I’m not in the habit of reviewing places I’ve been before… Unless of course I went there before I was writing this blog, when it’s fine. The Farm falls into this category. I ate there for the second time in my life recently and for the second time I was moderately satisfied.
The Farm take rather overcompensated pride in telling you just how local and fresh their produce is. Admirable, naturally, but we’re seriously expecting this out of our top restaurants as it is. I did feel a spark of local community pride as I realised they sourced their meat from my local butcher, but that aside it was a late Sunday night and I was ravenous and keen to eat. Therefore I didn’t really have time for the page of the menu that was telling me all about their heroics in food freshness.
And yet… They do raise a good point. It is important to maintain vibrant local relationships with suppliers of local foodstuffs. It does matter that you support home grown (pardon the pun) businesses and traditionally-marketed produce. Perhaps there is something to their patter after all. Food for though it certainly proved to be. Well, it proved to be after I’d dismissed it given how hungry I was on this late Sunday night.
The food was pretty good. Some foie gras to start was typically British (so, not as good as French then) and did a job. Some mushrooms on toast was very appetising-looking if a little relentless and overbearing by the end. The bread was overcooked, the red pesto on the bread was unnecessary and the mushrooms were over-seasoned. Still, some of them went down well. The egg that came with was nice, but was drowned in the fungi somewhat
A steak that didn’t come close to Athenaeum’s which we’d started the weekend with still didn’t disappoint (although the chips were too dry and too numerous to be worthy), and the duck confit shepherds’ pie was a treat. It was an exotic-looking dish on the menu, sparkling of mystique mixed with tradition, yet when you tried it, you wondered ‘why don’t we see this everywhere?’
Desserts came and went without any fuss. I think there was some sort of chocolate fondant in there and maybe some cheesecake. By this point I was very tired and had made up my mind that The Farm is a good restaurant (and a pub in front) and it’s worth checking out if you’re near Fulham Broadway. They’re quite nice in there too, and the contemporary dining room mixes excellently with the hearty fare they produce.
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