The Narrow

On Saturday, I had luch at The Narrow, Gordon Ramsay’s pub in Limehouse. We were in a large group and were seated in the conservatory which was lovely as the sun came streaming in through the windows, not so lovely half an hour later when we were all overheating and there weren’t any blinds to be drawn. Aside from that, the venue itself is lovely, the main attraction being the fabulous views across the Thames.

It was all a little haphazard on our part with people arriving at different times, the staff were happy for to order the children’s food first and let us keep the table for as long as we needed which was good as both the restaurant and pub was full. The children’s fish (hake) and chips were served first and they looked and smelt so good that six of the seven of us ordered the same! I didn’t taste it but everyone seemed to enjoy theirs, I would have been disappointed by the chips though as they were the enormous variety that everywhere seems to be serving at the moment.

The menu mostly consisted of traditional pub food with the odd, interesting twist like braised pork cheeks. I ordered the “lamb neck fillet with root vegetable pie” which I assumed would be a serving of lamb with the vegetable pie on the side. When it arrived however it was a complete pie with a portion of mashed potato on the side. I enjoyed it, the lamb was well cooked and it was perfectly seasoned, but found the filling to be a little on the thin side. The mashed potato had been mashed to within an inch of it’s life and there wasn’t much of it, in fact none of the portion sizes were that generous which is probably why the majority of us ended up ordering dessert too. Good old Gordon.

I shared the chocolate marshmallow brownie which was probably the best chocolate brownie I’ve ever eaten, the perfect combination of crunchy top and sticky inside. It was incredibly rich though and definitely needed the ice-cream to cut through it. I tasted the bitter orange tart and it was good, more interesting than the normal lemon tart and probably made with Seville oranges which are still in season so bonus points for the use of seasonal produce.

I enjoyed the food and I really like this style of dining, it’s proper British food served in a pub but I was disappointed by the portion sizes and can’t help thinking that there must be plenty of other ‘gastropubs’ around serving similar food that is just as good and probably cheaper.