The Hound

The Hound is the relaunch of the Chiswick High Road pub that was previously called The Crown. The site was once the site of the old Chiswick police station, which dated back to 1872 and had stables for the police horses. The pub is now owned by JKS restaurants, who own Trishna, Kitchen Table, Gymkhana, Lyles, Hoppers, Bao, and Bibi, amongst others. This is a large premises with an internal courtyard, seating up to 155 people at any one time.

The menu was developed by JKS executive chef John Sparks, who was previously culinary director at Rarebreed Dining for eight years, and also worked briefly at The Ledbury back in 2011. The head chef is Matt Birch, who previously worked with the Hawksmoor group. The menu has the kind of pub food that you might expect, such as steak tartare and fish and chips. There was a short tasting menu available at £55 as well as a la carte.

The wine list had 88 labels and ranged in price from £30 to £600, with a median price of £87 and an average markup to retail price of 3.4 times, which is a touch high but not the worst by London standards these days. Sample references were A.A Badenhorst Secateurs from Swartland 2023 at £45 for a bottle that you can find in the high street for £15, Thistledown Cunning Plan Shiraz 2022 at £62 compared to its retail price of £22, and Viñas de Gain Artadi Rioja 2020 at £90 for a wine that will set you back £29 in the high street. For those with the means there was Happy Canyon RSW Cabernet Sauvignon Tyler 2017 at £220 compared to its retail price of £80, and Pol Roger Sir Winston Churchill Brut 2015 at £480 for a wine whose current market value is £244. Corkage was a reasonable £25, and free on Mondays.

Tomato salad (£12) featured heritage tomatoes, olives, British mozzarella, avocado and basil. This was nicely presented with a decent dressing, though the tomatoes had limited flavour (12/20). Cauliflower and onion bhajias (£8.50) were fried and interleafed with fried curry leaves, which not only added a little colour but also added a touch of freshness. There was no greasiness in the batter and the cauliflower retained its texture quite well, while the tamarind chutney added a touch of sweet and sour flavour and offset the inherently dry bhajia (13/20). 

Thai green prawn curry with rice (£23) had a vaguely Thai style curry that involved Thai spices, prawns and pineapple. This had a decent chilli kick and the prawns were cooked well enough, though I counted just three prawns in this dish. It lacked the complexity of spices of an authentic green curry but it was pleasant enough (12/20). Haddock and chips was better, the fish cooked carefully, with crisp batter and good chips, alongside mushy peas and tartare sauce (13/20).

Eton mess (£10) was a somewhat unusual take on the classic dessert, here with raspberries, lemon and mint. The raspberries were fine but mint is a tricky choice in dessert, as it is such a strong flavour, and it was a little dominant (12/20). It was still better than a strawberry trifle (£10), where the custard and sponge were reasonable fruit lacked much flavour (11/20). We didn’t have coffee, but it was supplied by Origin, a speciality roaster in London.

The bill came to £46 per person, with no drinks as we happened to come on a Monday and took advantage of the free corkage on that night of the week. Service was good, and we were very well looked after by our waiter Patrick.  The Hound offers an attractive premises with an accessible menu, nice staff and a well put together wine list. I just wish that the food was a little better. It is a very well-located site at the heart of the busy Chiswick High Road, and on this evening, just its fifth night since opening, it was already very busy.