THE PALMERSTON

If you ask any local where to eat on restaurant-and bar-thronged Lordship Lane, they’re likely to namecheck the Palmerston, a revamped traditional pub that’s famous for its gastronomic glories. It’s a wood-lined, intimate place, classic and simple, with changing exhibitions on the walls, a long green-leather banquette, and close-set wooden tables and chairs. One room is wood-floored, the other has fine mosaic flooring that is easy to miss as you lovingly peruse the menu.

The pub’s polished, timeworn panelling gives it something of the feel of a room in a grand country house, with simple wrought-iron chandeliers overhead, and it’s an appealing place to settle into any night of the week. The crowd is mainly local – a relaxed crowd of the twenty-, thirty- and forty-somethings that congregate in this neck of the woods – and a good mix.

As inviting as the surroundings, the company and the beers are, it’s the food that hauls in the hordes. This award-winning gastropub is overseenby head chef Jamie Harding (formerly of Bibendum) and offers an eating experience that’s a far-flung fat chip ahead of most pub-restaurants. You can dive in with dishes such as poached egg with potato, chives and truffle vinaigrette and go on to eat steak with Roquefort and parsley butter or line-caught wild sea bass with purple sprouting broccoli, anchovy and rosemary butter. Sunday lunch is a triumph, as are puddings, and it’s rare to find a pub harbouring a wine list this spectacular, all handily described, with some delectable treats by the glass. Of course, there’s beer on tap too – a reminder that the Palmerston is a pub, not just a foodie paradise.