Prince Alfred & Formosa Dining Rooms

This bastion of lavish Maida Vale Victoriana has two very distinct faces. Enter on one side & you’ll have to stoop through the warren of partitioned snugs that make up the pub, which still retains its darkly intimate Dickensian feel. Come in the other way & you’ll encounter a rather chic dining room crowned by a mammoth skylight & lined with black & white wallpaper depicting scenes from Little Venice & the nearby canal. The two areas complement one another perfectly. Start with a pint of Bombardier ale, & then move through for some food from a daily changing menu of deft, imaginative dishes based on carefully sourced ingredients. Tempters might include smoked wild venison salad with onion marmalade, roast quails on bubble & squeak, or fillets of sea bass with roasted butternut squash & saffron sauce. Two-courses for a tenner is a steal at lunchtime.