The Hinds Head

I have eaten at this place several times and the one consistent factor is the friendly but inefficient service.
This is just a money machine hiding behind an excellant chef but gives little regard to its customers. But more fool us we keep going ther to tell everyone that we ate at Hestons pub.
This time the food was good but I have also eaten badly before again inconsistent.
Overall it really is hit or miss and therefore do not believe all the press hype… it can be excellant and it can be terrible but what it always is is inconsistent

You need to manage your expectations for the Hind's Head – it's not Blummenthal's culinary genius (you need to go 50 yards down the road, get on the one month waiting list, and pay £150 a head for that) but it's decent pub grub in a traditional country pub setting.

Service was very polite and friendly when we visited but painfully slow (about an hour between starter and mains).

All the food we had was good, some very good, but none great. The oxtail and kidney pudding was a winner and the whole lemon sole was far too good for your average pub. Starters of onion tart and mussels were slightly disappointing but then onion tart and mussels are never going to set the culinary world on fire.

A pleasant meal, I wouldn't hurry back, but a word of warning – these are not pub grub prices – £20 for oxtail and kidney pudding and chips is nothing short of outrageous.

This restaurant is trading on Heston Blumentals name. It is very expensive with attrocious service and indifferent food. To be avoided.

We decided on the cheaper arm of Heston's empire because i am a fussy eater and thought the Fat Duck wouldnt work well for me. The setting is extremely pretty, a very lovely pub, and staff were very friendly. We had booked for Friday at half 6, other diners included newlyweds (complete in top and tails), families etc so a real mixed bunch.

Service was good, drinks were lovely and the bread was freshly made and warm. For our mains, we had crab pate and red onion tart, respectively. Both were delicious and scoffed up quickly. There was a wide array of mains to choose from (pies, various steaks), though the triple cooked chips which Heston was famed for were not on the menu as ‘wrong season’. I ended up with rump steak, and my partner had chicken and mushroom pie, both lovely though think we preferred the starters more. My partner was full by then but i had a simple strawberry trifle, which was greed on my part.

I think the Hind's Head is a lovely pub though i do feel it is on par with many other gastropubs ive been to – we have been to better places, mainly those a bit further out which have been recommended by locals – i just dont feel this place is outstanding, as i had kind of hoped. It's great for somewhere special ie the name and reasonably good food, it is in a lovely pretty area (very romantic) which isnt too far from London – a really nice way to end the week in style.

2 Jun 09
Glumly I have to report that the foregoing was short-lived, failing to sustain standard of 5 months. Last night, only one course out of four was very good, added to which service had slipped (not waiting staff, but kitchen seemed slow). A salad of preserved lemons was new so I ordered it having asked what went with the lemons. As promised, it arrived with pea-shoots – such a poorly balanced tasting starter which cried out for a nice blob of crab or something. Best was my partner’s pheasant terrine.

Tonight 29 Apr 09 :-

Venue/Atmosphere – as before good pub (Upstairs good for them as they could accommodate a bus load. and good for diners at ground level, saved from being subjected to large party noise.

Service – exceedingly obliging – no hesitation or bother upon a special request/need

Food – Not quite so good as before, but in terms of taste almost every bit as. Fell short at texture; puff pastry was softly yielding without a flake in sight. Flavour : Prawn and crab starter less than perfect, partly because it was so difficult to extract a balanced spoonful from the whisky style glass it was served in, plus partly owing to very cool temperature and may be the avocado content diluted the flavour a tad.

Wine – Boringly good – sadly we chose the same despite an interesting list.

Conclusiong – For a last minute booking when we required immediate sustenance with minimum fuss……near faultless.

Jan/Feb 2009 :

Traditional food is given a 21st century makeover in real style at this pub of historic setting. No ordinary pub grub served here now compared two or so years ago, when we were somewhat disappointed more than once, sufficiently so to make us go absent for a big gap. This week terrifically fresh ingredients were emphasised by deft execution.

Good nutty bread and creamy French style butter was followed by :
A warm goat’s cheese and jammy onion tart not quite perfect, but so enjoyable as to make me overlook the fact that only the slimmest edge of the flaky pastry was crisp.
Powdered duck which wasn’t, more like rillettes (apparently powdered referred to the spicing process). From the one mouthful my other half sacrificed , spicy orange flavour married well with the duck and fig chutney, which we both placed on the have again list. My lemon sole was rather small (ordered from the specials) but alongside was a generous garnish of rich crab in a salad with preserved lemons – the thought makes my tummy rumble now. With side orders it proved plentiful. Chicken, leek and ham pie was almost comical in presentation, shaped into a tall dome placed on top of a circle of mash surrounded by mustard sauce – I guess it’s a canny way to get a greater proportion of crisp top versus pie base, but I fail to fathom how the chef did it. Also something we’d both order again.

A good spectrum of wines favouring no particular part of the world made interesting choosing and we effortlessly drained a bottle of Spanish Red from Ribera del Duero region, which guess what – we’d order again. Service has also improved…..chirpy, knowledgeable young waitress enhanced the experience. Whilst still a pub like Royal Oak at Paley Street, dishes here have a little more finesse but on par price wise.

it was GREAT!!!

I really wish the Hinds Head was in SW London so I could use it as my local on a Sunday. It's got such a warm feel to it and reminds me a lot of the type of pubs I'd visit in the Lake District when I was much, much younger. It manages to do what it does very well with no hint of an overly contrived or dressed up environment. Friendly staff look after you very well from the moment you walk through the door and the changing menu is short but full of great dishes. The rabbit and bacon terrine with cucumber pickles made me question whether I was actually in the middle of the countryside or a multi-Michelin starred venue in town it was so good and the Lancashire hotpot on par with that of my dear old granny, a selection of English cheeses topped it off for me. The wine list looked great – although for me ale was the order of the day. Prices are ridiculously good value as I've spent similar at various Wimbledon gastropubs for appallingly average food. Even adding the cost of a day return from London and you still can't go wrong. Get yourself there as soon a possible!