Make mine a double

By Paul Fulford on February 20, 2008 6:43 PM | Permalink

By bizarre coincidence, my colleague Graham Young and I turned up separately at the same place on the same day, though at different times.Graham was there to do a pub grub review, I to do a restaurant review.

Apart from emphasising that I really ought to talk more to coordinate plans with the bloke who sits virtually opposite me in the office, this episode also illustrates how blurred the line has become between pub food and restaurant food.

It's undeniable that sometimes pub meals can be execellent affairs, but in truth when I sit in a bar I long for hearty, simple fare washed down by good beer rather than something fancy that wouldn't look out of place somewhere altogether swankier.

I'm not going to moan too much, however. I can still remember the days when a mass produced steak and kidney pie with brown sauce was just about the only food available at the Pype Hayes watering holes I used to frequent as a long-haired youth.

And it doesn't seem that long ago that the Birmingham Mail carried a pub grub review called Two For A Tenner - the rule, unsurprisingly, was that it had to be two meals for ten quid.

It was popular with at least one of my senior (and usually very hungry) editorial colleagues who, rumour has it, used to eat both meals himself....