It’s Good Friday and we’re a bit at a loose end, so we
decide to catch the train and head to the White Hart in
Chipstead. It’s a 10 minute train
journey to the station from Purley, but another 20 minute walk uphill to the
pub – so you feel you’ve earned your lunch.
I reviewed
this place two Easters ago, when I railed against unruly kids. This time the
two kids there are very well- behaved, the little puppy being more of a handful
– but even that is pretty good, just lively.
We had booked, and although it was quite busy it probably wasn’t
entirely necessary. We have a table in the bar area – which we prefer – as the
restaurant was already pretty full. We
start by ordering a bottle of Rare Vineyards Marsanne Vigonier (£19), and
settle down to choose our food.
There’s a pretty fair selection of pub staples with some
more interesting dishes, like venison rump – but as we’d seen a deer near the
path on the way up from the station, that option seemed a bit indelicate! We decide to have the cheese stuffed peppers
as an appetiser – they are somewhat spicy and come in a vinegar which detracts
from the wine. For starter, B has the scallops, which come with a thin sliver of crackling and sesame seeds. The scallops are very lightly cooked, so are very rich. My duck spring roll comes with a gooey plum and a salad enlivened by star anise. It’s good, though perhaps not quite as meaty as the one at Ping Pong the other day.
B has the sea bass fillet main course, with a tomato and
rocket salad on the side. The fish is good, with nice crispy skin. The fish is
supplemented by beetroot which colours everything around it, and a rather nice
crisp fennel salad. The rocket in the
salad is wilted, and the dressing very vinegary – well I think so, B quite
likes it.
I choose the salt beef hash of the “light bites” section, so
decide to supplement it with chips. In fact, the hash has loads of potatoes in
it already, and I end up with a carbs surfeit.
Tasty enough though.
Service has been fine – no
problems, nothing stand out. We’ve had a second bottle of wine, and as there is
time to kill before the train back, opt for a couple of glasses of Nieto Malbec
too. That brings us up to £107 – with
optional service to add.
On Saturday we have tickets for a comedy night at the Union Chapel, Islington, doors
opening at 6.30pm. So we need somewhere for a late lunch/early dinner in Upper
Street. I’ve done some research but not
decided on anywhere specific, so when we emerge from the tube, we walk down to
see what’s what.
We head on down initially towards Ottolenghi. They don’t take
bookings until the evening session, so we know we will be lucky to get in. And
indeed there is a big queue, which we’re not interested in joining. Just a few doors along is a French bistro – La Petite Auberge – whose menu
looks interesting and reasonable, so we plump for that.
There’s a lovely warm atmosphere inside, and lots of classic
French style – wooden beams, art deco travel posters for Cannes and Nice, Piaf
on the soundtrack. It’s just this side of clichéd. The place is something of a
rabbit warren, with several tables on the ground floor, more on a mezzanine
level, some lower down – used for staff meals mainly- and a separate section
for their speciality crepes.
It’s pretty busy, but we’re offered a nice table (for four –
“all for yourselves”) fairly close to the front. There’s a table of Arsenal supporters
celebrating a win over Liverpool – but in a restrained Islington sort of
way. There’s also a birthday party group
upstairs – the slowest and dullest rendition of “Happy Birthday” I’ve ever
heard!
The charming chunky French waiter (down girls!) takes our
order – a bottle of Viognier from Pays D’Oc (£21.50), and sparkling water
initially. The menu is a startling range
of all the classic bistro dishes you can recall – even down to the frog’s legs.
There’s a special lunch menu at £8.95 for 2 courses, £10.95 for 3 (but with an
extra £1 at weekends), which has plenty of dishes worth trying.
But we go a la carte.
B has the salade de volailles – chicken livers and bacon; the salad is
secondary and the sauce delicious, a definite success. My “crevettes a l’ail” are in fact king
prawns with more of a chilli hit than a garlic one, but again very good.Which is all the more confusing because B’s main course “gambas” are virtually identical, just more of them served with rice. Still very good though. My main course is the most expensive on the menu: filet mignon – char-grilled beef medallion on grilled smoked pork belly in a brandy and shallot sauce, served with potato gratin – all of £16.95! Served medium rare as ordered, this is a lovely classic dish.
As crepes seem to be their speciality – and most other
tables have been ordering them – we go for a crepe suzettes to share. Good large crepe, excellent orange, lovely
vanilla pod ice cream – but it could have done with some flamed brandy, making
the crepe a little crispier.
Service throughout has been
good. The second bottle of wine has taken the total up to £103 – with just a
10% service charge (where else does that these days?). I know there are loads of restaurants in
Islington but you’d be hard pushed to find better value for money than this.
Easter Monday is sunny, so we head off to Epsom Downs, and
after a short walk, back to a regular haunt, the Derby Arms. It’s normally a reliable place, but the last
time we were there they had an off day, so we’re not sure what to expect this
time. We had booked, but surprisingly it was fairly quiet, much less than a
usual Sunday.
We order the Rothschild Viognier (£22) from one waitress,
then after a little pause a second one brings us a Cabernet Sauvignon. Sent away, she returns a little later with a
Shiraz Viognier – getting closer! Third
time lucky we get our wine – by which time the starters had arrived. She has to go back a final time to get the ice
bucket too.
After this dodgy start, things began to improve. B has the
crab and crayfish pot, served in an attractive little kilner jar accompanied by
two crisp pieces of lightly toasted soda bread. It’s perhaps a little too cold
to begin with, but the flavours do come through and it is very enjoyable. My
starter of black pudding cake with poach egg and hollandaise is also good –
there’s enough black pudding in amongst the potato, and the hollandaise is good
and sharp; the egg wasn’t runny unfortunately as having it soak into the potato
cake would have been excellent.
For main course I order the roasted sea trout, but the
waitress’s little pad device tells her straight away that there’s none left. So
good intentions defeated I fall back on beef and ale pie and chips! It comes in a metal pie dish with puff pastry
topping, which really should have been crispier. Inside it’s full of air, and
at first I struggle to find any beef.
But as I press on I do find several tasty chunks – it’s just that the
dish was larger than it needed to be. The chips are OK – no more than that – more like
fries; and the accompanying carrots al dente.
B chose the pork belly with scallops, because their usual
special scallops starter came with an unattractive sounding parsnip puree. The pork belly is a large, tender piece of
meat with good crackling and accompanied by a lake of sauce. The scallops are
juicy, but rather dominated by the sauce. I know scallops and pork is a popular
combination, but usually the ratio of ingredients is the other way around –
this doesn’t quite work as well.
The restaurant end of the pub has a nice atmosphere, with photos
of horses on the Downs for sale. There are a lot of people out enjoying the sun
in the garden, but this means the back door is open and we get a very chilly
draught through most of the meal. A
second bottle of Viognier takes our bill to £89, with service left open.
Despite my quibbles I thought that was reasonable for a filling and enjoyable
meal. 
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