Interesting spot in Wimbledon Village

We’re over in Wimbledon, so we go up to Wimbledon Village to cruise round and have a relaxing lunch. We looked at a new place called the Lawn (geddit?), but instead decide on the Butcher and Grill.  This has an attractive meat counter at the front, with sundries such as gravy on sale too.  Disturbingly for a Friday lunchtime, there is no-one else in the place, but that doesn’t stop the waitress asking whether we’d booked! So we get the choice of seats, settling in a large booth for 6.  Despite the lack of people, there’s quite a nice atmosphere in here – lots of light from the atrium, cheery staff, and good blues and rock discreetly on the sound system.

The menu as you’d expect is one mainly for carnivores, and the specials list offers large porterhouse steaks and spare ribs for sharing – some even up to 1 kilo!  To start I have a very tasty coarse pork pate, which comes attractively served on a wooden platter, accompanied by gherkins, caramel onions and rocket.  B has the crispy pork belly, which surprisingly is crispy because of its batter, not its crackling and accompanied by a scallop.  Very enjoyable too.

Main courses  are veal escalope for me and grilled bream for B. These are less successful. My veal is rather chewy, so I only manage 2 of the 3 slices. The accompanying chips are really wedges with the skin on, served in a chipped (!) terracotta flowerpot, and on the stodgy side.  B’s fish looks impressive served whole but is difficult to manage and a bit overcooked.  Wine as £15.50, so the bill comes to £90, which feels a little steep given the experience, but I feel we were maybe a bit unlucky and would be prepared to give oit another try for full-blooded steaks.