Water House

Was so surprised to find this and have an enormous homemade burger and chips for £6. Even more impressive was the free bottled water on the table, not hassled to buy drinks, not charged service (apparently they only do that in the evening) and could have had a side salad instead of the chips, but the homemade chips were worth the calories (and the free mayo). Also nice atmosphere and they said they do take away…

This is one of our ‘best finds’ of all our local restaurants. Whilst the food here can be slightly erratic, the young chefs are clearly aspirational and dedicated to interesting modern english cooking: when they hit the high notes with really good dish, you can't quite believe this restaurant isn't packed to the gills on a saturday night. When you take into account the low cost and high quality of the dishes served here, coupled with a nice wine list and a lovely canal side location (great in the summer) this restaurant deserves to be turning people away, yet it sometimes feels a bit lacklustre. A little more consistency, a few more options for vegetarians and girly carb-haters, and better presentation of the venue (not leaving sacks of ingredients all over the modern and tasteful bar, for example) could turn it into a real success. We will continue to support the team here – we think it has great potential – and if you're stuck for a neighbourhood restaurant and haven't tried it yet, I would thoroughly recommend the Water House. Just don't expect it to be Fifteen – you're not paying enough for that!