The Canton Arms, Stockwell, London
My friend and I popped in here on Saturday night. It's a traditional boozer that has been recently refurbished, but hasn't been too gastropubbed, ifswim. The restaurant bit is at the back, and is pleasantly informal and rustic. The front is still a pub, with a lot of interesting ales on tap (I don't really drink beer so didn't try any). The chef is formerly of the Eagle and the Anchor and Hope in Waterloo.
We'd already had some bread and olives, chorizo and calamares in Bar Estrella down the road (decent enough but nothing out of the ordinary), so we opted for a couple of starters and some cheese. The beetroot with goat's curd, toasted crumbs and beet greens was nice enough, with a pleasant earthiness from the greens but it didn't blow me away. We also had a rustic terrine, which was very good. It came with a thick slice of toasted bread, and some cornichons. There was also a thin layer of what tasted like chicken liver paté on top of the terrine, which I've never experienced before. We liked. Cheese was very good - three very generous portions of English cheese but I'm afraid I wasn't paying attention to what they were (too busy chatting and drinking). The blue was particulaly excellent, and I think there was a Lancashire as well as some kind of goat. With two glasses of prosecco and strawberry fizz, and half a carafe of house red, it came to about £35.
Anyway, liked this place and will probably go back to try some of the mains at some point. The menu was admirably brief and seasonal and reminiscent, not surprisingly, of the Anchor and Hope. There was a slow-roast shoulder of lamb, for example, to serve fiveish.
