Another riverside pub

 We are meeting D who lives over in East Molesley, so we agree to go to the Albany, roughly half-way between us, about a half-hour walk. The pub is right on the river, with plenty of outdoor seating, overlooking Hampton Court's back garden. The sun is shining, there are swans and even a great-crested grebe swimming around, as well as a succession of passing boats, kayaks, paddle-boarders and a punt from the Ditton Skiff and Punting club next door. Idyllic.   

We're shown to a table right by the river and, as the waitress clears it, order some Craggy Range SB from Marlborough - fuller flavour than many.  D arrives and we set to ordering our food, though B once again is unlucky in that her choice of steak salad is not available. This despite several other items already having been "redacted". 

D has mushroom on a sourdough crumpet to start. Oyster mushrooms and ordinary ones.  B has scallops - three large ones plus a prawn and crabmeat ball ("bonbon") - excellent. My sticky chipotle chicken is good too, really quite spicy.  

The crab and prawn fishcakes that D has are good too (much better than ones I had recently at Hart's Boatyard - the two menus are very similar) and come, after some debate about a side salad, with skinny fries, some of which get shared with the swans. B opted in the end for pork belly (without the optional scallops), which looks a bit heavy but she enjoys. She doesn't eat the mash though.  I have another spicy dish - prawn and crab linguine (clearly there's no shortage of prawns or crab) with plenty of chilli. Quite a zing and more pasta than I can eat.  

B's quite keen for us to share a "pornstar martini Eton mess", but is unlucky again, as that's "off" too. Nothing much else appeals, so we just move on to our third bottle of wine. 

Our waitress has been cheerful and efficient throughout. With the £30 government discount, the total comes to £134 - we leave a £15 tip.  It's not been haute cuisine, but very enjoyable in a lovely setting. A bit too much of a walk to become a regular perhaps, but certainly we'd be happy to go again. 

First Indian in months

 We finally decide to venture out in the evening for our first Indian meal in ages, to one of 4 on Brighton Road, Surbiton. We chose the Red Rose as it looked the smartest.  We're given a table in the window, suitably distant from others - there are three or four other tables occupied.  The decor is what we have to regard as Surbiton standard - pale grey, LEDs spots - with a few Indian images added.  Some light jazz background music. 

Service is very prompt, as we order a bottle of Shiraz and some pappadums. The pappadums come with chutneys including some pink coconut flakes and a very interesting pale green one. Unusually for us at an Indian we decide to order starters - B chooses the starter chicken tikka and have the Goan chilli king prawn. The tikka is quite moist, though benefits from having some of the chutney with it. The three butterflied prawns come with Goan chillies - large, with seeds still in, but not too punchy if you avoid the seeds -a a nice buttery garlic sauce. 

For mains we have ordered tamarind chicken, king prawn lahori, pilau rice, mushrooms bhaji, and bhindi bhaji. These arrive quite quickly too, though to be fair the waiter did ask whether we were ready for them. The chicken tikka comes with a garlic and chilli sauce (Madras hot) as well the sweet/sour tamarind - very good. The prawns are stir-fried with ginger, garlic and peppers - a good sized portion in a  very rich sauce. Mushrooms are sliced with a little garlic, and the bhindi in wedges; pilau rice was less interesting, just some cumin seeds. 

We finish our meal in just an hour, so order a couple more glasses of wine. We ask to take away the remaining couple of pieces of chicken and the vegetables, which they duly organise. The bill is £83 with the gratuity left open to be added on the machine. When the bill is finally printed I see I have managed to leave a 10p tip!  So sheepishly I leave a tenner as well!  

It's been a very enjoyable meal, and certainly worth another visit, though there are the others to try as well. There's also a Nepalese in a pub in the other direction, so we have plenty yet to explore.

Italian in central Surbiton

 We're beginning to explore the restaurant scene in Surbiton and, having spotted an attractive looking place - The Italian Taste - on the main street, decided to book in for lunch.  We get there spot-on 1.30pm and it's pretty much full.  We are given a table near the front window (not directly by it), and menus.  It's nice having a chatty, charming waitress - except that she's being chatty and charming at another table, and it takes ages to flag someone else down to take our drinks order!

House wine is just £17, but we push the boat out with an Orvieto at £24, plus some sparking water - well it is another very hot day. The menu has a good range of interesting starters, pasta dishes priced as starters or mains, plus some classic dishes. We dithered over our choice and had nearly decided when the waitress came over with a Specials board to make things more difficult.  

We share starters - tiger prawns (3) in a garlic and chilli sauce, and a pizza sized garlic bread with mozzarella - covered in raw garlic. Both very good.  For mains, B went with the Dover sole off the specials board, at £31 the most expensive thing available. This came in a very rich butter and onion sauce and was absolutely lovely - "heavenly" she said.  I had thought about the sea bass fillets but as B was having fish, went for the saltimbocca a la Romana instead.  This was rich with a strong sauce, a total contrast from B's.  Good but perhaps not so special.  Both dishes came with half-roast potatoes, broccoli, carrots and beans, but we also ordered a rocket and parmesan salad, as that was more suited to the weather.

The place had almost emptied out by 2.15pm, so the background music was more noticeable - Frank, Dean and Bing singing the classics as slowly as they could. We did eventually get the chatty waitress - the other one had been friendly and welcoming too. 

We had a second bottle of Orvieto - and of water. And some complimentary limoncello.  It being a Wednesday we get the £10 a head reduction from Rishi; service is just 10%, though quite reasonably charged on the total before the discount.  That made the total up to £115, very good value indeed; and could have managed to spend a lot less. Definitely worth another visit.  

Riverside pub in Thames Ditton

It's forecast to be a nice day, so we book a table at Ye Olde Swan, a Greene king pub in Thames Ditton.  It's a bit of a walk - 20 to 25 mins - so we don't want to be turned away when we get there.  With loads of seating outside, distancing is not a problem, and we get to choose where to sit. We go for a table overlooking the river, right by the little (private) bridge across to the island.  

It's pretty idyllic, with the views to the island, the Canada geese, ducks, swans (and cygnet), and eventually a heron - though the geese see him off. Plenty of boats pootling up and down the channel (the main stream of the river is visible beyond), some deciding to moor up for lunch. 

We have the squid to start - curly-whirly bits with a chilli dipping sauce, quite spicy, cooked well.  For mains, B ordered the seabass fillet and scallops risotto - but it's "off". That means there aren't seabass fillets for the Caesar salad either, so she has the chicken Caesar  The chicken doesn't look that great but isn't as dry as it appears. Good sauce and nice anchovies.  I have the steak and ale pie with chips. This is a proper pastry pie, with a rich and tasty sauce. Sadly, though, you have to fish hard to find any actual meat.  Chips are good and hot. 

We have a couple of bottles of Chilean Sauvignon Blanc.  Total bill just £72.  So, pretty average pub food, but a splendid setting on a lovely day.   As we leave we see there is a whole strip of tables down at water-level, ideal for boaters.