Between Chancery Lane and Fleet Street, this outpost of the ETM empire (the Gun, the Botanist, the Jugged Hare and so on) is perfectly pitched at affluent local workers. It’s a rebuild of an older pub of the same name on the site, and follows the model of the group’s other venues: smartly traditional ground-floor bar with a small but well-kept selection of real ales (two Adnam’s, one Wandle on our visit); rather posh dining room on the first, complete with tablecloths and attentive service.
And tallying with our experience of other ETM pubs, the ambitious food is almost there – it reads very well on the menu, it looks fantastic on the plate, but afterwards there’s a feeling something is missing. However, that’s a minor criticism. Both our starters were delicate ensembles of summery ingredients – a salad of young leek, carrot and scotched quail’s egg with goat curd, and a mackerel fillet with mackerel tartar and pickled beetroot. Mains are mainly meaty, with the likes of stuffed saddle of rabbit, mutton with grilled tongue and wild garlic purée, or 45-day aged sirloin all making an appearance. Most evenings, the wood-panelled bar throngs with unwinding besuited professionals.
