Maple Road tapas

Surbiton Farmers' Market re-opened last Saturday, so we went along to check it out. It was fairly busy even at 12, with a new one-way system to help with distancing. We found some interesting stalls, notably one selling game - the Madras wild boar sausages were amazing. Also good were steak and kidney pies from another stall, and the chorizo bread from The French Tarte. 

Right by the exit is Gordon Bennett!, which is open lunchtime at the weekend only, so we took the opportunity to call in.  The waiter recognised my name (from the Track and Trace) as Welsh - he was from Dolgellau - and persuaded us to have a bottle rather than two glasses.  They do a Brunch menu up till 1pm, but then change the menu to a tapas-based one. It looked very interesting so we resolved to come back the following week.

This we duly did. The place was nearly empty, so not having booked wasn't an issue. If this was a typical Saturday crowd, the it's not surprising they don't open for lunch during the week. We were greeted by a very jovial chap, who brought the bottle of Slovenian sauvignon blanc (£22.75) quickly enough. Turned out that he was Nepalese. They recommended 2/3 dishes per person, so we chose 5 altogether, 3 fish and meat.  Our waiter tried to upsell us some fries, but when we resisted persuaded us to have some padron peppers. They are clearly trained in upselling! 

My compatriot brought the food, attractively presented in a variety of dishes - rounded triangle plates, hot-plate, tin bowls and a small kilner jar.  The soft-shell crab with Asian slaw was good, with enough crab flavour breaking through the batter. Prawns (5) wrapped in filo pastry I thought should have had a chilli dipping sauce, but B enjoyed them. The crayfish and avocado escabeche - in the kilner jar - was excellent. On the meat front we had steak bulgogi - slices of steak in a sweet sauce - which was much better than it sounded; and duck croquettes (also 5)with a plum sauce, which were very meaty indeed. Only one of the peppers, out of a large collection, proved to be at all spicy.  

We cleared all the plates, and resisted the waiter's attempt to sell us dessert. The one we fancied was "off" anyway. So we just settled for a second bottle. 

The tables and chairs were an assortment of old wooden furniture, giving the place a rather dark pubby feel - the menu seems a bit surprising for such a place. The only negative point was the background music, which was both a little too loud and an odd mix of poor covers and ambient jazz. 

The bill came to £83. We were pleasantly full, and had enjoyed everything, so that was pretty good value. Clearly going to become a regular weekend haunt, though Surbiton is coming up trumps with its interesting range of options.