The Bull & Last

I first read of this place on Gourmet Chick's blog and have wandered by many a time on the way to Hampstead Heath, it's a short walk from where I live.

Then, when Simon of Dos Hermanos organized the most excellent evening, Dining With Dos Hermanos, at chef Ollie Pudney's highly lauded and Time Out nominated best new pub in London (they were robbed) I thought it was high time I returned and posted my thoughts on the venue.

Incidentally, the Dine with Dos Hermanos event was a triumph, my first time attending one of Simon's gatherings, and the food was remarkable. The mutton and the trifle were my stand out dishes and it will always be remembered by me as the first time I tried (and actually quite enjoyed) calves brain.

Anyhow, I returned for dinner at The Bull and Last with Thomas and we started things off with one of Pudney's fantastic scotch eggs. Explaining what these are to Thomas was fun, they don't have them in Germany, Thomas thought it tasted like breakfast! Scotch eggs, as I remember them from childhood - a picnic essential or Christmas evening buffet stalwart - are horrible, rock solid and fairly tasteless morsels. They have seen a gastropub resurrection over the last few years and with succulent, well seasoned, moist pork meat surrounding a still runny and richly golden egg, it's easy to see why, with a little care and attention, these have become a mainstay bar snack.

To start I opted for the steak tartare. This was my favourite of the appetizers we sampled Dining with Dos Hermanos and I was keen to try more than a mouthful and was very happy to see it on the menu. The meat was well seasoned with a nice amount of capers. This was served with a couple of pickles and some toasted sourdough.

I enjoyed this but it was not as good as the canape. This is due to the egg yolk to meat ratio I think. The canape version had less meat and still a whole egg yolk, see Kerri and Ben's fabulous pictures of the evening (including the tartare) here. As a starter I felt less impressed visually than I was with Monday night miniature offering, they really were beautiful but the taste was the same. I would have liked more egg yolk is all. The yolk used for the canape was a quail yolk, this offering was from a hens egg I believe.

Thomas had the fish selection to start, a mixture of various bite sized pieces of fish fried in a light batter, served with aioli and a wedge of lemon. This was fine but neither of us were as impressed with the first course as we had been with the bar snack.

The downstairs dining room at The Bull and Last is the bar, all tables are available to reserve for dinner making his more of a foodie than a drinkers establishment, those wanting only a drink may use the tables until the diners arrive which is nice. The kitchen is visible (part of it at least) to the right of the main bar. This did mean that it got very hot in the room which made it slightly uncomfortable, as did the air being thick with smoke at one point, we left that evening with our clothes and hair reeking of smoke.

For my main course I followed Simon's advice and had the fish and chips. Gourmet Chick claims these to be the very best chips in London and I concur that they are indeed up there. I am yet to try those at Quo Vadis, many claim these reign supreme.

I was a little disappointed by the size of the battered fish but that's the greedy person in me. There was more than enough and the accompanying tartare and mushy peas were every bit as good as the chips. The large gherkin was quite brilliant too. This was a great take on a classic pub dish.

Thomas had the veal for main which came with beautiful girolles, wilted spinach, a rich meaty sauce, all topped with shavings of parmesan. The meat was delightfully tender obviously the star of the dish. Pudney certainly knows his meat and how to cook it. There is certainly due care and attention paid to the sourcing of quailty ingredients and their subsequent preparation at The Bull and Last, something which should guarantee success for Pudney, this is the second of his outposts in London, the first, The Prince of Wales in Putney, I am keen to visit.

We both felt there was room for dessert, I had the chocolate brownie sundae and Thomas had the pannacotta. Both were exquisite, I didn't snap these as I was feeling a bit tiddly taking full advantage of the fine ales and ciders available by the pump. We also had a lovely glass of champagne each, a fine way to end the meal.

There were some downsides to the experience on this occasion, we were sat right next to the kitchen, a negative not only due to the fact that we left smelling lightly charred, but we seemed to be sat in a corridor for the waiting staff. Despite this we often had trouble getting their attention. This in stark contrast to the service on prior visits, this was a busy Friday night. With a couple of tweaks The Bull and Last can become a wonderful venue, all the right ingredients are there. I would rate the evening Dining with Dos Hermanos a 9.5/10.

7.5/10

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The Bull and Last is between Kentish Town and Highgate, and has a traditional pub feel to the main room. There is an upstairs area that is open on busy times like Sunday lunch or for private functions, but the main room is at ground level. On a blackboard is a list of the various suppliers of produce used, such as Secretts farm for vegetables, an indication of a place that cares.

The pub name is partly explained by the trio of stuffed bull’s heads over the bar, but the meaning of the “last” in this context is seemingly lost in the mists of time (the present owners took over a few months ago). The menu is appealing British pub grub, with starters at around £7, mains about £16 and desserts around £6, give or take. The menu appears to be printed in 4 point font, which is fine if you are 25 years old or an owl, but may challenge customers with more elderly eyesight, which these days includes me.

The wine list is short but nips around the New World, with selections such as Tim Knappstein Riesling 2007 at £22 for a wine that costs around £8 in the shops, Five Ashes Shiraz 3004 at £35 compared to a shop price of about £19, and even Louis Roederer champagne (my favourite non-vintage champagne) at a very fair £50 compared to £38 in Oddbins (though you can do better if you hunt around). Tap water is already on the table.

