sunday lunch @ the lock, tottenham hale

A small office block in Tottenham Hale - not the most obvious location for a 'fine dining' experience!

Our favourite local restaurant has been The Lock at Tottenham Hale for a very long time.  In fact, it’s probably our favourite restaurant, local or not!

We tried to get in Friday or Saturday for dinner, but they were fully booked, so The Man said that he’d take me for Sunday lunch.  I prepared for this by not eating anything from 6pm last night!

The Lock is an absolute hidden gem – about 10 mins walk from Tottenham Hale station and about 15 mins bus ride from our place, it is a surprising little haven of fine dining!  West End quality food and definite East End prices.  (In fact, we get our locally-sourced meat from the same butcher!)

Chicken Terrine

Owned by Ade (chef – who was on great British Menu about 3 years ago) and Fabrizio (front of house), it’s welcoming, bright, and has a great atmosphere – especially now that word has spread!

On Sundays, they only offer their Sunday roast menu, which is great and well worth the money, but isn’t a patch on their usual gorgeous seasonal menu.

We decided to go for starters.  I had a Black Legged Chicken Terrine with fruit compote.

Waldorf(ish) Salad

The terrine was thick and chunky, meaty and ex

ceptionally chickeny (yes, I know how daft that sounds, but it really was!), with a gorgeous tangy sweet chutney and an obviously homemade herby ciabatta-style toast.

The Man surprisingly went for a Waldorf-style salad, which he happily hoovered up (I don’t like blue cheese, so I didn’t sample it!).  he thought he’d go for a light starter as he knew what he had coming next!

Piggy goodness (with veggies hidden!)

I had the roast loin of pork with apple sauce (bargain at £6.50) and The Man treated himself to the forerib of beef (which we already knew costs almost twice as much!) which he had rare.  As far as he’s concerned, when you eat beef, as long as it’s quality, he should just wipe the cow’s arse and stick it on his plate!

My pork was lovely – two huge, moist slices with gorgeous crunchy crackling.  The veggies were all flavourful and perfectly cooked, the yorkshire light and the gravy had a scrummy thyme kick to it – AND they immediately brought

Meat should never be that pink - surely!

me an extra jug when I asked (as soon as I got my meal – I’m a gravy freak!).

The Man’s beef was suitably red/pink and a huge meaty kick for him.  He even ate my aubergine, which had no place on my plate!

 

I was very tempted by the bread & butter pudding, but think that may have been just a step too far for lunch – so we

Button undone...and relax!

settled for coffee, which came with a couple of homemade truffles each.

I am expecting The Man to take me for a ‘proper’ dinner again soon.  It’s been far too long.

(NB: The photos of The Man’s dishes are blurry cos he doesn’t know how to take photos )