LONDON PUB GRUB AT ITS BEST

Sunday is a special day in the calendar because it's usually spent in pursuit of traditional good pub grub. So is another London eatery going to be added to TheBigRetort list of the best 'roast outs'?

The Dartmouth Arms (pictured above), with its convivial surroundings seemed on the face of it like another great choice in an ever-expanding portfolio.
The pub had a welcoming front-of-house staff.

It was a sunny and pleasant day with light streaming through a central skylight onto what were quite relaxing surroundings. Perfect for a roast out.
But should that empty dining room have given a bit of a clue that all was not well?
Apparently the Dartmouth gets busier at 2pm. (Or so the waitress claimed, it was still nearly empty an hour later.)

The wine, an Argentinian malbec, was worth every penny. The gravy and lamb delicious. The problem: a very large (precooked) Yorkshire pudding and two gigantic potatoes.
The Dartmouth's problems lay with its vegetables. Whilst the lamb, which was delicious, had been prepared with some thought, little or none seemed to have gone into the accompanying veg. In fact the chef was having a bit of a laugh.
Extraordinarily bland, the potatoes (rock hard in places), were proof that life exists on Mars... if only you can dig through the damned quick-roasted permafrost.

The parsnips tasted like an alien life form that had lived through a billion-year drought, a strange rubbery undercooked before and after 'yuck'. 'Cook me! Cook me! For God's sake cook me!'
Although the potatoes may have commenced 'life' on Mars the parsnips had obviously been grown on planet Earth... on a Panamanian rubber plantation.

The greens? Perhaps someone at the Dartmouth had forgotten to pay the gas bill.

Waitress: 'Did you enjoy your meal?'

Me (dumbfounded): 'No.'
Waitress: 'Oh... why not?'
Me: 'Because it was bloody dreadful.'
The waitress took the criticism on board and didn't charge for the meals. So, to be fair, these are points out of ten in the Sunday Roast Challenge: 2

The Dartmouth Arms
7, Dartmouth Rd
London
SE23 3HN
Tel: 020 8488 3117
email: info@thedartmoutharms.comhttp://feeds.feedburner.com/blogspot/DLrm