Address: 128 West Street, Marlow, SL7 2BP
Telephone number: 01628 482277
Website: www.thehandandflowers.co.uk
Date of last visits: 26 January 2010, 10 February 2010, 8 May 2010
Date of this visit: 29 June 2011
Approximate cost per head: Set lunch £12.50 for 2 courses. Most starters around £9+ and main courses around £20+. Be prepared to spend £50 a head including drinks.
Comments on wine list/beer: Greene King IPA, Abbotts (£3.80 a pint) , and Morlandson tap. Wine list very comprehensive. Massive mark-ups on some wines. Very good French Country wines at a decent price
Cusine: Innovative cooking – British and French
Likes and dislikers: For the price you charge, can we please have a table cloth?
Summary:
It has been a year since my last visit. The food is as good as ever, the prices have gone up, the freebies of whitebait and breads are still there. There is now no choice for the set lunch. The place is still full for a Wednesday lunch time.
This time I went with ex-colleagues from work.
One of us had the set lunch and the rest of us ordered from the a la carte.
We started off with a Becks (£4 a bottle) and Abbot ale. Abbot is probably the best ale that Greene King brews at present. Morlands was also on tap but this is the Greene King version from Bury St Edmonds and not Abingdon. I last had a pint of Morlands at the Elephant and Castle in Hurst and it was all right.
Three of my friends had the Cesar’s salad from the set lunch. They all enjoyed it. I had the calf sweet bread ($9.95)served with barley and sweet corn in some form of brown gravy. The sweetbread was bread crumbed and fried – absolutely brilliant. The suce with the bits were all right but the barley was hard – unsoaked. Was this a mistake?
For main course, R had the ballotine of chicken from the set lunch whilst the rest of us had the fish and chips (£13.90) from the a la carte menu – I gathered that fish and chips are only served at lunch time.
Lets start with the chicken. It was a full leg served in a small cast iron frying pan with puy lentils in it. R thought very highly of it but I noticed that the chicken still had the bone in it. I know this place has a Michelin star but ballotine is definitely off the bone.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballotine
The rest of us had the fish and chips with the chef’s version of triple cooked chip (£4 for a side order) , pea puree and very chunky tartare sauce. This was as good as ever and it was served on a wooden board. I rate the fish and chips here as one of the best in the world. I also had a good one in Hong Kong – it was with tempura battered and deep fried in clarified butter.
For desserts, R had the banana fool from the set lunch, I (Ian not me) had the treacle tart and P had the hot chocolate wille – yes he did!
With coffee, tea and a bottle of white Bergerac (Tour de Gendres £30.55) , the bill came to £151 excluding tips for 4.
Looking around, most people had the steak, trotter or lamb bun from the a la carte. The other places good for trotters are: Forburary Restaurant and China Palace – both at Reading. You can get Zampone (trotter sausage) from the Italian Continental Store in Maidenhead
This place is on my “A” list!
If you are a foodie flying in or out of Heathrow, this and The Royal Oak (Paley Street) are the place to stop for lunch. You will never get into The Fat Duck with less than 3 months notice. The Water Side Inn is a possibility if you fancy paying £100 a head!
E