July 23rd, 2008
Opposite the Holiday Inn Kings Cross/Bloomsbury sits The Union Tavern at 52 Lloyd Baker Street in London. I returned to visit this little pub restaurant on Wednesday 23rd July 08. The place had only one other customer as I arrived just after 7.15pm. Sitting in a window seat I was quickly disappointed by the complimentary basket of bread served up. It was stale. Not a great start.
I placed my order; going for the soup of the day and Brandade de Morue (I’ll explain this later – don’t get excited though).
The service was not exactly professional. I was not offered the chance to taste the wine I ordered up, an expensively priced cheap Chilean Sauvignon Blanc was pored straight into my glass.
My soup arrived very quickly. I know this because I had not quite finished breaking my teeth on the stale bread. The warning bells were starting to ring. The soup had clearly been microwaved and was tasteless. No seasoning that could be detected and very little by the way of flavour. Taking a phone call distracted me from the blandness and my main dish quickly followed my starter dish being cleared. Woop Woop noises were by now ringing in my head. The main was, what I can only describe as, two boring tasteless fish cakes squashed together in a small dish served up with salad. I kid you not. Basically, it was mashed potato with a hint (and I mean hint) of fish, spooned into an ob-longish disk sprinkled with bread crumbs. Cheap awful tasteless ingredients (a bit like the soup).
Why pub restaurants like this try and be poncy with meals, when good simply high quality ingredient packed dishes are all that is required.
I was by now in the mood to sample the next disaster just for the hell of it and they didn’t disappoint. What was a beautifully described desert turned out to be nothing more than mint chocolate ice cream, ponced up with a tasteless, lifeless chocolate sponge and creme anglais, or as the waiter kindly pointed out, cold English custard (I now know I look thick).
A very disapointing meal at the end of a very busy and tiring day. I won’t go back. Instead I will take the Taxi drivers advice and go the restaurant over the road. Muratori’s.
Score 0 Stars.
The Union Tavern, 52 Lloyd Baker Street, London WC1X 9AA. Telephone 0871 984 1462
Posted in Food and Drink