The Gun - Review

Intro
The Gun - Highly Recommended
27 Coldharbour Ln
London, SE5, United Kingdom
Phone: 020 7515 5222

Met up some friends in London and they wanted to take us to the Gun - an old timey pub that serves some very solid food. Surprisingly, the desserts were phenomenal - I felt like Gromit after the cheese plate. Great times with some friends - thanks again Mark and Elina! Overall, I give the restaurant an 85/100.

Our Menu
1) Pig's trotter terrine, pork crackling and apple sauce **
2) Foie gras poached in red wine, balsamic strawberries *
3) Roast Halibut, Peas, Blueberries, and Garlic Mashed Potatoes *
4) Diver caught scallops, crispy roe, ox tongue and parsley purée *
5) Summer berry trifle, Champagne jelly ***
6) Cheese Plate ***

Rating System
--- What the F - in a bad way * Good ** Great *** What the F – in a good way


Dish Comments
1) The terrine had a great pork flavor and nice texture with the gelatin surrounding it. Like a lot of English dishes, this had a perfect touch of vinegar as well to balance out the fat - the side salad of chicory also helped. Crackling unfortunately was way too hard.
2) Foie Gras was nice, but as I've said before it's hard to be wowed by it after eating so much. I don't believe I've had strawberries with FG before, so that was nice.
3) Halibut was nicely cooked (tender and flaky) and filled with the appropriate spring/summer accompaniments. Funny though that the Halibut was brushed with butter, but it totally worked. Peas and blueberries were an interesting combo - second fruit appearing on a savory dish. These added great texture and sweetness to the dish.
4) Scallops were sweet and nicely cooked. The ox was overly salty, but combining it together with the scallop and chicory salad made a nice combo - balance of salt, bitter, and sweet.
5) A big time WTF moment. I've had cheeses all over Europe before, but I don't remember getting my ass kicked this much before. Spectacular f'n cheeses, but unfortunately I was so blissed out I didn't write down what cheeses we had that night - I think we had a brie, goat, blue, and two others. In general, all the cheeses were extremely runny, pungent, and earthy. 4 out of 5 cheeses were out of this world, but my favorite was one with a pink rind.
6) Another WTF moment. I've had trifle before, but this was out of control good. Creamy and chocolaty with the chocolate chips on top, but the kicker was the excellent champagne jelly and the great berries inside. A perfect combo and great seasonal dessert.

Overall Restaurant Experience (85/100)

• Food 8.6/10 – Great food for an upscale pub, but what really caught me were the phenomenal desserts. Still sad I can't have cheese plates like that in the States.
• Service 8.6/10 – Waiter was attentive and food came out at a good pace.
• Atmosphere 8.6/10 – Interesting place as it's basically a pub, but there's a seating area with white table cloths and fine china all setup. Place was pretty busy for a Monday night and it consisted of some couples and a very large group. At the bar, there were a bunch of men sitting around drinking - seemed like my type of place. The place was decorated with guns and paintings of maritime war. Outside, you get to check out the O2 which was such a spectacular view. Got there at 7:30 and were seated promptly - we had reservations which seemed like a smart idea.
• Price 8.0/10 – Place seemed reasonable (from a US point of view) for pricing. All entrees were under 20 pounds and the starters were under 10 pounds. Well worth it in my opinion.

Closing Comments
Great times and solid food. If I lived in London, I could see myself hanging out for drinks and getting that cheese plate quite often.