December 12, 2004
Sunday Lunch London - The Landseer, Holloway N19
After a cold bike ride around North London Paul and I found ourselves sitting on sofas in the Landseer pub on Landseer Road, just off Holloway Road, N19.
I've known this as a very pleasant pub for a beer or two, and I've also dabbled in a desert previously but I've never eaten properly here and this seemed like the perfect opportunity.
The Landseer Pubs' large windows on a winter afternoon
The Landseer seems to have changed its owner / management a number of times over the last 3 years, sometimes doing food, sometimes not, the menu changing from a proper gastro pub affair and then back to pub grub. It seemed like it couldn't decide if it was a boozer or a swanky gastro bar. Well now it is firmly in the swanky camp and full of people who seem like they earn more than enough - but it is not an unpleasant atmosphere at all.
At £10, the roast is pricey especially when compared to Nambucca just down the road where the untried (by me) roast is a snip at £5. While the £10 is steep, it is just about on the value - the service is good, the beers available are, if not adventurous like the Swimmer, good and well served and the wine lists are very comprehensive. Our lunch took about ten to fifteen minutes to arrive - a good amount of time to know its being done properly. The Yorkshire pudding was fantastic, easily the best bit. Obviously made in the pub and not from a frosen packet, its taste was drifting towards a doughnut - fresh and doughey and beautifully crisp, it was the high point. The veg were all good - large roast potatoes, the cauliflower was beautifully buttery and al dente, fine carrots and excellent flavoursome parsnips as was the beef. We enjoyed our food with a beer, surrounded by large glass windows showing a winters afternoon slowly turning to dark. The only complaint - we should have had two of the fantastic yorkshire puddings.
Posted by tom at December 12, 2004 10:25 AM | TrackBack