Pastures (kind of) new

Currently D and I have relocated about 20 miles down the road to cat sit for my parents while they are living it up on a round the world trip. I could insert bitter comments about teachers and their long holidays here, but I won’t because I’ve never met two people more dedicated to their jobs than my parents and they deserve their time away. PLUS I get to spend quality time with my beloved Minerva McGonagall. (Gratuitous cute cat picture will probably follow).

Anyway, we quite fancied a lunch out on Sunday and decided to go and pay a visit to The Drum and Monkey in Harrogate. We had high hopes; not only had it been recommended to us on a couple of occasions, but also the website informed us that Tatler had proclaimed it “The best seafood restaurant in North Yorkshire”.

My verdict – sorry Tatler, but meh (and with language like that you may well ask what is standing between me and my dream of being the new, but far less grumpy, and a bit more female Giles Coren). The interior was dark and a bit old fashioned but not in a quirky, retro kind of way more in a needs-a-lick-of-paint-and-some-decent-lighting type way. And the menu was old fashioned too – and again, quite straight faced about it. The crayfish cocktail was…a crayfish cocktail. Crayfish, Marie rose sauce, lettuce. I think we’ve just got a bit used to the type of restaurants that like to shake up the old classics a bit – playing around with expectations. Being confronted with the real thing, in a room that looked like it belonged in a 1970s period piece was a bit…well, meh. My baked red snapper main course was drastically under seasoned, although the fish itself was cooked beautifully and D’s dressed crab salad was…odd. Tinned orange segments have no place in a salad. The radish rose was quite pretty though.

I suppose, on the plus side, we couldn’t be bothered with pudding, so the whole meal probably was fine with regards to points. But any restaurant which makes me write out the sentence “Couldn’t be bothered with pudding” and mean it, is not a restaurant that is worth going back to.