go thirsty, not hungry. i had visited this place once before for drinks and nibbles, and really quite liked it. the range of in-house brewed beers is very impressive, and craft beer lovers will be impressed.
when it was suggested that some friends and i meet there for dinner, i was all for it.
i called on the day to make a booking, and was told i wouldn't need to book - "just show up, you'll be right. the worst that will happen is you have to sit at the bar for a few minutes". well, we four turned up, and the place was packed. except for a few unoccupied tables that had 'reserved' signs on them. well played.
after standing around for a bit, then snagging a tiny table adequate only for holding beers, not food, we pounced on a table just as a group was leaving, before anyone else got to it. my momentary feeling akin to winning the showcase on the price is right was tempered by the realisation that this process would have been so much easier if the staff member on the phone earlier that day had cared to write my name, the number four and the time of our arrival in the book they obviously possess for such purposes.
finally seated, we got menus and placed our orders at the bar. i ordered the hot wings; my better half ordered the herbivore platter and we shared some chips.
my hot wings came out, and i can't dispute that they were, indeed, hot. they seemed to have simply slathered sambal oelek all over the wings. i love sambal, but it's an ingredient, not a sauce itself. for chili freaks reading this thinking someone needs to harden up before they order a hot dish, it wasn't that the sauce was too hot, it was that the trowelling on of the sambal made it impossible to taste anything else.
on reflection, though, this might have been a blessing in disguise.
my partner said that the cheese balls on her plate tasted off. she gave a bit to me to sample. all i tasted was the sambal from my seventh-circle-of-hell wings. we called the waiter over and told her the cheese tasted off. she went back to the kitchen without the food, then, with no-one else tasting or even smelling them, she declared they weren't. genius.
regarding the chips. when they arrived, we asked for some tomato sauce. behold, reader, this must be the only pub this side of the oort cloud that doesn't have tomato sauce for their chips.
it's almost worth visiting just to capture for yourself a sample of the incredulity we felt on numerous occasions throughout the evening.
after dinner, there were more beers on their menu i would have liked to try, but we couldn't wait to leave.
what a pity.