I had been planning to cut back on eating out for a while whilst I recovered from my holiday expenditure and prepared for the inevitable Christmas onslaught against my waistline. However, my flatmate had a job offer to celebrate and it would have been churlish not to join him. I had been to Anchor & Hope several times before but had fairly minimal impressions due to usually getting too drunk whilst waiting for a table to appreciate the food. What impressions I had though were broadly that the food was good but not worth the hassle. I'd rather have gone somewhere else, perhaps to try their bookable stablemate Great Queen Street, but my flatmate had never been to the supposedly seminal Anchor & Hope and was keen to try it. For my part I was happy enough to have a clearer memory of the place.
When this place opened 3 or 4 years ago it was praised to the hilt by all the major critics. Tables cannot be booked and as a result of both these things you can expect to queue. No matter what time I've been there has always been a queue that has involved drinking in the bar. This may be a cunning ruse to boost profits, but it does rather diminish the experience of the food when one can eventually get it. On this occasion however I went straight from work and whilst even on a Tuesday there seemed to be no prospect of ever getting a seat in the restaurant, we were able to get a table in the bar pretty quickly.
I have eaten in the bar before as well and a problem has been that most of the tables are real pub tables, and far too low to eat comfortably off. This time we were lucky with a normal height table, but that didn't help with the two other issues that are major bugbears with eating in the bar, and to a lesser extent in the restaurant side. These are that the lighting means you can barely see your food and even more irritatingly, the noise levels are unbearable. There's certainly a good atmosphere, but the wooden floors and furniture along with the tightly packed rooms mean that the noise escalates to such extent that carrying out a conversation involves a great deal of shouting.
The waiters were rushed off their feet and forgot us briefly, but once they were reminded of our presence service was efficient. The wine list is quite good, mainly sub £30 and consisting largely of fairly interesting Southern French bottles. Once it would have been quite exciting, but like many things in this pub, half-decent lists are thankfully increasingly normal. We didn't order wine as I knew from previous occasions that it is served in crap wine glasses. In fact they are not wine glasses at all but thick glass beakers. Perhaps they are meant to look edgy or down-to-earth but something tells me that the real reason is they will break far less than decent glasses and cost less to replace when they do.
Of more significance is that they go a long way to obliterating the taste of any wine, making the quality of the list a bit pointless. They do have proper glasses for their more top end stuff, and I assume these could be requested, but really with the overall price of the place glassware that enhances rather than hides the taste of wine should be standard issue. In those circumstances, and as we have a flat full of wine, we decided on a few pints of Bombardier. Anchor & Hope remains a Charles Wells pub so there should always be real ale and this was surprisingly well kept given its not really a drinking pub.
We skipped starters and went straight for the main courses. A few of these are for multiple people and these have often garnered the best praise. However a leg of mutton for 5 would have been a bit much for the two of us, and whilst we saw a few large parties, they seemed to have to wait for ever for a table. I certainly wouldn't risk it if I was going out with a large group and am therefore unlikely to ever try these, and wonder how many people do.
My flatmate ordered roast Lap, which our waiter had told us was a type of pig. I couldn't find any mention of the breed online, but it was certainly more flavoursome than normal pork. It had a complexity and really tasty smokeyness to it, as well as a fair whack of garlic added by the kitchen which worked well, but it was still as dry as roast pork normally is. Other than gorgeous belly pork and the raft of fatty pork products (sausages, ham etc.) I am not really a pork man, but this was certainly better than most. It made me wonder what lap belly pork would be like!
I had lamb shank, as I was in a very old-school pubby mood and wondered if they could make this a cut above the norm. My candle told me there was still a hint of pink, and there was a good clean flavour. But they had also managed to braise it long enough to render the fat and this gave it a succulent texture. The overall effect was good but not amazing, especially as this cheap cut is easy to cook tastily and decent examples can now be found in numerous pubs (as well of course as pre-prepared Brake Bros numbers in lesser places). Here the dish came with peas and “grass” which was a sort of mint salad that worked well.
We had a side dish of potatoes as the dishes didn't come with any substantial starch, a classic example of how the prices can be pushed in a supposedly reasonably priced place. These were new potatoes which surprised me a bit as I have no idea where in Britain grows new potatoes at this time of year. Apparently though, anywhere can depending on when the potatoes are planted, but I would suggest there's a reason why they are not usually planted for this time! These had quite a strong flavour rather than delicate and were therefore quite appropriate but I would rather a decent mash in a pub at this time of year.
Had we quit there we would have been fairly happy, not blown away, but certainly the cooking was of a good standard as was the sourcing. However we opted for desserts which were pretty disappointing. In keeping with the autumn pub feel I ordered a treacle tart, which for £5 I thought would be at least served warm. I know it isn't served piping hot, but its at its best when still warm from the oven. When this is not logistically possible there's nothing wrong with a gentle reheat, here it was cold which is just lazy. The breadcrumbs in the tart were very coarse, no doubt showing it was homemade with good bread. However, the texture is superior with smoother crumbs which could easily have been achieved from the same bread. I think the kitchen had forgotten the importance of the texture in order to prove to us the quality of the ingredients. They had also used a bit too much lemon. Not a disaster but fairly poor.
My flatmate had a dessert that sounded like an autumn feast on the menu, a chocolate brownie with chestnut ice cream, and various other gubbins. Again this cost £5 but rather than the imagined decadent display it came in a very small glass, and looked like it was intended as a child sized sundae. I didn't try it myself, as that wouldn't have left much for the person who ordered it, but in fairness my flatmate said the flavour was actually good. The portion and appearance were disappointing though, he agreed that it looked plain-mean.
Including two pints each and service the cost of the meal was £28 a head for two courses. I recognise this isn't exorbitant, but its a bit steep, and with wine it would be more than arbutus for example. Its certainly not at that standard, especially given the disappointing desserts. I can understand why this place caused such a stir 3 or 4 years ago as London was only just beginning to have sensibly priced places to eat emphasising local produce. Thankfully now there are gastro-pubs in many neighbourhoods that are as good, and many more that are nearly as good without having lost sight of accessible pricing. These are also largely without the hassles that Anchor & Hope's iconic status and noise-friendly design create. I'm sure I will end up there again as the meat cooking is undeniably good and its convenient for my route home. But its no longer the last word in pub food and really the pricing is a bit too high.