I got drenched in the rain walking here, and when I arrived, I looked like a drowned rat. (Nice look!) I took no notice to the weather forecast and thought I could survive without an umbrella. So very wrong… No fashion show today, as it was one of those depressing cold and rainy days in London, some comforting warm pub food was sure to do the trick, it was in fact the perfect day for this. The Pelican is a posh looking neighbourhood pub, it has style and creates an atmosphere. Imagine the log fireplace lit brightly, cosy up in your leather seating, with rustic wood interiors dominating the space. This is your good-looking local.
The menu even looks sophisticated, but the only thing I was taking today was the chicken pie with butterhead lettuce, mash potatoes and jus. I needed something to warm me up. These days every-time I take a pie from a menu, there is a minuscule amount of jus on the side with not a lot of sauce inside the pie. The same happened here, it slightly missed the mark. The jus also needed more depth, and we wanted more of it, because the pie is not a small one. I would not even care if the pie were ‘swimming in it.’ I did enjoy the pastry though, buttery, soft and flakey, I just wish we would stop trying to ‘posh the pies up.’ We are in a posh pie revolution, but the taste is far more important than how it looks. Of course, the pastry needs to be well executed, and the filling inside needs to be perfectly cooked, brimming with flavour and well balanced but sometimes we are too afraid to make it super rustic, but still tasting excellent. It is perfectly ok to make a kind of chicken pot pie, let that sauce run out of it and blend with the filling! A jus on the side strikes me as a separate entity. Completely disconnected. Of course, nobody wants a soggy bottom, and this is why the pie is like this, but for me it was playing too safe.
The mash potato was smooth with no lumps present, buttery and a generous size, and the butterhead lettuce to my horror came with a mustard dressing all over it, and because I hate mustard, this ruined it. There was no sign of this on the menu.
It wasn’t completely perfect this lunch but there were elements that I liked, and I understood what this place is about, so I think it might be worth revisiting. But for now, it is put on the back burner.
