Ladbroke Arms

54 Ladbroke Road,
London W11 3NW

020 7727 6648

We walked across Holland Park in bright sunshine, the ground was sprinkled with patches of icing sugar snow. It was 2 degrees centigrade. The Ladbroke Arms is at the park end of Ladbroke Grove near the police station. Despite the cold there were people eating outside in the sunshine on the terrace outside. There were quite a few drinkers at the bar. Inside in the small restaurant at the back things were less busy. We were put next door to a pram and a cigarette machine in a little alcove on the only table for two. From the alcove seat the view was straight down the corridor towards the kitchen and at the end the kitchen dustbins. We had booked but if you come early enough it is better to sit at the front at the tables in the pub. The best table in the restaurant is a round one for four.

I had provencal fish stew £14. She had two starters: feta cheese , pomegranate, cucumber, orange, red onion, rocket and mint £6.75 and pork and chicken liver terrine with fig and prune compote. The fish stew was dominated by red mullet, mussels and potatoes. The soup was hardly deep enough to soak the small piece of toast covered with a thin coating of rouille. It was a thick buttery soup. To me this was nowhere near as good as the one at the Brompton Bar and Grill which had much more variety and was so big you could almost drown in it. It was also the same price and eaten in much more comfortable surroundings. The terrine was pronounced "no better than what is available at Waitrose" though the compote was fresh and full of flavour. The salad had too much raw onion. We had two glasses of perfectly adequate Picpoul, reasonably priced at £3.45 for 125ml .

The service was friendly but amateur; as it turned out the tables were not all booked as the restaurant filled and we could easily have had more space. We went a couple of years ago and remembered it being much better. They've poshed up the restaurant area and crammed more tables in (too many) but the food standards appear to have declined.