The Queen’s
Arms is a fab little pub in the centre of Walthamstow village. It’s got a
lovely secluded beer garden with vines, trellis, strings of outdoor lights and
even a mural. It’s full of yummy mummies and their Cockapoos brunching at the
weekends, and groups of hipsters drinking locally brewed real ales during the evenings.
It’s probably the sort of place regulars of the “propa booza” would curse
as the collapse of the true East End, but hey, they do good food and it’s not
too pretentious… well, only a little.
Dad is over paying us a visit while he does some finance stuff in the city so very kindly
offered to treat us to a pie and mash plate of devilled kidneys and
seabass with samphire.
Kate paid us
a visit with her friend’s little Australian Cattle dog - Chihuahua cross who she
was petsitting (I’d not heard of the breed either). Her name is Ellie. Normally I'm not keen on little dogs because they're a bit yappy and I'm afraid I'll squash them or tread on them, but she was very sweet. She sat and behaved very well while we perused our menus.
So now, the food. A zingy Asian pork salad
with beansprouts, grated carrot and coriander. Hot devilled kidneys on toast in
a peppery reduction. Scotch quails egg with black pudding and fiery mustard. Oozing and charred chorizo pieces in spitting red oil.
My main was one of the best steaks I’ve
ever had. 32 day aged Galloway ribeye. Honestly, it was pink, succulent, cut
like butter and really juicy. But the best bit was the dressing. I couldn’t
work out what was in it though. Some sort of herb, maybe chervil, but I’ll have
to go back to either taste it again or ask the waiter. (I’d had a few glasses
of wine by this point so my senses were perhaps a little dulled). Served with
watercress and fat pub chips, it was so simple but that dressing took it up a
notch.
Tomasz had seabass with a lemon butter sauce, wild mushrooms and samphire. For Kate and Dad, slices of soft pink lamb on a bed of big beans and a pesto sauce. Mine was the best by far. Ellie didn’t get a look in so I had to give her lots of cuddles to make up for it.
We decided to have dessert. Normally I don’t
have pudding, it must have been the wine. We did it for the photos, of course
but I was very full. Kate had a thick slice of chocolate mousse with honey comb
bricks on top and salted caramel ice cream. This was incredibly rich, and the
base wasn’t as crunchy as it should have been. Mine was a vanilla panacotta
with strawberries, balsamic vinegar and a pistachio biscotti. The panacotta was
a little jelly like for me. I think a touch too much gelatine was used and it
lost some of the creamy texture it should have had. They did look rather
beautiful, but not as good as the starters and mains.
We took a very sleepy pup back home to have a rest before
she was whisked away for her last night at Hotel Regent (Kate’s place). She
didn’t look too happy wrapped in tartan, I think she actually preferred our
bed!
Check out the pub website here. We went on Wednesday and didn't book. Last orders are 10pm.
0 comments:
Post a Comment