Sunday Lunch at Lamberts, Balham
A couple of Sunday’s ago myself and my daughter (owners of food blog Livelifelovecake.com), decided to round up the family for Sunday lunch at Lambert’s on Balham High Road.
We were greeted by friendly staff who took our coats from us and showed us to our table. The restaurant isn’t very large, fairly cosy, which is nice and we couldn’t hear other people’s conversations so we didn’t feel on top of other people. The decor was nice and fresh with paintings on the wall.
We took a while to order as we couldn’t make our minds up and unfortunately a couple of items were off the menu. For starter I ordered Middlewhite Pork Terrine with chutney and toast. It was like chunks of cold pork pressed together with aspic. I wasn’t a lover of this although it did taste fresh and the chunks of pork were nice, but I would prefer a pate or parfait. The toast was a little hard and I was worried I may cut the inside of my mouth on it. The chutney was tasty and went well with the dish.
I opted for the Rare roasted Angus beef for my main meal – my first choice would have been the pork, but they had run out. This was served with roast potatoes, carrots, parsnip and topped with a large Yorkshire pudding. Gravy and horseradish sauce was provided on the side.The gravy was a little on the watery side for me, I like it thicker and I found the carrots were rather cold. The potatoes were lovely, hot and quite crispy and the parsnip was nice too. The beef was done very nicely and cut fairly thick, a little gristle and fat but I suppose it’s what’s to be expected from a joint. My husband had lamb and I wished I had ordered that as it was tastier than my beef.
For my dessert I had hot chocolate fondant served with homemade Meantime stout ice-cream. Our first choice for all of us bar one was the white chocolate cheesecake, but this had run out along with the apple crumble which they replaced with pear. But the chocolate fondant was very nice, it was fresh and light, not too stodgy and plenty of hot chocolate oozing out of the middle. On top was a serving of Meantime stout ice-cream which was rather tasty and a pleasant change to the usual vanilla. I had a little of my husband’s pear crumble which was very nice too and lashings of hot custard.
This was all washed down with a bottle of fresh tap water and we picked a lovely white wine, The Wing Walker Voignier 2010 Alpha Domus, Hawkes Bay, New Zealand which I can thoroughly recommend. It was so fruity, very much like a Marlborough which we all love.
Sunday lunch at Lambert’s is available from noon until 5pm, two courses £20 and three at £24. A good price I think so well worth a visit. They have an À la carte menu for the evening as well as a set menu and also a weekday lunch menu. We enjoyed our meal – it was a shame that a couple of our first choices weren’t available but our meal was booked for late afternoon – and wouldn’t hesitate on returning.
Living life, loving cake
A & H x