Garlic Confit's review of Anchor & Hope

I'm sure that most of you know the drill here – no bookings, shared tables and always busy.

That can be annoying, if you are hungry and have to wait an hour for a table, in which time you sink a few too many pints, don't really feel like eating when you sit down, you are a bit too close to the people you are sharing a table with and feel that it was a bit of a waste of an evening.

These things are bad when you are planning a nice evening out with your friends. Logic would dictate that YOU WOULD NOT GO HERE IN THAT SITUATION.

This restaurant not gastropub (it has tables and serves food that is good) is all about the food. Now sometimes the portions are uneven, and sometimes they have run out of what you want by the time you get to order. That is life when everything is cooked fresh.
Yes the service can be erratic and once in a while the odd dish does not work as well as it should do. Overall this is a great place to get what I would call an home cooked meal.

There are always seasonal dishes, great bar snacks and a really good mixture of hearty fayre. The best dishes I have had their over the past few years:

red and yellow beets, goats curd and mint
beetroot, mackerel, watercress

Roast shoulder of kid
slow roast venison

treacle tart

these are the dishes that stick out in my mind, I have had many many more and as I mentioned before once in a while I am less than ecstatic with my meal, but I keep going back because it is good.

Service can be slapdash but there are no aspirations of michelin accolades, so just go and enjoy the food.