A starter of eel salad was enjoyable, with dressed rocket leaves, potato, red onion slices and horseradish, as well as a poached egg in the centre of the salad. This was a sensible combination of flavours, the eel had good flavour, and the horseradish cream added a nice bite (3/10). Celeriac soup was topped with mace and hazelnuts, and had both deep flavour of celeriac and a punchy taste of wild garlic, served with crusty bread (4/10). I gather that they do proper Scotch eggs here, but this was not obvious from the menu.

For main course fish and chips involved haddock with crispy batter, home-made tartare sauce and a little dish of peas; my only criticism is that there seemed a lot of batter relatvie to fish, but it tasted fine (4/10). Above all it featured triple-cooked chips, which to me is the very best way to make a chip, giving a crisp coating but properly cooked contents; these were thicker cut than the ones I make at home, but were carefully cooked through (7/10).

For dessert, chocolate fondant was very well executed, with a slightly liquid, gooey centre, served with excellent honeycomb ice cream (6/10). Service was friendly. The bill for two with a bottle of wine was just £78. This is the kind of pub food that is so often promised but hardly ever actually appears on the plate. The chef used to be a sous chef at the Lindsay House. The excellent food and appealing menu, combined with fair prices are clearly drawing in the punters: they did 100 covers for lunch today, and had two sittings for dinner. If this was nearer where I lived I’d be back here all the time.

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On one of those rare occasions when I could hear myself think (very rare in the cut/thrust, hustle/bustle of the City - although for some strange reason the place seems a bit quieter recently) I pondered upon the subject of my favourite time to eat.

With advancing age a big breakfast is out of the question. A midweek dinner usually means indigestion - it’s those big, greasy steaks, you see - and a fuzzy head the next morning.

I came to the conclusion that if I could only eat at one time then Saturday lunch would be it. When most people are visiting the DIY Superstore, mowing the lawn or heaven forfend, buying clothes, sensible folk (that’s us) are slowly getting sozzled while scoffing great grub. Well, that’s how it usually goes.

The Bull and Last pub in Highgate hasn’t been open that long but has already garnered great reviews (as has its sister The Prince of Wales in Putney). This would normally be the kiss of death for any place for me but I decided to give it a chance and wandered along last Saturday for a spot of lunch with HS.

My initial concerns increased when I saw that all but one of their ales was off. And so it begins I thought when I saw a pile of Scotch Eggs and Sausage Rolls behind the bar. The Harwood Arms cooks them to order I huffed to HS.

As it turned out I was just being unusually and extra-curmudgeonly. The Bull and Last is an absolutely terrific gaff.

Those Scotch Eggs and Sausage Rolls had just been cooked. Both were excellent especially the Roll where the buttery, flaky pastry encased good Pork Sausage meat which had been studded with little nuggets of Black Pudding. Such a good idea I’m surprised you don’t see it more often.

Our little bar-side amuses finished we rolled up our sleeves to get stuck into the menu proper. This kitchen doesn’t hang around and the first three dishes weren’t long in arriving.

Crispy Squid was indeed, crispy, and very fresh. A pungent Aioli had us using our fingers in the only way that DH know how. Some more Porky (and Ducky) treats came on the Charcuterie board: a silky Liver Parfait was refined but with a pleasingly Offaly kick. A terrine of Belly Pork was little underseasoned but was good and fatty. As were the Rillettes.

Best of the lot was the Deep Fried Lamb Breast coming on as an English version of the Iberian Croqueta. Notably good Lamb had been shredded and breadcrumbed and fried properly so that the coating complemented rather than dominating the whole.

A dish of Pig Cheeks with Sauerkraut and Prunes had HS coming over all Greg Wallace (“It’s deep, it’s savoury, it’s…etc”) which is a bit of a coincidence as

a) they’ve both been naughty boys at a football match (although HS’s punishment was disappointingly lenient - a stern telling-off from plod ) and

b) they’re both bald.

Perfect comfort food, then, but done with no little refinement. Perfect ingreients too and, a nice touch here, instead of hiding the provenance of the ingredients in the menu they’re prouly displayed over the bar.

Triple cooked chips were up there with the best and had us engaged in one of those unseemly squabbles over the correct and fair distribution of the same. If the friendly and efficient staff hadn’t been quite so busy they would have wondered what on earth was going on. Sad, really quite sad.

While taking cinquo minutos we saw other plates of food pass by: Beef Pies with flaky, crusted tops; a big fist of Deep Fried Haddock with more of those chips; doorstep sandwiches; a steaming pot of Moules, this time served with great looking Frites. O-M-G, this kitchen does TWO types of chips.

After what had gone before it would have been a major surprise if the puds had been anything other than great. I really liked my Praline and Chocolate Ice Cream. It seems to have just the right texture, HS astutely noted.

Even better was the Marmalade version with his Chocolate Orange Fondant, both of which had HS going off on one (“it’s sweet, it’s chocolatey, it’s…etc”).

Things were beginning to liven up by the time we drained the dregs from a half bottle of Sauterne. The Nappy Valley families who had come for an early lunch had moved on to be replaced by a mixture of locals, dog-walkers and groups of lads devouring big plates of Sausage Rolls and chips. A pretty mixed crowd making for a buzzy yet civilised atmosphere. A model for pubs of the future ? Possibly, but certainly a model pub for today. Other hostelries please take note.

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