With people and plans going awry for this week’s roast we decided to take a short trip down Memory Lane to the Cock and Hen in Fulham. You may remember Cock Month became Cock and Bull Month due to the poor quality of pubs with Cock in the name, with the Cock and Hen in Fulham fulfilling our cock requirement. Well, the Cock Tavern, as it is now known, has made some big changes.
Joining Nate and Anya, and baby Lev, to their local, is Darren, sans Francoise as she is in New York, and newcomer Kate.
Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes
There is the new name, which I think we prefer, new decor, not too sure about the purple, new website (tick) and new menu (double tick).
Here is their menu http://www.cocktavern.co.uk/menus.php and I am more than happy with it.
Now, we do like change, and we like change for the better, and, given communication with the Cock Tavern has been good over Twitter we have high hopes that on this second visit, sort of like diet TV shows when they go back to make sure that fatties or skinnies are eating properly, or hoarders are keeping the place clean and tidy, things will be wonderful.
What we said last time…
WEBSITE
The site itself is fugly and not very intuitive.
Fugly
Not Very Intuitive
THE DECOR
The pub has clearly had a makeover. Outside are about four or five tables under umbrellas on a nice decking. Inside the dining area is raised while the rest of the pub is full of comfy leather couches and armchairs. This is definitely a sit and chat pub, not a stand with your mates twenty deep at the bar pub.
THE FOOD
First negative point was that the midweek menu on the website is pretty much the week long menu, the only difference being the inclusion of two specials for Sunday, a roast chicken with veg, and a baked sea bass, that seemed to take everyone’s eye.
What we say this time…
There is a marked change in the interior. The new look is Funky East Village coffee shop/diner complete with booths, eclectic seating including a bubble chair suspended from the ceiling and mirrors on the ceiling.
The music was a little loud though, and I found it intrusive when I first arrived.
Gone are the comfy leather arm chairs and sofas of before, gone are the shin bruising low coffee tables, and in their place are no matching chairs, and coffee shop tables.
The pork scratchings are still there, and have been joined by these lovelies.
Now one thing I did notice is that, although the new menu is substantially better, including a great brunch menu (served til 2pm) the prices are going up too. The whole seabass that everyone loved last time for £9 is now 13.50.
The Food
(From left to right – Eggs Benedict – Nate, Seabass – Anya, pork belly – Darren and Kate)
We also had salt and pepper squid but this arrived much later than expected and didn’t get photographed.
Dessert
(From left to right – Treacle tart and clotted cream – Anya and Kate, bread and butter pudding with boozy prunes – Darren)
Thoughts and Observations (Collective and Individual)
- Kate asked specifically for no cale or peas but still got some when the food came.
- Appetizer didn’t come before the mains.
- I feel they put a lot of effort in but am going to slam them for the eggs Benedict – what I thought was hollandaise was actually butter – Nate. Then when he questioned this the staff member went away and came back to tell us that hollandaise was 90% butter. It was nice of her to come out but being from the US, we have eaten eggs benedict 100s of times for brunch it is not butter, it is eggy, and citrusy. Here is the actual recipe.
- 3 tbsp white wine vinegar
- 6 peppercorns
- 1 dried bay leaf
- 2 eggs, yolks only
- 125g/4oz butter
- lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste
- If the squid didn’t have so much salt it would be nice but… but it does – Nate – It was actually inebible.
- Help is really nice
- I wanna give them the benefit of the doubt – Nate
- I like the old school music – Anya – it was Blondie, New Order, The Stranglers
- I’m with you – Kate on the music
- I would have liked it a bit crunchy – Kate on the pork, which had disappointly soft crackling.
- Eggplant, raisins and cornichons but it works, it is well presented – Anya on her fish, a new dish the chef was working on
- Anya and Kate had treacle tart – Kate asked for ice cream instead of clotted cream, both then came with ice cream, even though Anya wanted clotted cream
- Treacle tart is nice but the pastry is too firm and thick – Kate
- Bread and butter pudding had a weird after taste – like eggy cheese – Darren who left it
- Overly sweet tart and pastry was too hard – I expected clotted cream and was given ice cream – no attention to detail – Anya
- Only white sugar with latte – Anya
- Love the ambiance – Anya
- Lot of things wrong with the food, but the people were nice, and the things wrong were little and fixable – Nate
- Nice clean disabled toilet/changing room – Nate
- Decor is awesome – Anya
- Baby friendly – brought hot water right away
- No baked apple with meal ether – Kate, noticing something else that was missed
- They really need to sort out communication between waiting staff and kitchen – Anya, listing the count of mistakes – overly salty squid, no clotted cream on ice cream, no demarara sugar with coffee, butter instead of hollandaise, starter brought after main
- It wasn’t hot – Kate I like it hot
- Rugby started and sound ramped up
- And it took an age for the bill
The Scores
Afterword
Last time they scored 3.615265 so there is a bit of an improvement but the score was bumped down and down by silly mistakes that could well be ironed out if they are brought to the right person’s attention. We know the manager from conversations on Twitter and we know he wants to make a difference with this pub, hence the great refurbishment, so hopefully the short list of fixes can be addressed. Really, the staff were wonderful, the new decor is great, the menu was excellent, the Bloody Mary and further bar snacks ideal, but what let The Cock Tavern down was the eye for detail not being there. It has been mentioned before but the squid was far too salty and, even though ordered as an appetiser, came after the mains, given all the gimmicks, like working phones in the booths, you would have thought they could bring brown sugar as well as white with coffee, the menu was either off, or the kitchen are not aware of what they are making as the pork should have come with a baked apple, but didn’t, Kate specifically asked for no green veg but still got it, Kate asked for ice cream with her Treacle tart, and Anya did not, but Anya still got ice cream when she wanted the advertised clotted cream, the pork belly crackling was soft and chewy and mine had a lot of bones in, and the bill took an absolute age to come. All these are little things, but in the end, as you can see for the scores, they were all ticked off from our food scores and brought the average down.
Would I go there again? Absolutely, especially as we now have 4 questers in the hood. Would I recommend it? Yes, I would. While the score does not tell the whole picture, it does illustrate a work in progress, where things just ain’t right yet.
