The Harwood Arms, Fulham

The jungle drums had started beating that this pub had been taken over by new management. We used to go there fairly regularly when R lived in Fulham, and it has been owned by Geronimo Inns for a few years. We needed somewhere to go before a Chelsea game, so I booked a table.

The menus were brought over with a jug of tap water and some bread in a little hessian sack. My father started with a well-kept pint of London Pride, and there were a couple of other bitters too, so that kept him happy. I had a Fentimans ginger beer, which is one of my favourites, so I was happy too.

We decided that for lunch, and knowing we were having a large meal that evening, we would have two starters each. There was plenty of choice, but the fish platter for two caught both of our eyes, so we started with that. It arrived with toasted sour dough and potato scones, and consisted of some very nice smoked salmon, two croquettes filled with a sort of fish pie mixture, some potted shrimps and some marinated mackerel. It was all very good, with the croquettes and the mackerel particularly standing out.

I followed this with rabbit schnitzel, with leaves and wholegrain mustard mayonnaise, which was on the specials board. It was beautifully cooked, crunchy on the outside with the rabbit taste still coming through. My father had crispy pigs ears with trotter on toast, which he raved about

Unfortunately we didn’t have time to sample some yummy-sounding puddings, so we will just have to go back.

This was a perfect pub lunch. Yes it is definitely a gastro-pub, and some people won’t like the fact that it has very little space for drinking. But the food was perfectly executed, and the service efficient and friendly, even though they were full and on a deadline as virtually everyone in there had to be round the corner at Stanford Bridge in time for kick-off.