The design of the remodelled Kings Cross station is in my view stunning while the area surrounding the station also continues to get a makeover. In turn, this has seen Caravan Kings Cross proving hugely popular with the food community, while Fuller's, to their credit, are seeking to raise the game for station food with their pub The Parcel Yard, situated within the station itself. As is almost compulsory these days for 'normal' restaurant, though clearly rare in a train station pub, its website offers up a 'seasonal menu inspired by the best of Great British cooking' and I was more than a little amused to see some overlap between its menu and that of St Pancras neighbour Gilbert Scott, including dishes like Chicken, Ham Hock and Leek Pie.
The pub, as its name suggests, was the former parcel yard of the Royal Mail in Kings Cross station and the redesign respects this heritage with lots of 'original features' and knick-knacks from its post office days such as parcel scales. The pub also offers table service, even if you're simply drinking pints, and I've found it to be very pub to kick back in, but with Fuller's also making such a big deal on the food, I'm rooting for this to be tip top also.
My first choice of starter is Scallop Benedict, on bubble and squeak with bacon and hollandaise. It's so not what you expect to find in a Kings Cross pub that it seems a good 'test'. Despite being an early diner in a near empty dining room, I'm told that this is not available today. The non availability of the scallops builds within me a non specific anxiety and I wonder when they took the last delivery of seafood. Pea soup or salmon gravlax seem too little of a challenge while ox tongue fritters are possibly too much of one. I plump for the Dressed Dorset Crab and Avocado with Virgin Mary Dressing.
Like so many menu descriptions, the emphasis is wrong. Okay, it's not the emphasis that's wrong here, more like the whole description really. The Virgin Mary is not so much a dressing, rather a whole wardrobe, but jokes aside, I'm faced with what appears to be a bowl of spicy tomato soup (they provide you with a soup spoon for it). To their credit, it is a very good Virgin Mary with a real zing, but because of that, nothing else really stands a chance against it, not least the small covering of crab atop the avocado, leaving the thing that you ordered merely as a garnish. One might reasonably ask how much crab can you expect for a £7.50 starter; I'm not sure I exactly know but I think it's a little more than this. The toasted pita bread meanwhile has absorbed the Virgin Mary and gone soggy, and while overall it's not terrible to eat, one feels the dish as presented here is not what lay behind the intention.
The pub, as its name suggests, was the former parcel yard of the Royal Mail in Kings Cross station and the redesign respects this heritage with lots of 'original features' and knick-knacks from its post office days such as parcel scales. The pub also offers table service, even if you're simply drinking pints, and I've found it to be very pub to kick back in, but with Fuller's also making such a big deal on the food, I'm rooting for this to be tip top also.
My first choice of starter is Scallop Benedict, on bubble and squeak with bacon and hollandaise. It's so not what you expect to find in a Kings Cross pub that it seems a good 'test'. Despite being an early diner in a near empty dining room, I'm told that this is not available today. The non availability of the scallops builds within me a non specific anxiety and I wonder when they took the last delivery of seafood. Pea soup or salmon gravlax seem too little of a challenge while ox tongue fritters are possibly too much of one. I plump for the Dressed Dorset Crab and Avocado with Virgin Mary Dressing.
Like so many menu descriptions, the emphasis is wrong. Okay, it's not the emphasis that's wrong here, more like the whole description really. The Virgin Mary is not so much a dressing, rather a whole wardrobe, but jokes aside, I'm faced with what appears to be a bowl of spicy tomato soup (they provide you with a soup spoon for it). To their credit, it is a very good Virgin Mary with a real zing, but because of that, nothing else really stands a chance against it, not least the small covering of crab atop the avocado, leaving the thing that you ordered merely as a garnish. One might reasonably ask how much crab can you expect for a £7.50 starter; I'm not sure I exactly know but I think it's a little more than this. The toasted pita bread meanwhile has absorbed the Virgin Mary and gone soggy, and while overall it's not terrible to eat, one feels the dish as presented here is not what lay behind the intention.
Kings Cross station
upstairs at The Parcel Yard
Dressed Dorset Crab and Avocado with Virgin Mary Dressing
There's a lot of traditional pub mains on here because I guess that in a place like this you have to have a burger, fish and chips and steak and ale pie available. The steamed sea trout 'en papillote' seems out of place followed on the menu by sausage and mash and the absence of scallops earlier has dented my enthusiasm for chancing the fish. The best middle ground seems the Salt Marsh Lamb Rump and Mini Shepherd's Pie (£15.50) while the real eye opener is that it's advertised as coming with 'heritage carrots', something I last ate at Roganic, and something not usually found on pub menus.
When the dish arrives, I don't know whether to be disappointed. The lamb looks overly fatty and a little tough. It had been a touch overcooked but if I were just eating here because I had a train to catch, I'd probably be thinking that I did okay and that it wasn't a bad meal for a station pub. Is it the next Harwood Arms however? Sadly not.
When the dish arrives, I don't know whether to be disappointed. The lamb looks overly fatty and a little tough. It had been a touch overcooked but if I were just eating here because I had a train to catch, I'd probably be thinking that I did okay and that it wasn't a bad meal for a station pub. Is it the next Harwood Arms however? Sadly not.
Salt Marsh Lamb Rump and Mini Shepherd's Pie
I couldn't resist ordering the Poached Peach, Champagne bellini and almond tuile for dessert for two reasons. First, if they are as generous with the Champagne bellini as they were with the Virgin Mary, I'm getting a sneaky champagne cocktail for free. Second, having had 'peach in its own juices' recently at Dabbous, I was interested to see if The Parcel Yard could trump London's most booked up restaurant. Sadly they couldn't and the dessert simply looked sad while tasting little better. Questionable value at £5.50.
Poached Peach, Champagne bellini and almond tuile
As a pub in Kings Cross station, it was always going to be a big ask that the food would be up there with London's finest offerings. Obviously a limited selection of the menu tried today, though whether the cheeseburger, bangers or rib eye steak would have provided me with a different experience is somewhat doubtful. The meal then was disappointing against expectations though if benchmarked against all pubs in London, would probably rate better than average. The Parcel Yard is a great pub for drinking in without doubt. The food meanwhile seeks to be something more than pub grub, and, if generous, it even manages to be so, but only just.
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