Mayfair Mockneys


Gor blimey, an old boozer, with great food, in the middle of Mayfair? You wouldn't Adam an' Eve it, guv'nor!

I needed somewhere in town to have a smallish (10-12 people) surprise birthday dinner where there was good food, good atmosphere, but no poncey pretensiousness (so any Gordon Ramsey place was out for this evening), and just a frisson of celebrity endorsement for desert. And somewhere we hadn't been to before ...

So I spoke to a couple of geezers, got on the blower, and rang 'The Punchbowl', in Farm Street, in London's Mayfair. And got their biggest table straightaway. Sorted!

And how was it?

Well, you find it down a backpassage (oo-er), through the ubiquitous smokers outside, and enter via a small, packed (always I Imagine?) bar, hoping correctly that the space at the back is the dining room. It's reasonably dark in that old dark-wood, yellow-tinged-walled pub fashion, that seems to have gone out of fashion, but is still warm & friendly, which has also gone out of fashion. The food being served to other diners looks great, and the young waiting girls look just as good, if not better, and our table for 10 is just right, taking up the horizontal width of the small dining room, a table stuck on the end, with a mix of stools, chairs, and benches, and crips white linen acoutrement. So it's all good.

The menu's pretty straightforward. No surprises, really, as you can eat these dishes anywhere in London's gastropubs, but the surprise here is the quality: this is food which certainly punches above its weight. It might be an old boozer at heart, but the chef is certainy no old soak. All the dishes were cooked extremely well, were well presented, and very well served (cough!), and very reasonably priced. All in all, I think I can honestly say it was best meal of it's type i've had this year. Which makes a change from all the usual mediocrity being served up around town at over-inflated prices.

Did we see any celebs? We're not saying. But we did speak to the owners (wink wink), who were eating (or, I think, drinking) there at the time, and we were complimented about how attractive the girls (birds?) in our party were.

There's no Mockney in this Mayfair, this is the real deal. A great night indeed. If I'm not a regular there then I'll be an irregular there. If only it was down the road next to the Lansdowne ...

Wanna try it for your self:

The Punchbowl, Farm Street, London W1J 5RP
020 7493 6841
And tell 'em I sent ya, know what I mean?

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