Monday night at the Grosvenor arms

It’s been over a year since the Grosvenor reopened in its present incarnation. Previously it was one of the area’s few unimproved ‘traditional’ pubs, better know for its karaoke & Elvis impersonator Friday nights than family friendly food.

Since the relaunch, courtesy of the Frontier pub company, out has gone the karaoke, the carpet that remembers the coronation and a selection of bar food based on crisps and instead we now see stripped down wood, a pizza focused food menu and a selection of big screens showing sport.

I’m not usually one for pub pizza, but recently one Monday evening, I was walking with the Queen of Fitzrovia discussing what we were going to do for dinner that night. It was for the pub then very serendipitous that their offer of Monday nights two for one on all pizzas caught the Queen’s eye. Given the choice between shopping, cooking and washing up, all without alcohol the Queen very sensibly suggested that perhaps we should give this, which is in fact the most local of our local pubs a go.

Now I had been in before, and since its relaunch the Grosvenor is a more attractive place to be. What I had never done though was consumed any food other than a bag of dry roasted peanuts whilst there. The Monday we went in, it was doing OK business, a mix of families enjoying the pizza deal and a few early football fans waiting for that night’s match.

The menu at the Grosvenor is let’s say rather limited if you’re not in the mood for pizza. There’s pizza, gluten free pizzas, garlic bread and salad available and a very small selection of puddings. Fortunately, I’d gone in for pizza, and settled quickly for a number 6, essentially a ham and mushroom. The Queen decided regally to build her own and ended up with what was a ham and mushroom without mushroom but with onion.

Like all Frontier pubs, there’s a good selection of craft beers. We decided though to have some wine from the short wine list. The £24 for a Chilean pinot noir represented fair rather than good value, it was a nice enough glass of wine, and went well with the food when it came.

The pizza arrived swiftly and was a nice size and thickness. It had a good flavour, with the ingredients coming through and not everything tasting too much of cheese. The Queen was equally pleased with hers and managed to eat nearly 2/3’s of it which is nearly a record for her and pizzas, this was pub pizza par excellence.

The pizzas disappeared far more swiftly than the wine did, and it was then that the Grosvenor’s selection of board games came into play (sorry for that pun.) I shouldn’t have let the Queen choose what we were going to play, her selection of ‘Cards against humanity,’ was so much more obviously in tune with her world view that I  ended up losing by between a multiple of three and four in terms of number of points won.

Still it had been a fun way to spend a couple of hours and I remember asking for and then splitting the bill. This came to £46.50, which I thought wasn’t too bad for 2 mains and a bottle of wine. I remember thinking this all the way to the point when I was leaving the loo, when that thought was suddenly replaced with ‘hang on…wasn’t it meant to be two pizzas for the price of one.’

At this point I probably achieved the fastest ever mood swing from gruntled to disgruntled I’d ever experienced and made my way back to the bar as nonchalantly and calmly as a child waiting to open their Christmas stocking.

My words came out as a staccato like stutter as I explained why I was so perturbed. ‘B…but..but 2 4 1,’ I sprayed incontinently, in the way that only a man who thinks he might have spent an unnecessary tenner can. It was explained politely that the deal didn’t extend to 2 4 1 pizzas, though I still can’t find out where it said that.

I have since written to the Grosvenor and asked about this, they have said that this will be stated more clearly on future menus. They also answered my somewhat foaming in the mouth query quickly and courteously. Putting that to one side, I think the Grosvenor is a pleasant place to spend an evening, the pizzas are good quality and the beers which I have sampled at other times are great.

So with that caveat I’d recommend the Grosvenor, though it has to be said there are times when I still miss the karaoke and Elvis impersonators. Till the next time.

Rob

www.grosvenorarms.co.uk