Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Review of...The Spitfire, Fulham Palace Road, Hammersmith

Went with Corie and Gus to a Polish restaurant in Hammersmith, to celebrate Lynn's birthday.

LOCATION: 96 Fulham Palace Road, London W6.
A pain in the bum for East Londoners, but easy to find, just south of Hammersmith flyover on Fulham Palace Road. 5 mins walk from station.

AMBIANCE: (8/10) Local, relaxed, quiet.

SERVICE: (10/10) Lovely, friendly, family-centric. This reminds me a bit of my favourite restaurant, Boneparte in Hornchurch another fine restaurant in the most unlikely of areas. It feels family run, though who knows? Service actually was pretty close to perfect actually with no fuss about the two guide dogs we bought with us. On leaving, the maitre d', a wonderfully helpful lady, gave us a couple of bottles of beer to take home with us. Never have I been offered service like this.

THE GRUB: (10/10) Quite frankly, I can only find the tiniest quibble with the food here and that is that there wasn't enough of it. Far from being stingy, the problem I had was that I just wanted to unzip my stomach and start all over again. I had the Hunters Plate to start with - a combination of chopped smoked meats in a rich gravy, served with bread and butter. Main for me was lamb rolled in bacon and onion and served with saute potatoes, beetroot, sauerkraut and cooked cabbage. Divine. Dessert was warm pancakes filled with soft cheese, apple and sultanas. By the usual standards of grub, this was both unusual, filling and and well made food. Tiny it was not.

VERDICT: I don't want to tell people about this. If you find it, keep it to yourself as its one of London's best kept cullinary secrets, surely. We found a couple of similar restaurants in New York. Local, well-kept little places hiding in the back streets, frequented by those who know the deal and like what they get. Off the tourist trail and all the better for it.

£20 per head with beers.

9.5/10 and my Pick of the Year 2006

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