PubChef's round-up of what the critics have penned about pub food
The Only Running Footman,
Mayfair, London
0207 499 2988
www.themeredithgroup.co.uk
Marina O'Loughlin, Metro, 19 September 07
The top floor will be used as a cookery school and chef's kitchen, which might sound a touch hubristic until you realise that in-house chef Jeremy Hollingsworth has been twinkled by Michelin during his stint at Quo Vadis. Though Hollingsworth may have turned his back on such stellar intentions (his menus are admirably straightforward), he's no slouch. The menu offers an inviting mix of robustness and sophistication: mixed grill with everything from Woburn Estate bacon to Elwy Valley lamb kidneys on the one hand, and scallop-and-crab sausage with spinach and Champagne sauce on the other. Tagliatelle in a rich dish of langoustines with sauce cardinal (a lobstery béchamel) and nut-brown butter - aka beurre noisette - was splendid and toothsome...
The Rosendale,
West Dulwich, London
0208 670 0812
www.therosendale.co.uk
John Walsh, The Independent, 1 September 07
Things improved with the arrival of (home-made) sausage-bread and butter (ditto, with a touch of caramel) and the wine list. Van der Goot is a former Mayfair sommelier, whose list is awesomely global and inclusive - there are no fewer than 20 wines by the glass. Two of my lady companions shared the £25 lobster - chargrilled, but not to excess - while the other's home-made ricotta and tomato ravioli was light and delicate, beefed up with aubergine purée and Parmesan. I had the "citrus-rubbed" swordfish with grilled squid and home-pickled ginger - a wild success...
