Quality Chop House

The Quality Chop House carries deliberate echoes of its 19th-century origins by offering ‘a chop and a glass’ or a two-course and coffee ‘daily lunch’ for £15. Not quite the generosity of the original ‘plate of meat, bread and half a pint of ale for six pence’, but well-priced quality nonetheless. Wine rather than ale is the main draw now (though Kernel beer is offered). There’s a wine shop alongside the bar and dining room, with plenty to interest both casual sippers and serious imbibers. Mainly Old World with good regional representation, the list takes in interesting New World wines, not least on the ‘collector’s list’. Failing a Hatton Gardens’ salary, explore the by-the-glass selection; our £6 choices from Portugal and the southern Rhône were fresh and characterful. Knowledgeable buying is evident in the food too: well-sourced British fish, meat and artisan cheeses, heritage tomatoes and carrots, and Tuscan lardo di colonnata, which, on our last visit, was draped over a fillet of gurnard to good effect, served with creamed brown butter. Flavours are punchy: own-cured wild salmon was doused in unsweet mustard; tiny carrots came dressed with truffled tunworth cheese. Desserts also seemed geared to masculine palates; a chocolate mousse proved a deep glassful of dense ganache. Of a piece, perhaps, with the traditional decor of black and white chequerboard floor and dark wooden furniture – though the wine bar can be a light, bright option on a sunny day.