THE GUN PUBLIC HOUSE

Its Sunday of the May bank holiday and the sun is shining. Im thankful for this after a raining Saturday at Borough Market. I wanted to take my parents out for lunch, somewhere nice in london, and somewhere I'd not been. I had been researching and found many of the places I wanted to go to (St John and Brasserie Blanc specifically) weren't open on Sunday for dinner. In the end I decided it would be lunch and after using Top Table and Open table I discovered this gastro pub in an area of London which I had little knowledge of and had rarely been - the Canary Wharf / Isle of Dogs area.

The Gun over looks the Thames with a view of the O2 Dome, The setting is pleasant, quiet and relaxing. Behind us the high rise buildings at Canary Wharf seem reminiscent of North Sydney, not London. On entering we were greeted by a pleasant Maitre D, he said our table was ready whenever we liked but would we prefer a drink at the bar first. We did. Mum and I drank Aspall Cider, Dad a Guinness and Nick an Ale.  The front of the bar contains tables for the restaurant, past the bar there's a more informal lounge area and a terrace, which would be lovely if it was slightly warmer. We walked past this area in to one of the other dining rooms, the cabin room, decorated with a recreation of The Battle of Trafalgar and Lord Nelson. Large windows open up on to the terrace overlooking the river so we enjoyed the weather despite being inside.

I did enjoy the location, I think the restaurant was ok. Its a cross between a pub and a restaurant, I've eaten more exciting meals in pubs before and I wouldn't come to The Gun for a pint. It doesn't really have that sort of  welcoming pub feeling about it.
Although I think the service as far as taking our order and bringing our meals out promptly was good, the attitude of our waiter in particular made me feel a little uncomfortable. He quite obviously didn't want to be there made clear by never smiling, heavy sighs as he cleared the table being us, and rolling of his eyes when he realised we had an additional tab on the front bar to include on our bill at the end. We all noticed and we all discussed whether or not to pay the service charge. We did because we felt other than that one waiter everything else had been adequate.

I'd probably not go again, but I enjoyed the different location and afterwards we walked the river path along the Thames until we got to the tunnel under the river and popped out the in Greenwich. I was amazed, why had I not come here before. Just beautiful buildings, The Old Royal Naval college was quite breathtaking. I noticed the observatory a top the hill in Greenwich park. I will definitely be returning to this part of London again.

Anyway. down to what we ate:

To Start: Ham Hock Ravioli, morteau sausage, smoked bacon and choucroute

This was really meaty, because of that I knew I didn't want a red meat main, (like the Roast Beef or Lamb which Nick had) The ham filling was very robust and was the predominate flavour of this dish. I enjoyed the ravioli, the pasta itself was fresh, the texture aldente. To me the sausage wasn't very tasty, I would suggest something like chorizo to give it a bit more bite. My dad really liked it, but he loves meat. Choucroute is just sauerkraut, it went nicely with the sausage.


Main: Pan fried fillet of golden bream, crushed new potatoes, buerre blanc

I've been eating a lot of fish recently, it feels healthier and doesn't fill me up as much as meat, so theres more room for dessert! This fish was really nice, it was cooked well and with the skin still on which had become really crispy and tasty. The crunchy texture offset nicely the soft fish and potatoes, which was nice as it didn't come with any vegetables.The white butter sauce was delicious, as it anything with butter really! It tasted a bit like Nicks home made mayonnaise.This was my highlight.

Dessert: Poached peach, peach sorbet, candied hazelnuts

I'd had my eye on this dessert since I read the menu online a few weeks back. Unfortunately it was a bit of a let down. Yes it looks nice but thats about it. First of all it was cold, the peach at the bottom of the cup, which I suppose was poached, was cold, covered in syrup and tasted like canned peaches.  I had imagined something warm, something similar to the usual poached pear and ice cream, warmed and whole. This was obviously prepared a while ago and left to cool. The sorbet on top, also peach ( but somehow pink ) was nice, I did like that so my first taste was quite nice and I should have just eaten that because the rest of it was kind of like eatting pureed fruit you get in those pottles from the supermarket which you mum used to pack for your play lunch at  school.
Dessert Fail.

Couple of other quick ones,  Nick had a lovely looking 12 hour shoulder of Norfolk lamb with pearl barley,broad beans and wild garlic broth for this main. It was slow cooked and was fallin off the fork. Mum said this Lemon tart ( the special for the day ) was very nice. Certainly they look great.

*Prices came to around £45 each for 5 people which included a beer before hand and a bottle of wine.


The Gun Public House

www.thegundocklands.com

27 Cold Harbour
London E14 9NS

Ph : 020 7515 5222


Tweet