The Pelican

The Pelican is a Victorian era pub that opened in its current form in 2022, a sister of The Hero in Maida Vale. The head chef here is notionally Owen Kenworthy, who formerly was head chef at Brawn in Hackney until he moved to Julie’s in Holland Park.  The head chef here tonight was Jack Kemball, apparently one of three (!) head chefs here. The dining room was conventionally laid it, with fairly small, quite tightly spaced, tables. The menu had bar snacks as well as a short selection of starts and mains, plus several specials that were written out by hand on our menu by our waitress. The room had fairly low lighting, and this was lowered at intervals during the evening until, towards the end of the meal, it was barely possible to make out your table companions in the gloom, let alone the dessert menu. I have always been unclear as to why restaurateurs seems to think that customers want to eat their meals in murky shadows that demand a torch or night vision glasses, but here we are.

The wine list had 46 labels and ranged in price from £32 to £130, with a median price of £63 and an average markup to retail price of 3.1 times, which these days seems almost reasonable in London. Sample references were Besas Gruner Veltliner Niederosterreich 2022 at £40 for a bottle that you can find in the high street for £14, Daniel Chotard Marcel Henri Sancerre 2021 at £68 compared to its retail price of £34, and Sidewood Mappinga Shiraz 2016 at £88 for a wine that will set you back £34 in the high street. For those with the means there was the very good Lopez de Heredia Tondonia Reserva 2011 at £110 compared to its retail price of £52, and Alfred Gratien Grand Cru Champagne Blanc de Blancs 2015 at £120 for a wine whose current market value is £55. Corkage was a reasonable £30 a bottle. 

We began with some snacks. Spider crab on toast (£15) was decorated with a few chives and was pleasant (13/20) but “monkfish scampi” (£13) with Marie Rose dipping sauce was greasy, and monkfish is a rather miserable substitute for langoustines as a filling (barely 12/20). Bread (£2.50) was made in the kitchen and would have been much better bought in. The texture was dense and doughy, well below the standard of supermarket bread. 

A trio of fairly small langoustines (£26) were served in their shells with mayonnaise. These were pleasant enough, cooked reasonably well, though without any great flavour (13/20). Chicken liver pate and pickles (£12) with toasted sourdough was more a mousse than a pate in terms of texture. However, it had quite a bit of liver flavour, and the sharpness of the pickles cut through the richness of the pate/mousse (13/20). 

Guinea fowl and peas (£24) was quite good, the guinea fowl nicely cooked and the peas having reasonable flavour (14/20).  My companion’s sea bass and tomato (£24) was reportedly pleasant. Peppers and beans (£11) seemed to be mostly some fairly soggy strips of bell peppers, though there were a few fine beans tucked underneath (11/20). Chips on the side were decent, as they might be at £6. 

Lemon cake (£7) was a small slab of dried out cake and was fairly sorry for itself (barely 11/20). They may have three head chefs here but seem to not be able to afford a pastry chef. We were told that there were “no hot drinks” tonight but it was unclear whether that was a temporary glitch or a permanent policy. Service was fine, and the bill came to £138 per person with corkage. To be honest, that is an awful lot of money for the level of food that was delivered. Despite the fairly sorry level of food on display, the pub was inexplicably busy.