Princess of Shoreditch

My wife and I were both running out of gas on Tuesday. We decided to stay close to home for dinner, so we went out the back of our hotel and down Willow Street to the Princess of Shoreditch, which is about a block past Yard (see my post below). I am glad we went, because we had a very nice time and a good little meal.

We got to POSD at about 5:30 PM, which meant we had to wait for an hour to order dinner. We passed the time over a nice bottle of 2009 Casajus (29 pounds, or about $47-48 dollars), which was a nice change from all the French and Italian wine we had been drinking. Like most Spanish wines, the Casajus was earthy, with a full body.

When 6:30 rolled around, we ordered a black pudding to start. Black pudding is a misnomer, because it's not really a pudding, but rather a patty of blood sausage. It was delicious as it had a nice taste (not too bitter or overpowering) and a good texture.

For dinner, my wife had the fish and chips, which was made with line caught Pollock. It was a nice dish and pretty much all you could hope for in fish and chips; i.e. the fish was hot and fresh and well fried and there was a generous portion of chips to go with it.

I had the pie of the day, which was chicken with green beans. While the crust wasn't what we'd had at St. John Bar and Restaurant, it was still pretty good and the chicken and green beans were fresh.

Because we'd killed our wine before dinner, we had some seasonal ale, which was OK, though my wife doesn't particularly like it served the Anglo/Irish way (just below room temperature).

For desert, my wife had plumb and apple crumble, while I had the tarte tartin. We both thought our deserts were good, but not great.

Total tab for the evening, including tip, was 94 pounds (say $145-50). One note about tipping, which I should have made before. Tipping in the UK is a much more set-piece affair, with a 12.5% gratuity added to most checks. While it is not considered out of bounds to add a bit to the 12.5%, it is considered over-the-top to tip beyond say 20%.

The interior of POSD is an old pub, with lots of dark wood. That said, the place is in great shape, and it's very much a hangout for professional twenty and thirty somethings who work in the area, not a hangout of for blue collar workingmen stopping by for a quick pop. The service was solid, by pub standards anyway, and the bloke (British for man or fellow) who took our order was a friendly chap (more British for man or fellow) from Liverpool with whom we chatted about the fortunes of Liverpool's football (British for soccer) team now that they are owned by the same people who bought the Red Sox and ended the Curse.

Upstairs from the pub is a much more formal dining room, which is accessed from an old metal winding staircase at the entrance to the pub. We didn't go up, but the website has a separate menu for the upstairs restaurant, which looks like a more formal version of what is served downstairs.

Anyway, we had a nice time at the POSD and it was a good way to close out the culinary aspect of our vacation.

Here's the link to the website for the Princess of Shoreditch - http://www.theprincessofshoreditch.com/