A few weeks ago, Cathy the Gastronomer was in London for a short stop before her big trip to France with her husband and mother and we arranged to meet at Maltby Street for St John’s vanilla custard filled doughnuts. We also arranged to meet the next day for lunch at The Mall Tavern – it was a Sunday and I convinced them that they needed a proper roast lunch! It would be a first visit to this pub for all of us.
We were seated in the bar area – every table available had been booked up. Our waitress was efficient but quite gruff while we were ordering. We refused to let this ruin our meal though and started cooing over the cute tea towel napkins at each place.
The slightly disturbingly named Cow Pie (£14.50) came out looking glorious. Crisp golden brown pastry topped an excellent beef and ale filling. And in the centre of that pie was a big marrow bone whose marrow had been scooped out, mixed with garlicky, herby breadcrumbs and then stuffed back in – it was fabulous.
A Chicken Kyiv (£14.50) came out looking marvellously spherical and sat on top of a potato rosti and some slaw. And yes, as expected, a lot of delicious garlic butter came gooshing out when we cut into it – I’m such a sucker for a good chicken kiev.
The roast dinners were very good but to me, still not a patch on the two previous dishes. The Roast Beef (£15.00) was flavourful and was a generous serving (4-5 good slices) with lots of potatoes, carrots, cabbage and a good Yorkshire pudding.
The Roast Pork Loin (£15.00) had come recommended by our waitress and the loin was indeed tender. It was very good and was perhaps even better than the beef that day. Both roast dinners came with the appropriate sauces (horseradish and apple for our two roasts) and plenty of gravy.
Our waitress very kindly packed up the leftovers for us and we set to sharing just one dessert between us (we couldn’t handle any more). It had to be the restaurant’s signature Arctic Rolls (£6.50) – slices of ice cream covered in a thin layer of sponge cake – and we could choose three flavours of the ones available. We chose the Mango Lassi, Original and Tart Lemonade Tart. Mango tasted very much of alphonso mangoes, the original was vanilla ice cream with raspberry jam, and tart lemonade tart was full of the flavour of delicious bitter peel.
Not sure why but by the end of the meal, our waitress seemed to have warmed to us and we even got a bit of a smile. And phew, I’m glad that Cathy did enjoy the meal! Bookings are essential on a Sunday afternoon.
The Mall Tavern
71-73 Palace Gardens Terrace
Notting Hill Gate
London W8 4RU
Tamarind and Thyme 
Tue, 10 Jul, 2012 at 18:25
Thats a pretty good looking cow pie!! Nice blog :0)
Mon, 16 Jul, 2012 at 13:30
Thank you, lairbooo! Thanks for dropping by!
Tue, 10 Jul, 2012 at 20:13
I can’t believe we both wrote up The Mall Tavern on the same day. Our timing is impeccable!
Thank you again for insisting on a Sunday roast. What a wonderful tradition. I hope we’ll get to do it again sometime. XO.
Mon, 16 Jul, 2012 at 13:38
And it feels healthier than fish and chips! Next time, perhaps I’ll be in your part of the world!
Tue, 10 Jul, 2012 at 21:17
I wish TMT were closer to me, I do love Jesse’s style/ cooking.
Mon, 16 Jul, 2012 at 13:39
I like his smart comfort food he’s developing. Good stuff.
Wed, 11 Jul, 2012 at 13:36
Oh, I love traditional Brit food – and that all looks delicious, especially the pie! Shame the waitress was so gruff to begin with, but at least she warmed up to you guys! 🙂
Mon, 16 Jul, 2012 at 13:40
No idea what that was about! She seemed pissed off at first that we ordered the pie (20 minutes! she grunted) but then it was all good. Thank goodness.
Thu, 12 Jul, 2012 at 07:00
I always rate a pub roast dinner by the vegetables and they look like good ones!
Mon, 16 Jul, 2012 at 13:41
These were excellent! Not at all soggy or grey.
Fri, 13 Jul, 2012 at 06:54
I am glad that something that sounded a tad crass such as cow pie came out looking so divine. And I absolutely love a good old chicken kyiv. Good thing you did not let the waitress’ gruff disposition ruin a scrummy meal.
Mon, 16 Jul, 2012 at 13:42
It sounded nasty, didn’t it? Thank goodness it was fantastic – it was an excellent pie.
Sat, 14 Jul, 2012 at 08:38
That’s not a cow pie! A cow pie is about the size of a washing-up bowl, and has horns sticking out!
(Maybe you didn’t have the ‘Dandy’ and ‘Desperate Dan’ in Vancouver??) 😀
Mon, 16 Jul, 2012 at 13:44
I didn’t! And now that I’ve googled Desperate Dan and Cow Pie together, now I understand the bone sticking out in the middle too! Now I get it! Thank you!!!
Sat, 14 Jul, 2012 at 15:38
What is salad doing on a roast lunch?
Mon, 16 Jul, 2012 at 13:45
Just being decoration. Just a few leaves. Don’t worry! 🙂
Sat, 14 Jul, 2012 at 23:36
Oh dear Desperatly Unfunny Dan has bent all the towns lamposts yet again!
Mon, 16 Jul, 2012 at 13:47
Hehe…I’ll admit that I never really got those comics either!
Sat, 14 Jul, 2012 at 23:43
The pie does look nice. The arctic rolls sound nice, they were welcome as a child, back in the 70s, when I also read Dandy Comic (Cow Pie, was comics character ‘Desperate Dans’ food. Arctic Roll needed a kick in to the year 2012, seems like that has been done.
Mon, 16 Jul, 2012 at 13:54
I do like Arctic rolls and yes, it did need to be modernised. I’m not going to be able to eat the cheap version again…
Thanks for the Dandy comic explanation! That explains the marrow bone then!
Sun, 15 Jul, 2012 at 15:17
I have very found memories of the Mall Tavern, particularly the first dinner. Unfortunately mine and Charles pictures weren’t great (too dark) so I never blogged about it. I really like the place.
Mon, 16 Jul, 2012 at 13:55
Ah, the old too dark for photos problem. Luckily, it’s quite bright at lunchtime. I’d recommend booking!
Tue, 17 Jul, 2012 at 19:56
Is that… SALAD on your roast dinner?!
Wed, 18 Jul, 2012 at 11:52
Shh….calm down. It’s ok! Just a few leaves. Decoration, I reckon.
Sat, 27 Oct, 2012 at 17:02
We’ve eaten at the Mall Tavern. Love that place! I’ve also had great food at Portman’s, the Builder’s Arms, oh i can’t remember the names of the others. darn it. but three restaurants come to mind – maggie jones, bumpkin, and the grazing goat.