Coach and Horses, Isleworth
November 27th, 2011 § 16 Comments
I live in a bit of a culinary wasteland.We live on the border of Isleworth and Hounslow in west London, apart from a couple of curry houses I have nothing better than a JD Wetherspoon’s and Yates’ Wine Lodge within a 20 minute walk in any direction. This must be what it is like to live in Middlesbrough.
However, about 21 minutes’ walk away is the recently refurbished Coach and Horses pub
Until recently this 18th century coaching inn was a bit of a scary old man pub, what didn’t feel welcoming to hip youngster such as myself (32 is still young, right?). But thankfully its recent refurb and rebrand has made the place a lot more attractive.
The problems that have arisen with the advent of the gastro-pub are not just limited to whether to hyphenate the word or not. It is sometimes difficult to establish the correct ordering etiquette. In a pub your normally order at the bar. In a restaurant you have table service. But what if you are eating in a pub that specialises in food? What then? We ordered our drinks at the bar and took a seat in the attractive well lit dining room.
Living locally we enjoyed the old photographs of the local area that decorated the walls (“ooh, is that Isleworth Station?”) and I thought back to our holiday in Cornwall while supping on my Tribute and we waited for a sever to notice us but soon realised no-one was coming over. We hailed someone over and asked to order, he informed us it was his first day and he would get someone else to come over. When someone else did come over he told us to order at the bar despite the fact that we had seen other people sat nearby being allowed to place their order with the server. Which was a little annoying.
But when the food did come it was very good. I went for traditional pub faire of pie of the day and mash. The pie in question was chicken, leek and mushroom and it was big.
Proper rustic pastry, man size portions and a decent amount of gravy. Good mood food. The waiting staff when they were serving rather than taking orders were friendly and chatty, but not so much as to be annoying.
Scores
Food - 7/10
Service - before ordering 3/10 after ordering 7/10
Décor & ambiance - 8/10
Value – two mains, a glass of wine and a pint of ale for £29 8/10
Sauce quantity – 9/10
Distance from home – 1.3 miles
Heyyy! Middlesbrough isn’t that bad!
“”This must be what it is like to live in Middlesbrough” – Have you ever been ?”
if you are only imagining what the Boro is like for its culinary delights, you seriously lack any imagination at all. a quick google would show you there are multiple eating establishments of all kinds. dont belive everything you read in the media! Come and vist, you will be supprised!
Maybe I will. It seems that the ‘boro is a culinary hot spot of which I was previously unaware. Maybe I should visit. Apologies for any offence.
Dont apologies, its just people from Middlesbrough with chips on their shoulders.
Can anyone actually give an example of a decent restaurant in Middlesbrough(not stockton, durham or yorkshire which you Middlesbroughians like to claim as part of Middlesbrough when it suits you)
The culinary delights of Middlesbrough consist of chain restaurants, and takeaways. Nothing else.
Not suggesting an apology should be made at all but on this point:
“Can anyone actually give an example of a decent restaurant in Middlesbrough”
Capaldi’s is excellent if you’ve not tried it.
You’re not allowed to criticise Middlesbrough otherwise the sad bitter knuckle draggers of the town spit their dummies out and get upset whenever anyone highlights what a culturally devoid wasteland it is.
What a ridiculous statement !
There are plenty decent restaurants in Middlesbrough.
Have you been to Middlesbrough ?
You sound like the Tory ‘Chipping Norton set.’
It is a lazy cliche to have a pop at Middlesbrough. It has been done so many times before. An apology was appropriate – an apology for the lack of imagination.
Ok. I think I will suspend comments on this blog entry now. But thanks for your interest all.
This must be what it’s like to live in Boro….no, it’s exactly what it’s like to live in Isleworth…
NIck
Have you ever actually been to Middlesbrough? Which chain restaurants are you on about?
Here is an example of a decent restaurant in Middlesbrough you ignorant anonist – Jamal’s is an excellent Indian restaurant and as far from a chain restaurant as it is possible to get.
By the way I think you meant ‘Don’t apologise, it’s just people…’
Middlesbrough is terrible, the criticism is just.
Deal with it homeboys.
Remember when C4 rightly called Middlesbrough the worst town in the UK and the residents cried about it for months and tried to get people to boycott the channel?
Pathetic and embarrassing lack of humility up there.
middlesborough is what you you people in the south lack “warm and friendly”
[...] the culinary wasteland that surrounds our west London flat. In fact I once made the mistake of comparing it to Middlesbrough. I won’t be doing that again in a [...]