We met up with Ian and Kay on Saturday at The Hart, which has a restaurant on the first and second floors and a pub on the ground floor. We all arrived virtually together at 1 pm and climbed the steep and narrow stairs, passing the kitchen on the first floor.
The place was full of trendy people from Marylebone. I don’t know if the four of us stood out from the crowd. I distinctly remember not being able to understand the waitress with her strong accent in a room with the ,music blaring out and the noise of the other guests. Ian, who has problems with his hearing suffered even more. The menu didn’t give a great deal of choice.
I choose the crab cakes as a starter and it shocked me to find that on the plate I had a dollop of tomato ketchup straight from the bottle. The actual crab cakes themselves lacked flavour, so I started the meal disappointed. I followed this up with fish stew. The waitress described it as a type of bouliabase. She gave the dish too much credence because it consisted of some fish with mussels and a soup like sauce. The sauce had lost of flavour and I liked it, but the portion size could have been decent instead of measly.
As a group we all felt £239 for a two course lunch with a bottle of wine represented very poor value for money. The wine had a grotesque mark up. Ian found the same bottle with a retail price of £11 cost us £44. What a rip off!
We left the restaurant to have a cup of coffee in Marylebone High St. Ian said he had spotted a place with a queue where they sold pastries and he wouldn’t stop looking at his phone until he found it. He eventually discovered the place called The WatchHouse, all very swanky with people queuing up to sit down. We bought some excellent pastries and ate them in the evening.
Sunday 15th
Maggi and I drove to Lower Bucky to see Lillian and Chris in their spanking clean and tidy home. I hope to have a game of snooker, but no offer came. Perhaps he didn’t challenge me because last time we played I beat him only because I made slightly fewer mistakes than he did.
Lillian made, well that’s an exaggeration, she assembled and cooked some parts of the meal. Chris frequently talked about his gold card status with British Airways and how he had enough money to see him through his retirement. Lillian said she wasn’t bothered about flying club, but chris was. We arrived at 12 and managed to escape at four. Chris gave us a tour of the house with its 5 bedrooms. I don’t think I’ll bother to make the trip again.