Saturday 12 October 2013

A Farewell Lunch

A friend of ours (when I say, ours, we, us these days I'm referring to Maddie and I, after a week of living together we have become a married couple. The honeymoon period is bliss.)

So a friend of ours, Ben, has decided to sack off real life and go to Peru for a few months. I don't blame him, I haven't had a holiday this month and I'm suffering. As he was coming through London on his way to Heathrow, it seemed only sensible to intercept him at Paddington and go for a good old pub lunch. Which is precisely what we did. 

As he had to go from Paddington down to Heathrow we needed something that was fairly close by, so I suggested we meet at Baker Street tube and wander down to Marylebone High Street. Living in Regents Park when I first got to London, I spent a lot of time here and I love it. It's such a sweet little street (and expensive, many a day dream has been had wandering down it) and I know the Waitrose intimately. 

There are many pubs and lovely little places to eat round here but as we were starving and we very definitely wanted pub food, we opted for the first one we came to at the top of the high street. The Prince Regent. 

It had a good pub food menu but I also know that I have rarely seen it empty which I always think is a good sign, so in we went. It is more along the lines of an upmarket pub, with big purple squishy sofas in the windows and wooden tables. 



The menu was so extensive that it was hard to know what to choose, everything from fish and chips to burgers, steak sandwiches, salads, and pies. Think of  a great pub food and they had it. Personally I'm not sure if this is a good or a bad thing. With so many different dishes there has to be so many different ingredients and then you have to think about if they all get used regularly and therefore how fresh are they etc etc. Mainly I was just really hungry and although I could have eaten every thing on the menu, it was the burger that was speaking to me.



Ben went for sausage, mash and onion rings with lots of gravy (a truly British choice, it's mystery meats from now on Benny!) and Mads went for the halloumi and cous cous salad. 



My burger was ok, not great; the patty was overcooked for my liking and therefore not as juicy. I mean don't get me wrong, it wasn't a bad burger, it just wasn't the best one I'd ever had. 

Ben's was again, ok, the mash was awful. Im not entirely sure what was up with it but it wasn't that great pub mash you usually get. 

Mad's salad was, well a salad, personally I'm not one to get over excited about a salad. She enjoyed it, with no complaints and the avocado was ripe so I guess it was a win for her. 

We washed this down with beers, ciders and wines. Then we ordered another, we had all afternoon after all.  

Pretty soon we were feeling peckish again (naturally, who wouldn't after that light lunch...) and decided to order the meat platter. As soon as I saw the words 'scotch quails eggs' I was sold. Bring on snack time. 


Pulled pork, salami, olives, toasted ciabatta, the quails eggs and gherkins. What's not to love, several pints down.  

Pretty soon it was dark outside and people were coming in for after work drinks. Ben had to get to Heathrow and well, after drinking wine by the glass (and several of them) I just had to leave before I was bankrupt. 

We wandered back to Baker Street and said our goodbyes. 

Have the best time Ben and come back in one piece please. I've lost too many people to other countries already. 



   



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