Londoncooking.co.uk

As the guy once said, a good pub in Camden Town is hard to find.

But the Crown and Goose, aka Goose and Crown/Moose and Frown (or so Abi calls it,) tucked away on the corner of Delancey and Arlington, is the real ramona, with friendly staff and excellent gastropub-type food, made by a chef fresh from Michelin-starred acclaim.

The place abides, despite its owners almost getting the green light to turn the pub into a strip joint (a sure indication the kind of classy outfits that operate in Camden…)

So all the more reason to cherish it, if it weren’t already the top of the pub pile in a Camden packed with by-the-numbers, characterless craphaunts.

The Crown and Goose’s Website.

Abi’s Article: ‘Long live the Goose!‘

Home of Heston Blumenthal’s famously nuts nouveau cuisine caff (the Michelin-studded Fat Duck) Bray is also home to the big man’s lesser known Tudor-style gastropub, The Hind’s Head, serving mains for a less-than-eye-watering £15-£20.

Had the Sunday works: rare roast beef, gigantic yorkshire pudding and potatoes. Taking a really obvious pub food choice made a great comparison point with londonpubgastroaction – the verdict: it turns out Heston is indeed a genius.

The meat in this place (along with the triple-cooked chips) is just out of this world. (Word to the wise: If you’re a veggie, don’t even bother, pal.)

How to get there: Get a train from Paddington to Maidenhead – it’s walkable from there, or a 5 minute taxi ride. Booking most definitely necessary – tel. 01628 626151.

Obligatory historical gossip about the Hind’s Head Pub: Prince Philip had his stag party in the Hind’s Head back in the Summer of love  (1947). Staff report it was a messy, messy night.

Back in the real world (i.e. London): Two dreadful meals, to make me wish I was back in Bray. The incomparably sh*t Navajo Joe in Covent Garden, and the ever-Masonic Hercules Pillars, which tried to confuse me by serving a dose of molten lava disguised as a microwave meal.

Hey, in London, who can tell the difference anyway these days, right?

Take me back to Bray. Heston – forget the Little Chef, it’s a losing battle – you’re already a proven man of the people.