Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Slug & Lettuce County Hall

S&L is another one of those ubiquitous pub/bar/café space that is very popular in the UK. I’ve been holding out for as long as I could, but sooner or later, you find yourself in a position where it’s just the easiest thing to go in there for a meal. That is exactly how I ended up in there on this cold and wet Thursday evening.

Food

The menu consists of your usual café/bar/pub offerings, a lot of traditional stuff, the odd pasta, some vegetarians, and a few specials. I ordered the Sicilian Chicken (£8.75) - Chicken breast, wrapped in prosciutto ham, filled with sun-dried tomato, basil pesto and mozzarella, served on sautéed potato and onion, with a lightly spiced tomato & red pepper sauce, which was much less exciting than it sounds. 2 small pieces of chicken, wrapped with some so-so ham. The tomato was not that sweet, and you couldn’t really taste the basil either. The rest of the plate was filled with the potatoes. I couldn’t see any onion at all, and you can’t really taste anything on the potatoes.

Slokky’s Fish and Chips (£8.45) - Cod fillet, with a light, golden batter, served with chips, tartare sauce and smashed minted peas were not any better. The batter was a bit flat, the fish tasteless. Peas are ok, but I never understand why mint and peas go together. At least they got the chips right.

Don’t get me wrong, everyone is fine if you are desperate, but if I had the time or the choice, I would go somewhere else.

Rating - 5

Atmosphere

The Jubilee Line caused me to be 45 minutes late, and the place was filled with groups of people drinking or eating. They have a lot of drinking special, so I guess people have a jolly good time. I found it difficult to hear anything, just like in a bar really.

Décor is nice, but boring. There’s no individuality , you could be anywhere really.

Rating - 1.5

Service

It’s kinda confusing. You can order your drinks at the bar, but it’s table service if you plonk yourself down…Waiters don’t exactly float around the place, so you have to go to the bar to ask a waiter to come to your table? They were nice enough once they came over, and took drink orders and everything.

Rating - 2.5

C-factor

The prices are average. It’s pretty cheap if you can happen to score one of those vouchers they have quite often (and of course I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t have one of these).

Rating - 1.5

Brownie Points - 10.5

Info

North Block (1-63),
5 Chicheley St
London
SE1 7PJ
Phone+44 (0) 20 7803 4790
Website

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