It’s not often a work event leads to digging out your childhood photo albums, but when I was asked to review the restaurant where I held 11th birthday party, I did exactly that.
The Althorp on Bellevue Road recently reopened its doors following refurbishment, with a new seasonal British menu alongside suitably summery spritz cocktails.
The aim was to carefully restore the Wandsworth Common local, to celebrate the pub’s heritage with modern touches.
Amusingly, I remember this newly-refurbished Young’s pub as Dexter’s Grill, where my primary school friends and family celebrated by birthday, against the back drop of an old fashioned sweet shop in what is now The Common Room at The Althorp.
It seems the pub has grown up with me, and where the sweet shop once was, there is an additional bar.
So 20 years later, I headed back to The Althorp.
Depending on the vibe you are after, there’s a section of this pub for everyone.
We were offered seats outside in the chilly late afternoon sun, the front bar area, which was definitely the busiest, or the back area with it’s own bar and big screen TV.
We opted to watch Arsenal thrash Leeds 5-0 alongside our wholesome meal in the back room.
You can see more about the different event spaces – The Snug and The Common Room – here.
We were in The Common Room, which was relatively quiet, and has it’s own bar, away from the hustle and bustle of the front of the pub.
I started my meal with a healthy and hearty portion of pea & mint humous while mum had the crispy squid.
My generous portion was fresh and full of flavour. The gorgeously green humous was topped with cucumber, carrots and radishes, and a side of focaccia.
Needing to leave room for two more courses, I did have to sacrifice some radishes.
Sticking with the green theme, I opted for the confit garlic pesto gnocchi. While it was nice to see more vegetables I like (no aubergines, mushrooms or courgettes), this was the only vegetarian option that wasn’t a plant-based burger.
Although I should note ‘day boat fish’ and ‘pie of the day’ are also in the menu.
Now admittedly, I don’t have the best track record with gnocchi (see below) but this was one of the better gnocchi dishes I’ve had.
The smell of garlic was the star of the show. And the al dente peas, broad beans and purple sprouting broccoli were filling and flavoursome. Was gnocchi the best choice of carb? I’m undecided.
Although Young’s pubs have a reputation of being on the pricier side, I was still shocked to see my vegetarian confit garlic pesto gnocchi was more expensive than my mum’s order of pork, leek & apple sausages.
Talking of mum’s main meal – it was really decently sized and mum really enjoyed it.
The sausages were served with crushed new potatoes, hispi cabbage, pork crackling and gravy.
For pudding I opted for the peach & apricot crumble which was delicious. I may not be a gnocchi convert but I am a crumble convert and I loved the choice of peach and apricot over a more traditional apple and blackcurrant, for example.
The crumble came with a side of vanilla ice cream.
The only real let down was mum’s triple chocolate brownie (the only dish of mum’s I was actually able to try) as it was a bit claggy.
During our meal, our attentive waiter also chose two bottles of white wine for us which went down a treat.
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Images courtesy of Lucy Dyer
