Ye Olde Cherry Tree, Southgate

Apparently this used to be quite a nice pub.
We got bad vibes the second we arrived in the rubbish-strewn car park and if we'd been any less hungry I daresay we'd have jumped back in the car and found somewhere else to have lunch. As it was we headed inside, reasoning that the interior would surely beat the exterior. It didn't.
After waiting several minutes to be seated, during which time one of the regulars gave us a quizzical look as if he knew what we were in for, we were advised to grab a table by the harassed-looking waitress who appeared to be the only one working.
We grabbed a table by the window, hoping the heater we sat next to would alleviate the depressing draught which seemed to be blowing through the place, but this rapidly turned itself off. Undeterred we ordered our food and then settled down to wait...and wait...
After what I believe was no less than half an hour, the starters arrived. My wife's beer-battered mushrooms (all five of them, plonked on the sort of lettuce leaf you usually find lining the bottom of a rabbit hutch) were swimming with grease and singularly unpleasant, while my tomato soup could have come straight out of a supermarket carton. Perhaps it did.
We then waited a further 20-25 minutes for our main courses to arrive, again hoping they might make up for the mediocrity of the previous offerings. Unfortunately they were even worse...I don't know what version of "shepherds pie" they taught the chef at college but it resembled none that I've eaten before and frankly I wouldn't have fed it to my dog. I felt like I was eating in a 1950s East German soup kitchen by now - I won't even go into the sorry collection of boiled green vegetables which skulked on the side of the plate either.
As for my wife, she's had better macaroni cheeses out of a carton from a supermarket. Both portions were also tiny by the way.
We sent both main courses back, paid for our drinks and starters and made a sharp exit. We won't be back.

25 Feb 2013 15:30