St John's

91 Junction Road, N19 5QU

Mr PP claims that it is not fair to review any restaurant on Valentines night. I disagree.

We've been to St John's before. It's a fairly good gastropub, in the slightly dodgy environs of Archway. Not too overpriced and a good wine list. They have a lovely dining room at the back, but tonight we were booked for a table in the bar. Although we've never tried them, having always been for a meal, they do have the most delicious looking array of bar snacks - oysters, cockles and crisps, baked camembert, patatas bravas, scotch egg and so on.

In general I don't hold with Valentines day/night, etc ... Mr PP has never taken me out for Valentines dinner before. I felt a bit odd and wasn't sure I would like it. In the end, St John's was a good choice, because they weren't doing anything special for it, and most of the bookings were tables of four, so it wasn't some hideous "romantic" menu, with red roses and couples everywhere.

The Menu:
As is traditional in such pubs, the menu is on the chalkboard on one of the bar walls, and had the usual array of gastropub type fare. Starters included several winter warmer soups and gamey treats, while the mains were similarly seasonal, robust dishes.

Mr PP ordered pig's head soldiers with a gherkin and parsley purée (£5), followed by the roast leg of lamb, roast veg, broccolli, leek sauce and rosemary gravy (£14.50). I chose the haddock and crab fish cake with a tarragon mayonnaise (£6.50), and the 1/2 roast peri-peri chicken with sweet potato, rocket and yoghurt dressing (£12.75).

Our Meal:
We were booked for 6.30pm, because they needed the table back by 8.30pm, so the kitchen had only just opened. We settled down at our table by the stove (nice on such a cold, rainy night) with a couple of pints and perused the menu. And then we had to wait rather a long time to order.

We just reckoned that front of house were probably staggering the orders so that the kitchen didn't get slammed, but in hindsight I wonder just how slammed a kitchen gets at 6.30pm. Finally, we did get to order, and then we settled down with a rather nice bottle of red from the good range on the wine list.

An hour later, even the infinitely patient Mr PP was a little bit fed-up. And very hungry. Not a bit of bread or anything had passed our lips, and we were now nearly through the wine. Nobody had thought to come near us to explain what the delay was.

We managed to get some bread and finally our starters showed up. When we'd looked at the menu, we had been more interested by the starters, but in reality they appeared a little underwhelming, but the proof of the pudding ...

Mr PP was a little disappointed by his soldiers, finding them lacking in flavour. The gherkin and parsely purée was punchy and gutsy - just the perfect side if the main element had been a little more robust.

My fish cakes were good - well seasoned, spicy and flavoursome, although the delicate crab was slightly lost in amongst all the other flavours. They weren't hot enough, and had only been fried on one side. But the tarragon mayo and salad were a delicious accompaniment, and overall the dish worked well. At this point I was so hungry I couldn't be bothered to send them back - but I should have.

The mains arrived in reasonable time (a bit of a gap from the starter, but we prefer to have a bit of time between courses, so that suited us fine) and were quite substantial portions. Starters not really required!

Mr PPs lamb ate well, and he particularly liked the leek sauce and abundant thick gravy it was served with.

My chicken was also good - it was very moist and tasty, and did not really suffer from lack of sauce or any wet component to the dish. The sweet potato worked well, and despite my misgivings, the yoghurt dressing complemented the dish.

Normally, we would only have two courses, and if we have a third it will often be cheese. But tonight we both decided to have puds. A rather nice dessert menu offered us a range, all £5, from the substantial (rice pudding, apple and berry crumble) to the lighter (queen of puddings, pear belle hélêne). We ordered treacle tart and clotted cream for Mr PP and chocolate blancmange with raspberry cinder toffee for me, with two glasses of sauterne to wash it all down.

The desserts were fine, but they didn't excite terriby, and did remind me of why I don't usually bother - I find desserts often read better than they taste. My blancmange could certainly have done with a touch more sugar, although the treacle tart was very light and had a good treacley flavour.

Two lattés and two whiskeys finished us off, but by this point the interminably slow service was starting to grate. We were both getting slightly bored with the too-long gaps between courses and having to wait for everything - 10 minutes to get a whisky? In a pub? Really?

With this in mind, we contemplated not paying the service charge. When the bill arrived, we had not been charged for the whisky or the desserts. I am undecided whether this was a complementary gesture or a mistake. I suspect the latter, as they would probably have been at pains to point out a goodwill gesture.

I felt no qualms about not 'fessing up - the reason for this is probably really trivial. But when we booked we were told we had to give the table back by 8.30pm. That was bullshit. Bullshit annoys me. Too often recently I've been told that the table had been re-booked when it hasn't. Well, tonight that cost St John's £20, and the staff their 12.5% of it.

What we liked:
Sitting by the log stove, good enough food, relaxing environment and a nice bar.

What we didn't like:
The slow service, lack of communication, absolutely freezing toilets.

Will we be back?:
We've been a couple of times before and it's been better, so probably yes. If nothing else, I really want to try the bar snacks.