32 Great Queen Street is the newest cousin of the infamous Anchor and Hope in The Cut, SE1. The Anchor and Hope being one of the great gastropubs of London and one that I haven't eaten at. I read that thirty-two is like The Anchor and Hope except that it is bookable. I'm as much of a fan of queuing as the next punter. Let me book. The Grand Lodge of the Freemasons, a monumental, Art Deco building is directly opposite but it's easy to miss thirty-two. Red walls, wooden tables and wooden chairs. Plain, plain and plain. No frills. Nothing fancy to see there. The clientèle isn't young and trendy and are well into their 30s. First to arrive I sit at the long wooden bar towards the back and order myself a lilliputian glass of Merlot.
The menu is a single sheet of A4, with 20 to 25 items listed including hors d'oeuvres, entrees, sides and desserts. A list including snails, ceviche of haddock, gnocchi and roast partridge. And of course, the Hereford beef, where the menu has three options sprouting from it, a minute steak, a steak and mushroom pie for two, and finally the rib, chips and bearnaise for two at £46. We were also given the option of a couple of specials for starter and entree.
We started by sharing Artichoke Vinaigrette. A whole beautiful plump Globe Artichoke served with a sharp tangy piquant vinaigrette. Eaten by way of the ritual of tearing off the leaves one by one with your fingers and raking the meat from each with your teeth, to eventually access the sweet, dense heart. We also shared the Pork and Game Terrine with Gooseberry Chutney, a very course, chunky and obviously gamey terrine with a contrasting sweet and sour gooseberry chutney. A "classic" gastropub starter well executed. Here's a photo of it.
And that then brought us to the Hereford Beef Rib, Chips and Bearnaise. Strangely the rib only comes medium rare. Which to me is acceptable although I do prefer my steak juicy rare. Fortunate then that when it did arrive, it arrived clearly pinker than your average medium rare, and already carved into chunky slices with rib bone to the side. It was a fantastic couple of slabs of meat that certainly met my demands of succulence and flavour. The chips were huge wedges of golden deep fried potato sprinkled with rock salt. Rather good but not great although certainly up there (Hawksmoor's was rather disappointing).
Only one street away is Parkers Wine Bar, a place that serves up Eastern European delicacies much more exotic than thirty-two. But you don't eat there. What Thirty-Two offers is no frills English food made with quality produce, served by knowledgeable friendly staff in an unfussy setting. English food as we want to think back and remember it as being - whenever that was. And no... it's doesn't have a website.
32 Great Queen Street, 32 Great Queen Street, London WC2 Tel: 020 7242 0622
More photos here on my flickr.
