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ventaWandering around a rather damp West London on Sunday (judiciously avoiding the worst of the downpours by hanging out in cake shops and bus shelters), ChrisC and I found a rather nice Art Nouveau pub. It's somewhere in the Maida Vale area, and is called The Warrington Hotel. Both inside and out it's graced with the sort of OTT decor that would be sudden death in your own front room, but looks fantastic in a pub.
Some time ago I said on here that if people "were going to put barking things on menus", I'd order them out of curiosity. At the time, I was talking about brussel sprout fricassee. If I don't know what something is, I'll potentially order it to find out.
However, browsing the Warrington Hotel's menu (purely out of academic interest, as I was completely full of cake) I found myself getting quite cross with it. I wouldn't call myself a gourmet, but I expect to be able to comprehend a menu. Not this one! Nearly every dish contained at least one word I didn't know.
Now, ever since the day ChrisE and I sat together at a very posh birthday party in Mayfair and made a pact to pretend we knew what quenelles were, I've been aware that there's always some damn silly French word that someone will put on a menu just for swank. The odd one or two in a list of dishes I'll take in my stride.
In the Warrington... would you like to order spinach and ricotta spanakopita ? Would you like your meal served with sauce choron ? sauce gribiche ? tarragon velouté ? Probably no, thanks, since I can't stand tarragon. Maybe a nice salad of Treviso, white peach and Cropwell Bishop ? (I hope it contains actual bishop.) How about a nice grilled darne of halibut ?
In many cases, I can make a guess. I don't know what a darne is, but let's assume it's a cut of halibut. I'm going to assume that the bishop is really delivered in cheese form. Maybe if I want a pigs head terrine, I can just assume that a sauce gribiche is something that will go nicely with it.
I wouldn't have minded any one of these in isolation, but taken all together the pretension was a bit overwhelming. Out of interest, did anyone follow all the menu items ? My money's on![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
mr_tom, if anyone. Does anyone feel that their dining experience is ehanced and the food more interesting becase of the mystery ? Would we be happier to hear we were getting eggy mayonnaise with our pigs head terrine ?
[Poll #1254047]
Once you've answered, click here if you want to know what it is.
Later research on the interweb revealed that The Warrington Hotel was recently taken over (and, according to many reviewers ruined, rendered atmosphereless and had its drink prices upped to ridiculous levels) by Gordon Ramsay. That might explain a lot.
Mind you I rather liked it, and I didn't think £2.40 for a Coke and a decent half of Broadside was all that pricey for London.
In irrelevant news, tonight I'm going to party like it's 1977 :)
Some time ago I said on here that if people "were going to put barking things on menus", I'd order them out of curiosity. At the time, I was talking about brussel sprout fricassee. If I don't know what something is, I'll potentially order it to find out.
However, browsing the Warrington Hotel's menu (purely out of academic interest, as I was completely full of cake) I found myself getting quite cross with it. I wouldn't call myself a gourmet, but I expect to be able to comprehend a menu. Not this one! Nearly every dish contained at least one word I didn't know.
Now, ever since the day ChrisE and I sat together at a very posh birthday party in Mayfair and made a pact to pretend we knew what quenelles were, I've been aware that there's always some damn silly French word that someone will put on a menu just for swank. The odd one or two in a list of dishes I'll take in my stride.
In the Warrington... would you like to order spinach and ricotta spanakopita ? Would you like your meal served with sauce choron ? sauce gribiche ? tarragon velouté ? Probably no, thanks, since I can't stand tarragon. Maybe a nice salad of Treviso, white peach and Cropwell Bishop ? (I hope it contains actual bishop.) How about a nice grilled darne of halibut ?
In many cases, I can make a guess. I don't know what a darne is, but let's assume it's a cut of halibut. I'm going to assume that the bishop is really delivered in cheese form. Maybe if I want a pigs head terrine, I can just assume that a sauce gribiche is something that will go nicely with it.
I wouldn't have minded any one of these in isolation, but taken all together the pretension was a bit overwhelming. Out of interest, did anyone follow all the menu items ? My money's on
mr_tom, if anyone. Does anyone feel that their dining experience is ehanced and the food more interesting becase of the mystery ? Would we be happier to hear we were getting eggy mayonnaise with our pigs head terrine ?[Poll #1254047]
Once you've answered, click here if you want to know what it is.
Later research on the interweb revealed that The Warrington Hotel was recently taken over (and, according to many reviewers ruined, rendered atmosphereless and had its drink prices upped to ridiculous levels) by Gordon Ramsay. That might explain a lot.
Mind you I rather liked it, and I didn't think £2.40 for a Coke and a decent half of Broadside was all that pricey for London.
In irrelevant news, tonight I'm going to party like it's 1977 :)
