The third year of The Quest for the Perfect Sunday Roast starts with a jaunt to Fulham and a fully refurbished Victorian riverside pub The Crabtree. The Crabtree has a large outdoor space overlooking the Thames, function rooms and seats diners for their Sunday lunches in two hour sittings.
The menu is here and holds the standard offerings that we would expect – Roast Beef, chicken and lamb and/or pork. The photo gallery of the pub showed chalkboard above the bar so we are hoping at the point of writing this, prior to the event, that there will be further, and significant, specials offered.
Joining us on the expedition were Questing regulars Lev, Nick and Sue, newcomer Claire, second time questers Jonathan and David, Melinda, Oscar, and the event was the welcome return of Roland, Vera and baby Bethany after a little bit of a hiatus.
Upon arriving we were a little put out by the idea of a 2 hour sitting, especially with Transport for London providing such a shoddy service for us all, but we were never rushed and indeed stayed for three hours beyond our planned dinner time to enjoy the sun in the large seated area overlooking the Thames.
The Food
The menu is changed daily and listed roast pork, chicken and beef as mains, with an extensive list of appetizers. No fish on the menu though, which was a little disappointing for those seeking lighter comestibles.
Starters – from left – Mozzarella salad, soup, potted duck, asparagus in butter sauce, crabcake, ham hock croquette
The mains – from left – Roast beef with Yorkshire Pudding, Roast Chicken, Roasted peppers with couscous and pine nuts 
Desserts – from left – creme brulee, blueberry and almond cake and ice cream, cheese plate, lemon posset with short bread, apple crumble and custard. 
Comments – collective and Individual
Darren – Lovely sunny spot. A really nice airy pub with a great outdoor space. As for the food, the potted duck was cat food and mostly inedible, but the roast beef was great. The Yorkshire was dry and did not yield to the fork but all in all, with great veg and roasties, I was too full for dessert.
Lev – Like the place but would have preferred to sit outside to see the river. Mozzarella salad was average, but interesting as they added raw onion to it. The beef – a lot and tasty! Didn’t particularly like the Yorkshire pudding put the Horseradish sauce complimented the meat very well. A bit too loud for a conversation though.
Oscar – The ham hock croquettes were a touch dry but still good. Roast beef – I asked for rarest possible, which I got. Liked Yorkshire crisp, which I got. Rose kept flowing. Only possible criticism is that it was a little loud, but this was due to it being a very popular and busy bar. Will come back (Ed. – a recommendation indeed).
Sue – Crab cake starter looked exactly like the ham hock croquette. (Ed. – clearly trying to use up ingredients here) Roast chicken for main and ‘did exactly what it said on the tin’ but didn’t WOW me. (Ed. – for international readers “it does exactly what it says on the tin” is the phrase used by wood treatment firm Ronseel to describe it’s best selling products. A phrase that has since fallen into common usage in the UK) Wine kept coming, which was good, should have sat outside but then the only food option is BBQ, which is not the purpose of the Quest. The dessert of lemon possett was lovely. Great choice of music. Toilet were good. Liked them as much as toilets go.
Vera and Roland – The vegetables were fantastic but the beef was run of the mill. The asparagus starter was sweet, juicy, amazing. The Pud was good (Ed. – now that should be on a t-shirt). Overall the food was good but not exceptional.
Claire – asparagus starter was good, if a little chewy. Chicken main was okay, veg lacking a bit in flavour for me and the pudding was disappointing. Saying all that I would come again and it was a really lovely place.
Nick – Nice beef (Ed. – again another t-shirt idea). Nice creme brulee. Nice service. (We had a dedicated server from before even sitting down) Average food and wine. Great outdoor area and wicked tunes.
David and Jonathan – Ham hock was very tasty. Cooked well, meaty. Piccalilli had a nice kick and a crunch. The lemon and herb roast chicken didn’t taste of lemon and herbs and was quite plain.
The Scores
Afterword
Although the score does not really do the venue justice we all enjoyed our trip to The Crabtree W6. The space was wonderful with a separate barbecue area, and a further seated outside space overlooking the water with smoking tables. We stayed, as I said, for hours after, sitting in the sun and enjoying the sun and could have stayed longer. If it was closer to home we would definitely frequent, but stuck way out in Hammersmith I would guess very few, if any of us would return.
That terrace was really lovely.