Calling time on pretentious gastropubs

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Posted at 10:11AM, 24 June 2008 by Jenni Muir - Food writer

Superior food in a pub environment - what's not to like about gastropubs? Plenty it turns out, when you're visiting several each week. I'm judging a gastropub competition at the moment and visiting lots of them undercover.

So many these days are really restaurants, with all the palaver of having to book a table. Who isn't put off by being told they can only come at 6.30 or 9pm? Or that they can only have the table for a limited time slot? Surely that's not what gastropubs are meant to be about.

You know you're in for a pretentious time when you are greeted at the door by staff in long aprons who say things like, 'Are you joining us for dinner tonight?'

You know you're in for a pretentious time when you're greeted at the door by staff in long aprons who say things like, 'Are you joining us for dinner tonight?' Yet so many gastropub chefs seem to think the pub licence gives them licence for slow service and inconsistent cooking. And us customers don't complain, do we? Because we're in a pub. In the back of our minds we're thinking, 'Well, it's not as though it's a restaurant'. Yet the bill often shows that we are indeed paying restaurant prices.

So many poncey gastropubs seem to keep their bar begrudgingly too. It's fabulous that there are better wine lists in pubs these days, for sure. But one place I was at recently seemed to think wine was all that mattered; they had just one real ale and no interesting bottled beers or cider. To cap it all off, they dedicated every chair and table to diners. Who wouldn't feel awkward ordering a drink at the bar in that environment?

But the worst crime? Bad chips. It sounds silly, but I've found it to be true. You can't call yourself a gastropub and compromise in the chip department.

One place we visited was streets ahead of the others: there was a lovely menu of British dishes, lots of good ingredients and no stinting on portions of luxuries like crab. Then came a veal steak - wonderful - but beside it was a pile of chips that looked like they'd been made from reconstituted potato, picked up at a fast food chain down the high street and reheated. Even their very fine desserts couldn't make up for the chip debacle, the judges all agreed. And of course there was only one decent beer for us to cry into.

Comments

Cherryplum

27 June 2008, 8:05PM
Cherryplum

I agree that gastropubs seem to exist to make you feel unwelcome, and that they are doing you a favour by allowing you to pay exorbitant prices to eat their second-rate grub. Worst of all are the salads ... very rarely do you get a good salad anywhere, and gastropubs are no exception. No matter how exotic the ingredients, no matter how skilled the formulation of the dressing, any salad involving supermarket baggy stuff with obligatory limp brown bits should result in execution of the chef ... and probably the waiters too! It's a sad reflection on the state of the nation's fooderies, that recently,the only decent salad I have eaten outside my own home was in a local 'cheap and cheerful' cafe. It was a pretty boring salad, actually ... basic lettuce, tomatoes, onions and cucumber, but it was sparkling fresh and served with a simple but perfect dressing. If they could do it for Â£3.50 ... why do I have to pay Â£12+ for grotty greenery in a posh noshery?

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ramsayspubfoodathome.com

24 April, 12:13PM
ramsayspubfoodathome.com

I dont mind fancy food, as logn as the pub is still a real pub and not a restaurant in disguise. But then I think well cooked simple pub grub work best of all!

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