Richard's review of Bleeding Heart Tavern

The Bleeding Heart is an institution, which has grown from the restaurant (excellent), through bistro (good) to the Tavern (well, read on).

There is an upstairs that always seems to be packed at breakfast, and looks to be the place to be if you want some atmosphere. We were downstairs in an easily forgettable dining room with less atmosphere than the moon. Lunching at this time of the year is always a hard one: the City has come back from its self imposed lunching ban in January, and this time of year is packed with lunches, so I thought I'd just have a starter as a main course with a side salad. I chose the potted shrimp, one of my favourites.

“A starter as a main course size?” the waiter enquired. “No”, I responded “a starter size with a salad”. “So a main course size as a starter?” our waiter came back with. “No, a single, starter sized portion with a salad for my main course”. “So a starter as a main course size?”. This Chaplinesque banter could have gone on all afternoon, but I was hungry and I thought so what, I get two portions of potted shrimp, how bad can that be?

I wasn't that it was bad, it just wasn't good. The potted dish had no zing, no punch; I am guessing, no mace or nutmeg either, those two spices, the seed and its covering, inseparable in life and in potted shrimp.

Like the food, the wine list was serviceable: no surprises, nothing to stand out, but a fair enough selection of safe choices. As it was lunch, we only had the one glass each, a perfectly acceptable Trimbach Riesling, which is a rather good thing to have by the glass (especially given the serious pours that Charlie Chaplin gave us).

I will certainly try the breakfast upstairs here but, for a business lunch, I'll stick to the main restaurant and if it is a more relaxed affair, the bistro.