The Scolt Head

The latest of De Beauvoir’s Victorian pubs reinvented to suit the changing local demographic serves up shabby chic on a generous scale. Old regulars have not been abandoned, though: there’s a big screen for TV sports, plus a shelf of original Penguin paperbacks. Wines are affordable but not dull, the beers are good & Monday quiz nights are popular. The menu is short; the food, unfussy & punchy. Grilled squid with chorizo & chickpeas or a red pepper frittata might be followed by roast organic chicken with mash & spring greens or a perfect slab of rump steak with chips, rocket & aioli. Though it’s wholesome stuff & generally well executed, dinner may be disturbed by the parade of drinkers pushing past tables to the toilets.