I’m a bit late with this post as I ate dinner here for Halloween with my sister. We had walked past this place a million times when I used to live in the area, but had never really sat down to see what it was all about. I believe The Mall Tavern has been there for a while, but had changed owners.
One consistent comment about the gastropub was how good the food was. We were a bit hungry, and ordered a couple of appetisers including popcorn chicken and mini sausage rolls.
I don’t normally write this, but OMFG they were great. The chicken was reasonably sized, not just all batter. Well seasoned, full of flavour and you could actually taste the chicken as well. The sausage rolls were perfect replicas of the bigger items, and had the perfect balance between pastry and the meat.
My sister ordered the meat pie, a delicious and beautifully presented dish. It came accompanied unnecessarily with bone marrow as the pie was already pretty rich and meaty.
I wanted something a little bit less rich, so I opted for the roast chicken. It arrived, glowing in its own juices and with a perfectly crisp skin that went well with the juicy meat. So tasty I probably could have eaten more but then we had dessert to go.
The Mall Tavern is known for its interesting combinations, and although I really wanted to try this artic roll, it was an apparently summer-only dish. Instead my sister tried the Carrot cake to decorate which came as a deconstructed plate with almost too many ingredients to know what to do with it.
I wanted the figgy cheesecake, another deconstructed beauty but a lighter and more interesting dessert than normal.
I’d recommend this place, perhaps not for dinner but for a quieter lunch. It was pretty dark and you can tell that the pictures didn’t turn out as great as they normally do and we were lucky enough to be sitting next to the window which had more light. Tables are a bit close together and we found it was one of those places were noise seemed to amplify, and you almost needed to shout across the table to have a conversation. Still, the food is interesting and generally worth it.
Name: : The Mall Tavern
Found at: : 71-73 Palace Gardens Terrace, Notting Hill, London, W8 4RU
Website: : http://www.themalltavern.com/