The Old Brewery Tavern, Canterbury (Michael Caines Taverns)

LivingForever · The Old Brewery Tavern, Canterbury (Michael Caines Taverns)

Hey guys,

As some of you might know, Jo and I had a table booked for Michael Caines' Brewery Tavern in Canterbury last night - well here's the verdict!

First of all we arrived really early so we ended up having a couple of drinks in the pub bit first, sitting in a cosy corner under a giant Plasma TV showing 'The Weakest Link'! A couple of G&Ts (with Bombay Sapphire!) for Jo and a couple of glasses of Leffe blonde for me... disappointingly, despite one of the suggestions on the pub's website being 'A Cool pint of Hoegaarden White Beer', they didn't actually have any. Strike one!

For some reason I was already a bit tipsy after this, I tried to blame it on not having had any lunch but then I remembered that I had. q12

Anyway, we got our table at 6.30 and went through to the restaurant section which is basically decked out like a giant conservatory - the roof is pure glass which I imagine is lovely on a starry night, and the tables and chairs (or at least the 2-person ones) definitely had the air of outdoor French bistro about them. I wouldn't say it was cosy as such but it was nice!

Strike two came when the menu arrived and it turned out not to be the same one as on the website! A lot of it was similar but Jo seemed like she'd spent all day at work picking what she was going to have, and most of it didn't appear to be on there. q11

But anyway, there was more than enough to choose from! For starters we went for Hythe Smoked Salmon (Jo) and a fancy Prawn Cocktail with chunky bread (me) - full marks for the local produce! I've been asked to say that the smoked salmon was delicious, and the prawn cocktail was very nice although there wasn't anything that fancy about it.

For main course, we both chose the fillet steak, which we were looking forward to, until the waiter came back a few minutes later to say that they only had one left! Strike three! Bearing in mind that it was Friday night and it was only 6.30, I think that was a bit of a shame. Hopefully they'd had a run on it at lunchtime and it wasn't because the place is failing to attract customers so they couldn't afford to stock the kitchen properly!

I ended up going for the Romney Marsh Lamb steaks instead which actually were delicious and I enjoyed just as much if not more than a fillet! They came on a bed of roasted peppers, tomatoes and onions and with a side portion of chunky chips which certainly lived up to their name! In fact they were so big they were less like chips and more like Roast potatoes in texture. Jo's fillet steak was apparently very nice but slightly rarer than she liked, which was a bit of a shame, but the general verdict was good!

Amazingly after all that we still had room for dessert, Jo had a passionfruit cheesecake, and I had a ridiculously chocolatey chocolate brownie, both of them were nice but they would have been nicer with a bit of refreshing ice cream on the side, instead of the dollop of very thick, almost clotted cream which they came with.

Anyway, all in all I'd say it was delicious although at just a fraction under £100 for all that plus a bottle of wine, I can't help feeling it was a little bit expensive for what it was - very good pub food! In fact the prices of the main restaurant next door didn't seem that different so I reckon we'll be trying that next time instead of going back!

James

Nannyp

Excellent review.

Blimey, sounds very expensive and didn't do what it says on the tin!!
Shame about the Hoegaarden being unavailable, one of Mark's favourite beers.

Poor you, Jo not willing to give up her steak then

, she's a carnivor comme ta maman

It sounds like Mark will continue on his quest for a "typically English pub", and I won't be taking him there as part of this search.

Hope your neck is okay

Oh and, I am pleased I live here, and go out for a decent meal and a bottle of wine and have change from £50

dingsy

Crikey-sounds very expensive for what was-I thought it was 2 starters for £25-maybe it was 1 starter! As a contrast, his lunch menu at the Royal Clarence in Exeter, is about £20 (can't rememeber exactly!), for 3 courses. It's quite nice, but he's resting on his laurels methinks-I wouldn't even dream at eating at Gidleigh Park, his other spot in this neck of the woods!

Shame about all the disappointments, on the organistaion front-not having enough steak at 6.30 is very poor...As you said,pub food at grossly inflated prices. What a shame.

MissMuppet

Just to set the record straight, the meal was really nice... James obviously didn't do it justice in his review! The downside was the price but we did have a few drinks on that as well and we both had 3 courses and a bottle of wine.

The £25 thing was for 2 courses and a bottle of house wine, there was about 4 dishes to choose from so we went for the normal menu! It all sounded nice... My salmon was really delicious, and the steak too!