Tipped

Vegetarian View on the Morgan Arms

January 17, 2009

So this, I must confess, is the vegetarian corollary to Haje Jan K's review below. As he's already said, we liked it so much we bought the chefs a beer, but:

This was because of the overall experience. His french fries were divine. My soup was. So was his salad, and apparently the rest of his dinner. We had a very nice bottle of wine indeed. The waitress was cute, and flirted with us. I wish my house was as comfortable and welcoming to hang out in as the Morgan Arms. And they apparently deliberately have something tasty and vegetarian on the menu every night, which I can only appreciate (especially after having lived in Madrid.)

But.
The bad part.

My vegetarian baked oven dish (something cheesy and auberginey) was still cold in the middle. As if they'd reheated it from frozen, and been impatient, and settled for the cheese on top starting to bubble and brown. It was tasty, but that bite when I dug deep in the middle, only to find the cheese in crisp, cool shavings? It sucked. So disappointing. Such a faux pas. And we were having such a good night, we said nothing.

I'm hoping this was a one-off bad experience, but I haven't been back yet. Maybe some other day, once I've tried all the other interesting places in London. Maybe if I start eating meat again--I've heard that their Sunday roast, done all in goosefat, is supposedly one of the best in London. Maybe if I was in that neighborhood anyway. Maybe if I wanted to impress a date. In the meantime, probably not.

Tags: ambiance, good first date place, cuisine: vegetarian

Homely pub with fantastic food

January 12, 2009

Gastro-pubs are rip-roaringly popular in the UK, for a great reason: You don’t pay silly money to eat well, you don’t have to worry about being served something you can’t identify, and it’s always exciting to get simple, wholesome meals done well.

The Morgan Arms is one such restaurant which gets consistently good reviews, and we decided we’d go and find out if it was worthy of its praise. We ended up at the Morgan on a quiet Wednesday night, where the ever-changing menu keeps even the frequent Morgan-ites on their toes.

While I’d love to say that the Morgan Arms was a hidden gem in the middle of nowhere, it wouldn’t be entirely accurate: Of course, it is, in fact, right on the fringe of nowhere, about a 10-minute walk from Mile End, but it’s by no means obscure: its popularity is both evident and well-deserved.

The Morgan is a spaceous, warm and cozy pub with an open-plan dining room towards the end, creating a cozy, upbeat, lazy after-work atmosphere where locals and the ‘ooh-let’s-go-to-the-Morgan’ brigade can sip a few quiet drinks or enjoy a lovely meal. The closeness of the bar area and the food area means that you avoid the ’ssssh, quiet, this is a restaurant’ feel you get in some places. No doubt, this arrangement is far better now that the smoking ban is in plan in UK establishments, too.

The chefs did a great job on our menu for the evening: My starter was a classic basil-and-tomato-and-mozzarella salad which was so brain-meltingly lovely that I found myself wishing it could be my main meal. After that came a mighty fine steak: Perfectly cooked, of course, but more importantly, it was garnished and prepared with a collection of spices that was nothing short of heavenly.

My impression of the food at the Morgan - consistent with comments I’ve heard others come up with about this place - is that the head chef is basically just a guy who loves his food to be traditional, but served with gusto and spirit by the bucketload.

We were so happy with the food, in fact, we ordered a round of beers for the kitchen, and the grins of the chefs as they tucked into their pints of Guinness were unmistakeable: Their appreciation was as great as ours.

We paid around £60 for the both of us - including a lovely bottle of wine - for 3 courses and coffe. A little more expensive than Gordon Ramsay’s The Narrow, perhaps, but the better atmosphere means that I wouldn’t hesitate in recommending the Morgan Arms over the Narrow any day of the week.

Tags: gastro pub, pub food,