Tuesday night is Quiz Night in The Queen Adelaide on the Uxbridge Road in Shepherds Bush and, it turns out it’s a pub which does very good food. The road isn’t a glamorous one but does share it with the Princess Victoria a former gin palace and W12 darling with foodies. If you register a hint of surprise in my tone it’s because I wouldn’t have entered this place in a million years. It doesn’t look like it would serve anything more tasty or filling than soup in a basket. But tonight I’m proved wrong and learn a lesson in not judging a pub by its exterior. I’m here as the guest of last week’s quiz winner, who bagged the first prize thirty pounds voucher to spend on food.
It was refurbished in December 2008 and is a fair sized pub which is split in two. A bar one side with room for 60 and on the other, a dining room which can seat up to 38, complete with ‘open’ grill and chefs. There’s a large outside terrace and you can recognise the pub by the large Sagres brollies which provide adequate outside shade.
At the bar, it’s a good start, they do stock the locally made Sipsmith’s gin and my gin du jour. Unfortunately tonight they’re out so I choose a number 3. There’s a good range of ales too.
Starters include half a dozen Irish rock oysters (£8.50) and baked chilli crab ramekin with toasted soldiers (£7.00) the menu is varied and fairly priced.
We passed on starters as it was a late and went straight to the main course. Free bottled water, OK it was probably tap, but it was a nice touch and I liked the idea it was in a in a pop off capped bottle.
The menu is seasonal, so changes regularly but has plenty of choice, again good value. Fish, steak, burgers, vegetable lasagne, chicken, duck, Onglet, literally something for everyone. The Suffolk farm chicken, leek & bacon pie caught my eye and is baked from fresh, I’ll definitely try that next time.
I had the 28 day dry aged rib eye steak, which is served with hand cut chips, onion rings and peppercorn sauce (£16.50). Hold the chips, onion rings and sauce for me and replace that with a mixed leaf salad. The steak was chargrilled medium rare as requested and the steak knife made light work of it. No mixed salad on the menu so they made me one, without prompt, and it’s touches like this that particularly impress me.
My regular dining partner often narrows his main course choice to two and offers up both to waiting staff to make a final decision. On this occasion his instinct was the pork belly but then after consulting the chefs they both insisted the lamb was the choice of the day. They didn’t fail to deliver either. The West Devon lamb rump with sautéed new potatoes, spinach and red wine jus (£15.50) was a great choice the meat lean, tender and the cut was thick and juicy, cooked pink. Sautéed potatoes were well seasoned and the mint sauce was a welcome extra.
If you care about provenance at all, the meat is traceable to the farm of origin and sourced within the British Isles. All the fish is from sustainable stocks.
The service is attentive, not overbearing and the 10% added to the bill for service is actually worth it. All gratuities go to the servers too, so the menu tells me.
Whilst not in the immediate Bush area, plenty of buses stop there. So next time you’re going to a gig, particularly at the Bush Hall, just visiting, or live in the area go inside have a drink and try out the food. Don’t be fooled by its exterior, and don’t forget Tuesday night is pub quiz night, a great first prize and the entry’s just two quid. You can’t go wrong.
Queen Adelaide, pub, dining and terrace
412 Uxbridge Road, W12 0NR
020 8746 2573
http://www.thequeenadelaidew12.co.uk
Dinner served 6.00pm to 10.30pm
That’s it – you’ve sold it to me – Queen Adelaide here we come. And you’re right – I wouldn’t have thought of going there so thank you! Could you DM me your email address? Wanted to send you something else. AB x