EALING PARK TAVERN - REVISITED

I'm SO excited! One of my favourite local pubs closed months ago for a refurb by its new owners - and now it's reopened. I've been waiting (not very) patiently for months and I can confirm that Ealing Park Tavern is back and better than ever.

I was invited to go and try out the new menu so headed down the day before New Years Eve with the boy. We started with drinks, as always. They've got a new cocktail menu and a friend of ours making the amazing cocktails there. I went for the porn star martini which was refreshing and the perfect balance of sharp, sweet and fruity with the shot of Prosecco.

The boy went for a local lager, which was great too. Ealing Park Tavern have their own microbrewery and will be selling their own beer very soon. But it was the food we were really there for. Whenever I'm reviewing somewhere the boy doesn't really get a look in when it comes to ordering starters as I always pick 2 to share... I chose the Tavern croquettes; shrimp and bacon, black pudding, brawn - which were recommended by our lovely waitress, and the confit lamb, fennel and red onion with capers and chives. Both were as good as they sound. The croquettes were perfect - oozy and gooey insides with a crispy coating, each with their own flavour. I loved the contrast in the fillings of each of them - the shrimp and bacon was creamy with a spicy kick, while the brawn was super meaty. They were served with a garlic homemade mayonnaise that brought the whole dish together. 

The lamb was slow and low cooked to produce tender, flavoursome meat. The accompanying fennel, red onion and caper salad cut through the rich meat and was a great match to make a lovely starter dish.

I can't drink cocktails with main courses so we got a bottle of the very reasonably priced La Bastide, Elégance, Tarn, France 2013, Sauvignon Blanc, which is £21 a bottle and was delicious. While I'm on the subject of price I have to say that's another thing that's improved at EPT. Before the refurb the servings were quite small but pretty expensive, but prices have now gone down and portion sizes have gone up, which can't be a bad thing! Mains now range from £11-24 and they do deals on various dishes throughout the week as well.

They've also covered nearly every wall surface of the pub with taxidermy! Wherever you look there are stuffed animals and birds on the walls, including these 2 moose(s?) behind the bar.

After getting distracted by dead animal ornaments it was back to the table for mains. I had cod, sea vegetables and mussels, that was SO good. The cod was perfectly cooked (I had some very overcooked, overpriced cod in a restaurant recently) but none of that here. Juicy fish with crispy skin on top of samphire and seaweeds with mussels in and out of their shells, with a creamy but slightly sharp sauce. I order dauphinoise potatoes as well, which were fantastic - rustic in presentation, but rich and creamy, though my eyes were bigger than my stomach and I only actually managed 2 bites, as I was saving room for pudding too.

The boy, predictably, went for the steak. But this wasn't your average steak - it was a shorthorn rib of rare breed beef that had been aged for 45 days and tasted absolutely wonderful. It came with bernaise sauce and gravy, as well as chips and a bit of salad. The boy always orders steaks blue, and this came as requested. It was a huge portion of meat!

EPT has always had an open kitchen at the back of the dining room, but a rejig of furniture has meant that tables are up close and personal with the pass now. I couldn't help but notice a lot of orders for fish and chips come out, and when it looks like this, it's something I would order too. No idea how they get it so curly but I love it!

We saved a little room for pudding and shared the lemon verbena posset with garibaldi biscuits. The biscuits were crunchy and sweet and so good dipped in the creamy posset. Though we'd both declared ourselves pretty full before pudding the posset disappeared in about 2 minutes!

It was slightly disconcerting sitting right next to a stuffed puffin, as that's what my parents dog is called, but I really like the feel and look of the new Ealing Park Tavern, and am already booked to go back next week. To see their full menu and for info on where they are (very near South Ealing station) check their website out here.