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Prospective in-laws

tomdhu

By tomdhu
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tomdhu

tomdhu

Posted
Posted

They want to meet up and take us out to a nice restaurant of OUR CHOICE. They are in Clapham and we are in Dulwich.


My question is.... is there a really GOOD restaurant along the line of the 37 bus route that would be easy for all of us to meet up at?


Oh, and it has to be open on a Sunday night - 17th December.


All suggestions welcome.

Tom


PS The good news,they are paying!

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Cardelia

Cardelia

Posted
Posted

I second Trinity, especially if someone else is paying!


The Camberwell Arms is hugely overrated in my experience. When I went there they had a huge issue with seasoning (virtually no salt on anything) and they seemed unable to cook a pork chop correctly. They then had the gall to claim that it was meant to be black, dry and tough! After sending it back the second chop was only marginally more acceptable, but they took so long to cook it that hunger won out over the desire to have a properly cooked meal. I hope my experience is atypical, but I have no intention of going back to find out.

JohnL

JohnL

Posted
Posted

Cardelia Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> I second Trinity, especially if someone else is

> paying!

>

> The Camberwell Arms is hugely overrated in my

> experience. When I went there they had a huge

> issue with seasoning (virtually no salt on

> anything) and they seemed unable to cook a pork

> chop correctly. They then had the gall to claim

> that it was meant to be black, dry and tough!

> After sending it back the second chop was only

> marginally more acceptable, but they took so long

> to cook it that hunger won out over the desire to

> have a properly cooked meal. I hope my experience

> is atypical, but I have no intention of going back

> to find out.


All the salt was taken by the Turkish restaurant opposite then :)


(and I like the turkish place - it's meant to be salty)

edcam

edcam

Posted
Posted

Completely disagree. The food at The Camberwell Arms is great. If you think they don't know how to cook, you probably shouldn't eat out.


Cardelia Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> I second Trinity, especially if someone else is

> paying!

>

> The Camberwell Arms is hugely overrated in my

> experience. When I went there they had a huge

> issue with seasoning (virtually no salt on

> anything) and they seemed unable to cook a pork

> chop correctly. They then had the gall to claim

> that it was meant to be black, dry and tough!

> After sending it back the second chop was only

> marginally more acceptable, but they took so long

> to cook it that hunger won out over the desire to

> have a properly cooked meal. I hope my experience

> is atypical, but I have no intention of going back

> to find out.

Cardelia

Cardelia

Posted
Posted

edcam Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Completely disagree. The food at The Camberwell

> Arms is great. If you think they don't know how

> to cook, you probably shouldn't eat out.


On the day I visited, they didn't know how to cook. Perhaps I was unlucky and the kitchen was having an off day, or there were a load of trainee chefs, or whatever. But my pork was overcooked to the point where it resembled a lump of charcoal attached to a piece of old leather. Twice. Does that sound right to you?

edcam

edcam

Posted
Posted

No. But it bears no resemblance to any experience I've had there (having been many times.)


Cardelia Wrote:


> On the day I visited, they didn't know how to

> cook. Perhaps I was unlucky and the kitchen was

> having an off day, or there were a load of trainee

> chefs, or whatever. But my pork was overcooked to

> the point where it resembled a lump of charcoal

> attached to a piece of old leather. Twice. Does

> that sound right to you?

DovertheRoad

DovertheRoad

Posted
Posted

> edcam Wrote:

> --------------------------------------------------

> > Completely disagree. The food at The

> Camberwell

> > Arms is great. If you think they don't know

> how

> > to cook, you probably shouldn't eat out.



Overly harsh. Fine to disagree with their claim that it's overrated but don't devalue their actual personal experience and tell them they shouldn't eat out. Even good places can't get it right all of the time. It happens. Especially with pork.

edcam

edcam

Posted
Posted

On the contrary, I think their comment was overly harsh, especially about a place that is of such a consistently high standard.


DovertheRoad Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------


> Overly harsh. Fine to disagree with their claim

> that it's overrated but don't devalue their actual

> personal experience and tell them they shouldn't

> eat out. Even good places can't get it right all

> of the time. It happens. Especially with pork.

Cardelia

Cardelia

Posted
Posted

edcam Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> On the contrary, I think their comment was overly

> harsh, especially about a place that is of such a

> consistently high standard.


I can see why you might think it was a harsh comment based on the one (well, two) overcooked pieces of pork I mentioned. Especially if you have different experiences of the place. But we went to the Camberwell Arms knowing full well that it had a really good reputation for food. Perhaps our expectations were a bit high for a gastropub, but there were lots of minor faults with our meal that I wouldn't have expected from a place which prides itself on its foodie reputation. For example:


A starter of cured salmon with pickled red cabbage was very underseasoned. The dish was also unbalanced because the pickled cabbage was far too acidic for fish and the salmon flavour was lost.


My twice-burnt pork chop came with polenta which was also underseasoned. And lumpy.


My wife had brisket of beef which was another unbalanced dish; the pickles on the side of this were far too delicate for the strong beef. At the time we said that if the pickles had been swapped between the salmon starter and beef main, both dishes would have been immeasurably better.


Dessert of salted caramel ice cream was just a caramel ice cream with not even a hint of salt. To be fair I think they bought in the ice cream so this may not have been the kitchen's fault, but the dish still wasn't right.



As I said, perhaps we were unlucky and the kitchen had an off day. Based on your experiences it sounds like they're usually much better than we found them to be. But they're clearly not of a *consistently* high standard (as a glance at Tripadvisor will show), and they're not in the same league for quality as some of the restaurants mentioned above.

edcam

edcam

Posted
Posted

Nope. Have just visited a lot and the above experience is not one I recognise. Actually, if anything, the service can be the problem there. That's quite patchy but not the food.


DovertheRoad Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> ^^^ mates with owner.

JoeLeg

JoeLeg

Posted
Posted

Cardelia Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

But they're clearly not of a

> *consistently* high standard (as a glance at

> Tripadvisor will show), and they're not in the

> same league for quality as some of the restaurants

> mentioned above.



Please please please do not rely on Tripadvisot for ANYTHING. As the recent 'Shed' restaurant in East Dulwich should show, it's easy to fool that website.


It's generally ridiculed by the restaurant industry, with many tales of customers being caught lying, fake reviews and generally hilariously innacurate accounts of stuff that just never happened. I've personally witnessed a customer who was refused any more alcohol because they were so drunk they could hardly stand declare that they were going to go home and tell lies about us online. And they did! We thought it hilarious...


Seriously, that website has long since lost what credibility it might have once had.

NewWave

NewWave

Posted
Posted

Seabag Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Forecast at 01200 hrs on Wednesday 13 th of

> December

>

> Camberwell Arms is good often, occasional patchy,

> with variable cooking at times.

>

> Noise high often, with wind blowing in from the

> East. Beef good, Pork Chop bad.

>

> This is the end of the forecast...



I find the accoustics so bad there that is actually an unpleasant dining experience as its so noisy.

also Ive eaten there a few times and also find it overrated.

The Crooked well is much nicer with a better ambience

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