
The Harwood Arms is one of those pubs where people in the know tell you that you must visit. Aside from being London's only Michelin starred pub, what encouraged us to make the journey there is that one of the owners of this Fulham based legend is Brett Graham of The Ledbury. We know Brett's passion for food and even before entering, we view it unlikely that Brett would undertake anything but the best of its kind. The other owner is Mike Robinson of The Pot Kiln, and of TV fame. Though we are less familiar with Mike, he clearly has, like Brett, a passion for the outdoors and game.
Little wonder then that The Harwood Arms website has on the food drop down menu sections for 'game and venison' and 'deer hunting', not typical of your average London pub. Inside The Harwood Arms itself, a moderately sparse interior carries the theme forward with deer/hunting pictures on the wall. Our visit being out of the game season for all but Roe deer, our choices are a little more straightforward.
That said, French rabbit was on the menu and was chosen as one of the starters. Scotch eggs, asparagus and ham was the other. What is clear early on is that The Harwood Arms through both quality ingredients and good cooking are really very good at extracting flavours from their dishes. Nowhere was this more evident than on the main chicken course (stuffed with black pudding). It's always a bit of a surprise when chicken actually tastes of something and here it did. In fact, everything on the plate carried its weight and tasted of something, something many full on restaurants fail to manage let alone pubs.
The Harwood Arms then provides a really great food offering and anyone living close to it is very lucky indeed. We imagine that in the evenings and especially on weekends, getting a table here is probably not that easy. Despite entering The Harwood Arms with certain expectations given everything we had heard, the food and friendly service nevertheless fully delivered and if were in the area again, we'd have no hesitation in returning.
Little wonder then that The Harwood Arms website has on the food drop down menu sections for 'game and venison' and 'deer hunting', not typical of your average London pub. Inside The Harwood Arms itself, a moderately sparse interior carries the theme forward with deer/hunting pictures on the wall. Our visit being out of the game season for all but Roe deer, our choices are a little more straightforward.
That said, French rabbit was on the menu and was chosen as one of the starters. Scotch eggs, asparagus and ham was the other. What is clear early on is that The Harwood Arms through both quality ingredients and good cooking are really very good at extracting flavours from their dishes. Nowhere was this more evident than on the main chicken course (stuffed with black pudding). It's always a bit of a surprise when chicken actually tastes of something and here it did. In fact, everything on the plate carried its weight and tasted of something, something many full on restaurants fail to manage let alone pubs.
The Harwood Arms then provides a really great food offering and anyone living close to it is very lucky indeed. We imagine that in the evenings and especially on weekends, getting a table here is probably not that easy. Despite entering The Harwood Arms with certain expectations given everything we had heard, the food and friendly service nevertheless fully delivered and if were in the area again, we'd have no hesitation in returning.