Red Peppers: Teddington, Friday 27th January, 2012

When friends return, memories return with them. A dear friend of mine came home from Australia earlier this year for a short visit, which led to the re-enactment of many old traditions, gatherings and tomfoolery. Naturally, a couple of meals were included in this period, the first of which was the return to one of the oldest haunts I can remember.

Back in the first year of writing this blog, I was not eating out as much as I do now and was frequently less busy than I am now, so I wrote about memories of food. My first truly memorable meal out was at Bunter's Pizza Pie in Teddington, as a young lad with a fussy outlook and a love of spaghetti. Even though Bunter's isn't there any more, the Red Peppers which replaced it has seen its fair share of family action. In fact, this was the last meal a group of us shared before my friend left for Australia some two years ago.

Red Peppers is one of those chains that's comparable to Garfunkel's, Strada or Zizzi: you'll go there, spend £20-£30, order dishes you're sure will suffice and be done with it. They're not special places but they're convenient, easy and consistent. Having said that, given that a few months prior I'd experienced just about the worst return to any restaurant ever, I wasn't taking anything for granted.

The short of the matter - and this will be short - is that we had a lovely evening. The meal did exactly what we anticipated: delivered a no-frills set of okay dishes that nobody paid over the odds for. I had a steak & chips which, I was almost embarrassed to admit, I enjoyed more than the one I'd eaten at Dinner By Heston a week earlier (left). Okay, it clearly wasn't as good, but since my expectations were that much lower, I have to say it was a pretty decent piece of meat.

The wife went for ribs & chicken, which is something of a cult classic for anyone who knows Red Peppers (right). Essentially it's a trough filled with a couple of racks of ribs and half a chicken, liberally doused with barbecue sauce. It's a massively gluttonous main course and one that should only be ordered if you've got some serious staying power. It's hard not to enjoy it though, reminding us of a time when finishing such a dish had no effect on the waistline.

Potato skins, nachos, prawn fritters, pizzas... this place doesn't tend to do 'awful' as much as one might assume given the size and diversity of the menu. Everyone got on with it and enjoyed themselves. There isn't much point in analysing the detail of everything that was eaten because there's no way every dish needs much of a mention. It was all of a decent and unadventurously comfortable standard.

What I will say for Red Peppers is that, given most middle class upbringings, you'll have eaten at a good few places like this in the past. And as such, it's a trip down memory lane in a slightly indirect sense. Or a direct one if you grew up in Teddington or Esher. And as I found out in late January, it's a pretty good one too.

Red Peppers