Dean Street Townhouse

It was the mention that they do scotch eggs that made me want to go to Dean Street Townhouse. And when I got there, I literally wanted to eat everything on the menu, every starter, every main, every dessert, and even the stuff they have for high tea. There is no pretending that it is to appeal to those of us who went to school in this country, everything is nursery comfort food, and I am not at all ashamed to say that I am already pestering my friends to join me for a return visit.

It was pretty quite on the Sunday evening I went, which gave me time to assess the mad interior. The dining room is very cosy (to the point where I think it would be quite oppressive if you were staying at the hotel and coming down for breakfast, no windows at all!), and strangely decorated with some very random art. Over our table was a quote by Lindsay Lohan. I'm also still making up my mind over whether I liked the toilets. Very cosy again, and I liked that there is a sink in each cubicle, but the mirrors were very self-consciously aged, paired with some comedy looking Cowshed toiletries. Obviously this kind of Soho irony is completely lost on me.

But back to the food. As I said, everything is what you would find on a school dinner menu or Little Chef actually, including fish & chips with 'fat marrow peas'(Dave very hopefully thought it came with bone marrow, hahaha!), 'mince and potatoes', and even a mixed grill. And it was all a lot cheaper than I had anticipated. I had read somewhere that their scotch egg was £7.95, completely ridiculous yes, but most mains came in at around £12-15, not bad for that part of town. You can also order from the high tea menu which had things like scotch eggs and chicken livers on toast, all of which were around £4-5 each.

Dave teased me relentlessly for ordering prawn cocktail for my starter. I don't care how old fashioned it is, I really fancied it! And it was a very good one too, only complaint was that the portion is a big too big:

Dave went for a more adventurous grilled octopus with chickpeas, and managed to take a very arty photo of it. It was a bit meh on taste, however, the chickpeas seeming cooked in a tin of tomatoes:

I had been hankering for roast chicken ever since Canteen decided not to cook any for lunch earlier on in the day, so I was most excited to see it on the menu. It is only for 2, and at £32 for 2 I thought it was quite bargainous, given that you get a chicken supreme and a whole leg each! Definitely way too much food, but this might be the best roast chicken I've ever eaten (granted I don't eat roast chicken that often)!!! The roast tatties were a bit rubbish though, even I make better ones :p

I was thoroughly, thoroughly stuffed after eating literally half a chicken, but I couldn't quite resist the pudding menu (and it is definitely a pudding menu, not a dessert menu). Rice pudding with raspberry jam was so right and so yummy, with an individual bit of skin on top. I also need to go back to try their sherry trifle for two:

Oh, and another thing I liked was that there was a long wine by the carafe list, useful as Dave had overdone it (again) the night before and was feeling a bit fragile. That didn't stop us having a glass of port each to finish though. I have gained a real fondness of a little glass of port recently, I asked for one in a pub the other day and they did laugh at me. Oh well, hurrah for Dean Street Townhouse, exactly the sort of place to enjoy a warming glass of port on a winter's evening.