I awoke early Sunday Morning, with sunlight streaming through the bedroom window. The sky, a vivid shade of blue. Days with weather such as this, rare in Britain, reward the early riser.After a quick conference with the bleary eyed partner, it was decided. Greenwich on a Sunday, a trawl round the shops and market, some time spent in the beautiful spring flower strewn park, a walk by the Thames and a spot of lunch somewhere nice.
The Gun, just across the Thames from Greenwich in the Isle of Dogs is somewhere I've wanted to eat for ages. I've read so many good reviews, heard so many good things. That's where I wanted to have lunch.
After walking under the Thames through the Greenwich foot tunnel, and a 15 minute walk through the Isle of Dogs, we arrived outside the rather attractive 'Gun' around 12-30, a bit earlier than I'd like for Sunday lunch but I've heard it gets extremely busy, and I'm determined to get a table on the terrace overlooking the Thames and the 02 arena on the opposite bank.
My careful planning reaped it's reward, and we cadge a riverside table without too much trouble.
After perusing the menu, we decide to skip the starters (saving room for dessert) and press onto the mains. As it's Sunday, and I love a roast dinner, I go for Roast Sirloin of Beef, this comes with roast potatoes, Yorkshire pudding, honey glazed carrots, parsnip, broccoli, red wine gravy and horseradish.My partner orders the wild mushroom and chestnut wellington with brussel sprouts and truffle emulsion.
It's a lovely day, the terrace is buzzing with fellow customers reading the Sunday papers and drinking wine, the food arrives surprisingly quickly.
Mine is good, the potatoes are gorgeous and crispy, the beef is nicely cooked, definitely one of the better Sunday dinners I've had anywhere. There's some kind of problem with the offered Horseradish sauce, it doesn't seem to have any actual Horseradish in it!.....I like it eye wateringly pungent, but this is soon put right by a passing waitress.
What's interesting is my partners choice, it looks amazing (No photos, as she tucked in like lightning before I even got a chance to take a picture). She offered me a try, and wow.....this is how good it was, I hate brussel sprouts, I always have.....but this casually proffered fork full of food made me re-evaluate my whole 35 year hatred of the vegetable, combined with the mushrooms and truffle emulsion the taste was truly stunning.
Polishing off our mains, it was onto desert. I can't resist a sticky toffee pudding and despite the fairly hefty main, I figured what with all the walking, I'd soon work it off.....this came with malt ice-cream.
My other half went for the Cheeseboard, which at £9 was a pretty expensive cheese option, but ended up being well worth the money.
The toffee pudding was great, I've eaten these all over the place and it was one of the best examples of toffee goodness Ive ever eaten, the malt ice cream was the perfect partner.
The Cheeseboard was interesting, it arrived on a slate with various crackers, oat biscuits, toasted walnut bread, red grapes and five different cheeses, all British produce - Blackstick's Blue from Lancashire, Tornegus from Somerset, Quickes farmhouse cheddar from Dorset, Kidderton Ashe from Lancashire and finally Bath soft organic from Somerset. I'd finished off my dessert with gusto, so helped my girlfriend polish off the cheeseboard, we could have ordered just that between us, so it was well worth the cost. The Cheeses were great, we ate the lot.
The Gun is without a doubt one of the best gastro-pubs I've eaten in, although I've got a real soft spot for the much less refined, much more rough and ready 'The Eagle' in Farringdon Road and 'The Ginger Pig' in Brighton where I ate recently currently holds the 'gastro-pub numero uno' spot as far as I'm concerned. But, if your in Greenwich one fine Sunday and fancy a bit of walk and a fantastic lunch overlooking the river, you'd be hard pressed to find anywhere better to spend the afternoon.
The Gun
27 Coldharbour,
Docklands,
London,
E14 9NS
http://www.thegundocklands.com/index.html
9 comments:
Nothing beats a Sunday pub lunch, does it?
Yay! Welcome to the Brussels sprout club... I love it when people are converted. There seems to be lots of blog talk about them for some reason!
I still have not been to The Ginger Pig. One of my colleagues went the other day and didn't really rate it. Lots of people have been and have either said it's fantastic or a let down - no inbetween. Maybe I should go and see for myself... it is still very busy which I guess is a good sign.
Alex - yep agreed, nothing like a lazy Sunday pub lunch.
Foodie - Ginger Pig, that's interesting, perhaps it's not consistently good? - The night I went, the food was amazing....so that's all I have to go on.
According to Anthony Bourdain in Kitchen Confidential (if you haven't read it - do! it's required reading!). All restaurants have their good nights and bad nights.....(supposedly Tues - Thurs are the best, Sunday-Mon are the worst, Fri-Sat are OK).
The reasoning behind this is, Tues-Thurs the Chefs are recharged, after Mon or Sun off, it's a new week, their creative juices are flowing, and midweek customers are normally their regulars, it's busy but not crazily so.
Sun-Mon are normally the days off for the chefs, generally only people being punished and trainees work these days.
Fri and Sat are too busy to provide personal service and attention to detail you'd get Tues-Thurs.
Obviously this is very generalised (and quoted from memory) but in general I imagine this is probably pretty accurate.
The lunch looks yummy!
Yep, I'd agree with your last comments - I've also read Kitchen Confidential - great read isn't it? I loved his TV series too.
I used to live round there and I can't for the life of me work out if I've been there or not. My memories are all hazy - probably due to spending too much time in the pub. It looks good though, you can't beat a nice pub lunch.
ooh - can't wait to read Kitchen Confidential -will buy it now! Also looking forward to trying out The Gun one sunny day. mmm - cheese. As for sprouts, Hugh F-W challenged his chefs to come up with a way to make him like them, and cauliflower!
@ The Ample Cook - Kitchen Confidential is a fantastic read. Fascinating, in fact - I couldn't stop raving about it to friends and family.
@ Helen
The Pub is in a River side road, just over a Bridge if that helps?
@ Merlotti
You have to read Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential! Quite possibly one of the best books I've read, a real eye opener behind the scenes look at the restaurant trade - and the guy is hilarious as well.
Sprouts - they were halved, and kind of caramelised - pan fried perhaps? Don't know. But, it's the first time I've ate a sprout and thought 'wow'....instead of gagging!
Next time you're in Greenwich, you should try the Inside restaurant in Greenwich South Street. Really lovely food but I think you would have to book on a Sunday.
Annonymous, thanks for the tip - I'll check it out next time I'm in Greenwich.
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