Last Updated on April 19, 2017
The Trafalgar Tavern, Greenwich:
Greenwich is one of those London ‘villages’ that has as much attraction for the locals as it does for tourists. It’s one of my favourite places to take visitors to London; catch a boat from Westminster Pier eastwards and enjoy the scenery along the banks of the Thames (and the crew’s slightly dodgy history telling), disembark and admire the Cutty Sark, wander through the brilliant market picking up lovely things for a picnic, walk up to the Observatory and stand with one foot in the east and one in the west, walk down through the Naval College and then use Brunel’s tunnel to walk under the Thames itself. It never fails but to impress.
On this visit we had been invited to review the Trafalgar Tavern, an imposing pub on the bank of the Thames. As you can see, it was low tide whilst we were there.
It was a rather wet Monday lunchtime, and so relatively quiet. I imagine that the place is heaving at the weekend and during school holidays as it had a child-friendly menu and plenty of seating outside. We sat by the window in the dining area and contemplated the menu whilst enjoying our drinks, a delicious spicy Shiraz for me and a Young’s London IPA for Alex.
Having spotted someone tucking into whitebait when we arrived, I couldn’t resist ordering them for myself. These arrived perfectly crisp and piping hot. In the interests of my waistline, I donated the bread and half the fishes to Alex! Meanwhile he was enjoying some beautifully presented and perfectly cooked scallops on a bed of pureed cauliflower with crispy pancetta.
I then enjoyed a huge pot of sweet and succulent mussels with samphire and frites of course!
Alex’s main course was less successful, with his pork belly overcooked and hard. We suspect that given the slow cooked nature of this dish that it had been re-heated, and for rather too long.
Fortunately the steamed sticky toffee pudding with a hit of ginger managed to compensate Alex for his disappointing main. I stuck to sorbet, feeling fit to burst by this time!
Throughout our lunch we received excellent service; attentive, knowledgeable, and polite.
This is in such a great location, everything you could really want in a riverside pub – if the sun is shining it’s probably advisable to book.
The Trafalgar Tavern
Park Row,
Greenwich
London SE10 9NW
Looks like a great lunch! Too bad his main was overcooked. Anything that was reheated like that pork belly would be almost (if not completely) uneatable.