop-up in the summer and a couple of weeks ago, and by all accounts they were successful. I knew it was their first night and wouldn’t have been surprised if there were few upsets as they get to grips with things. But I thought these were more likely to be with staff not knowing the systems or the menu yet, or the speed of food being brought to the table being slow as they struggled to cope with demand. I did not expect the food to be the letdown, again, because they had cooked many of these things at their pop-up. The rump pumpy especially seemed to be a hit both times.

So, let me get down to the review proper. 

Sadly I think these doors have been replaced with real ones

We were rather amused by the outside. Apparently the doors haven’t yet turned up, nor the windows, but they have opened regardless. I hesitated only a moment, before we pushed open the doors which told us to “Come on through!”. This slightly unfinished look carried on throughout the restaurant, though the bits that were done, like the 2 pence wall, were impressive. The smell of paint was quite prevalent, and the bathroom still had a touch of debris, with builder’s marks on the unfinished walls, but to be honest, we cared not a jot about all that. We knew it was the first night and that they’d said things were a little ‘work in progress’. We only cared about the food. 

I was surprised that the place wasn’t full – the pop-ups seemed to have been so popular. But it was a rainy Monday so maybe that had put people off. Or maybe because their second pop-up was so recent, the novelty had already worn off a bit. The staff were very friendly, joking about the pig we’d named and why it wasn’t running around the restaurant. Our waiter was attentive, and came along at appropriate intervals to check if we needed anything else. He didn’t seem to know what the deal was with our free meal – he thought we were getting 50% off but when we told him what we’d been told, he excused himself to quickly confirm this. No harm, no foul. Then I read that card at the end of the evening saying all diners were privileged to 50% off their food bill, and realised he hadn’t been offering us what he thought was our prize at all, just what everyone else was being given!

For starters, I had the steak tartar (my first ever, above), Stephen and Luke shared the ribs and stuffed pig’s trotter between them. Katherine had the mussels with bacon. The ribs were very tasty. They weren’t the kind of ribs you’d expect in a ‘downhome’ BBQ joint, they were ribs ‘restaurant style’ - less messy and with the extra BBQ sauce coming in a little jug on the side. This I thought was terrific, although Katherine wasn’t a fan. On the downside, the ribs were sort of lukewarm, they could definitely have done with being hotter when brought to the table. The same, unfortunately, was said about the trotter, and they weren't overwhelmed by the taste. My friend said her mussels were good, but the bacon was all lumped in her first few mussels – misleading her into thinking they were all so generously sprinkled. And she wished there was some bread to soak up the rest of the lovely sauce. I liked my steak tartar which came with some cornichons and a little quail’s egg on top. It was very gherkiny, could maybe have done with a bit more seasoning (I applied more salt and pepper) but I was happy with it. Not that I have a frame of reference, but steak tartar hadn’t previously been high on my agenda to order, yet on the basis of this one, I would try others. I think that’s not too shabby at all. 

For mains, Stephen and I ordered the rumpy pumpy to share,

Luke got the pulled beef featherblade, and Katherine got ribs. 

Luke seemed to like his featherblade and it did look delicious*, I wish I'd tried it. The rumpy pumpy - the star of the show during Beard to Tail’s pop-ups - was a bit of a let down. It was massive, which was definitely impressive – we had no problems sharing it with our other two companions and still finding it difficult to finish. The texture was fine, just fine, though we think it would have benefitted with a little longer at a lower temperature in order to render the fat down more, make it a little more tender, and the crackling a little crunchier. It is apparently marinated in some herbs and such before being cooked, and these flavours did come through. But then you would be overwhelmed by the saltiness. It must be said you did not simply get a mass of pork on a plate. It came with apple sauce in a little pot and a jus in a little jug. When you added this to the pork, it cut through the saltiness quite successfully and it was all a pleasing combination. But you really did NEED those extras, it would have been a chore to eat the meat without them, and for this reason I think they could have been a little more generous with these accompaniments. We also ordered some chips and a side of bubble and squeak. Both well executed, my only complaint being that they were quite dear for the portion size. That little disc of bubble and squeak was supposed to be £4.50! It was barely five mouthfuls.

This makes it look bigger than it was

One more minor gripe – we were allowed a welcome drink with our free meal. We enquired as to the restrictions and were told it could be anything. We all, of course, ordered cocktails. Mine was delicious - the Derby Pie - and my favourite of the evening (we’d been to Callooh Callay and 98 Bar and Lounge beforehand), which was no surprise really as the people who own Beard to Tail are also behind Callooh Callay. Stephen and I then ordered another drink during dinner – a beer and a wine. When our bill came, they charged us for two cocktails. Clearly, they had given us for free the cheaper drinks.

So yes, the place didn’t leave me wanting to gush about it, the whole experience as prize winners wasn’t quite what it could have been, what with the waiter not knowing that we were getting a free meal in the first place, and then charging us for the more expensive drinks niggled, especially as they didn’t mention they would do that at any point.

Desserts looked good, but we were so full from our mains and starters that we decided not to go for them, and based on the previous I wasn’t convinced they would blow me away either.

I was disappointed, but they are, as they say, in their infancy – there is plenty of time for them to improve things. I appreciated that they had evaluation forms to fill in at the end of the night. We tried to be honest, and reasonable. Hopefully they will take some of the comments into consideration.

I feel I should go back in a month or two to see if things have changed. The problem is, on the basis of last week’s performance, do I want to? I suppose it would be a shame never to give their desserts a shot, and the brunch menu looks like it has potential...

And what do you think? Was I right to ‘publish and be damned’ or should I have respected their requests?

*I have been informed, just yesterday, that Luke did not think his featherblade was delicious - he thought it tasted like the inside of a pasty. Oh dear.