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The Marquess Tavern London
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4
Reviews
Pubs in London
- Islington
32 Canonbury Street
, Islington, London, N1 2TB
+44 (0) 20 7354 2975
http://www.marquesstavern.co.uk/index.asp
The Marquess Tavern is a stylish refurbed Young's pub serving delicious gastropub food, with the emphasis on meat.
Tags:
beer garden, english, food, gastropub, meat, outside seating, real ale
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The Marquess Tavern
London
Reviews
Service great; food just ok. - I could leave my review with just my title because it pretty much sums it up. The service at the Marquess Tavern was top notch and I’m hoping it’s consistent. They are were eager to help, attentive to our needs and not too pushy. They brought tap water and came to take our orders at just the right time; they were aware of our needs which is hard to get in London.
The food on the other hand, wasn’t so great. I had the parsnip and apple soup and it was soooo bland. I kept adding salt and pepper and it wouldn’t get better so, like my friends who also ordered the soup, left most of it behind. Fortunately, the main courses were a lot better. I had the roasted butternut squash with diced tomatoes and grilled mushrooms which was tasty but again, on the bland side. I nice sprinkle of parmesan or goat’s cheese and more seasoning would have made the dish much better. My husband has the pheasant and it, too was bland. I guess their new chef needs to be more generous with the seasonings.
It’s newly changed owners (I guess a group of locals took over instead of seeing it close down) so I imagine there are some teething issues. The all-white dining room and ambiance are suburb though. I’ll definitely go back a 3rd time (and more) once things settle with the new ownership. Really great place for a drink or a party and it such a wonderful part of Islington.
09-01-09
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Feeling festive - Celebrated a friend's birthday here. It was a Sunday in between Christmas and New Year, a difficult time to find places that are open and I always cut the staff some slack because no-one wants to work at that time of year!
We were a large group, 10 people. They tried to sell us on their roast rib of beef which they can feed a whole table but we all opted for different dishes. General consensus was food was decent, not the best gastro grub ever but definitely good enough. I had a confit of duck which was dry and I didn't like that they fried the Kale on which the shredded duck meat was served. However my husband managed to order the last portion of chicken livers on toast and they were yummy.
My main course was great - I went for whole bream which was a nice relief from all the meat I ate over Christmas. My husband had the pork belly which he enjoyed, even though I didn't let him eat the thick fatty layer of skin!
Our friend brought home made cupcakes to celebrate her hubby's birthday and the staff were very kind to give us plates and cutlery for us to enjoy the cupcakes as our dessert. We had a bottle of English Mead with the cupcakes - not really to my taste but I thought it was an unusual item to have on the menu so the Marquess gets credit for that.
Overall good service and decent food.
PS our friend's cupcakes were amazing :D
02-01-09
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Good, but a gastropub too far - Birthday dinner with some friends on a Saturday evening. For starters we were late, so rushed in without taking too much in. Looks pretty much like your standard gastro-pub with original bar and wooden chairs and table - light and welcoming. We were eating at the back in the restaurant part which is more like a restaurant and it's quite an elegant room with a very high curved ceiling - more like a parlour room, but again all white. So enough about the decor and on to the food and the wine. As it says, already, it's all about the meat here. There's a big blackboard on the wall which lists all the sizes of meat available by the kg and the corresponding price - something I haven't seen before. Looks like you can almost order your entire body weight in beef steak. As for me, I managed to pursuade three others to go for the braised shoulder of lamb, and at £60 appeared to be pretty good value.
I passed on the starter having already spotted the grilled figs for pudding. Orders were taking efficiently and starters arrived on time. I had a mouthful of the goats cheese with Heritage Tomatoes which I thought were giant raddishes - anyway it was quite the combo.
To an amateurs eye, the wine list looked comprehensive without being overwhelming. We went for the cheaper end and plumped for a pino grigio and an Argentine Malbec both of which seemed to flow very easily.
The braised shoulder of lamb was cooked perfectly and came off the bone very easily. My only niggle was that they didn't have any red current jelly, which I thought was very strange indeed. I didn't think it an odd request but it was not something they had.
Puds were on the mark too - the figs for me, and the crumble with cinnamon icecream for others were all eaten without much of a pause. Friendly staff who available when needed and happy to bring and replenish large jugs of tap water with ice and lemon. So all in all it gets a thumbs up even if none of it was especially remarkable. Would I go again? Well, given that I'm a south Londoner it looks like my first was my last as well.
27-10-08
Tags:
english, gasto pub, islington, meat, sunday lunch
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More Mexx than Marquess - We have been meaning to try out the Marquess Tavern for over a year now after reading rave reviews. The 1st time we tried was Mother's Day and the place was fully booked, for some strange reason the 2nd time we tried to go was Mother's day the following year and surprise surprise it was fully booked again. Luckily we got an invite to a friends birthday lunch the following weekend so we were finally in and looking forward to it.
As there was 13 of us in the party we were seated in a room on our own away from the bar and main dining area. This started out as a novelty but when I saw how beautifully the main dining room was laid out I felt like a poor relation hidden away.
Because we were in a large party the organiser had called ahead to pre-book the beef and lamb to avoid disappointment. Unfortunately when it came to taking our orders we were informed that they only had 3 beef left and no lamb. Our organiser explained that he had called ahead to pre-order some of the meals but it seems as though this had got lost in translation. This wasn't the end of the world though as there was enough beef to go round and another cut of lamb was available.
For the people who hadn't pre-ordered (and subsequently been disappointed) the menu was fairly short and included the usual Sunday gastropub grub.
For my starter I ordered the Jerusalem artichoke soup(£5)and my partner ordered the Pan Fried British Scallops & Samphire(£3 each). Most people ordered the same and everyone enjoyed their starters even though we had to wait for an inordinate amount of time for them to arrive.
As a non meat eater I struggled to find something that I wanted to eat for my main course so I went for the only option, a courgette and cheddar crumble (£10.50). There was nothing really wrong with it other than I don't really like courgettes but this was the only veggie option.
The majority of people in the party went for the lamb or the beef and most agreed that it was overcooked and again had taken an age to arrive. By this point we had been in the restaurant for about 4 hours and the wine had been flowing freely so we were probably beyond caring.
On the whole the Marquess Tavern is a great place to go and have a long, long lazy lunch but I would never go there again in a party of that size or even on a Sunday as it just gets too busy.
19-03-08
Tags:
gastropub
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