Windsor Castle - Kensington

Fri 13 July 2007

Down to London for the weekend to meet my parents and indulge in altogether too much eating and drinking.

First stop was the Windsor Castle in Kensington. This is a very cute pub. Cute is an apt word to describe it: it's pretty, has a lovely beer garden and a dark, traditional interior with tiny doorways to squeeze through. And a good range of drinks for everyone: wines by the glass, lagers and real beers.

So, glass of London Pride in hand (Harviestoun's Bitter and Twisted, Staropramen and New Zealand sauvignon blanc other popular beverage choices) I inspected the menu. It's reasonably standard pub fare at perhaps slightly inflated prices. The portions are, however, exceptionally generous. After some considerable umming and aahing I opted for the venison and sloe gin sausages and mash (three sausages, a massive pile of mash - and it was £9.90 ...). Mum had a risotto (spinach and parmesan) and dad had roast belly pork with colcannon - although the kitchen appeared to have run out of colcannon, as it was a truly monstrous pile of mash.

The food was all competent: the sausages had a fantastic flavour and the mash was OK, mum felt the risotto was a bit stiff and, colcannon disappointment aside, dad enjoyed his pork - the crackling was super crackly and it was good moist meat. But competent doesn't really make for a memorable meal and certainly doesn't justifying paying almost £10 for sausage and mash.

As you can tell, we left feeling a little ambivalent. Would I come here again? Yes, I would, but it would be to drink, not eat - after all, the beer garden is still lovely!

1. Windsor Castle, 114 Campden Hill Road, Kensington, London, W8 7AR, phone: 020 7243 9551

tagged with: london, pubs

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