The Plough At Norwood Green

The Plough dates back to 1349 and is the oldest pub in Southall. It is old by any standard – the oldest pub in London is arguably The Prospect of Whitby, which dates back to 1520. From November 2024 the kitchen here has been run by Dipna Anand, whose family set up the venerable The Brilliant Indian restaurant in Southall. Chef Balbir Balbir formerly cooked at The Brilliant. The Plough menu offered a mix of pub staples like fish and chips alongside some Indian dishes and fusion options like tandoori chicken burger. We went on a Sunday lunch when a roast dinner was the only option available. The landlord has been here for 16 years, an amiable gentleman called Derek, and there was a friendly little pub dog called Bailey. The dining room has exposed beams and some nicely chosen music played quietly in the background, mostly light jazz.

Cauliflower soup (£7) could have had deeper cauliflower flavour and a little more seasoning (barely 11/20). I wistfully recall the stunning cauliflower soup that Steve Terry served at The Hardwick. I wasn’t expecting that level of course, but a better stock that had been reduced further would help here. I had chicken poppers (£7) served with a sweet chilli dip and a few undressed salad leaves. It is hard to dislike pieces of deep-fried breaded chicken and the chilli dip was fine (11/20).

Roast chicken (£19.50) came on a plate groaning with accompaniments. There were peas and beans, roast potatoes, parsnips and roast potato as well as a large Yorkshire pudding. The chicken itself had little flavour but was cooked well enough. The peas, beans and parsnips were fine, the roast potatoes a little soggy. It is very hard to cook roast potatoes in a restaurant well since they ideally need 45 minutes uninterrupted cooking in an oven, so inevitably in a commercial setting they are partly cooked in advanced and never crisp enough. Better was the Yorkshire pudding, which was crisp and airy (11/20 overall, but the Yorkshire pudding was genuinely good). Vegetarian Wellington (£19.50) came with the same accompaniments and was of a similar level.

For dessert, sticky toffee pudding and caramel sauce (£7) was made from scratch, which is more than can be said for the flavourless vanilla ice cream than came with it (11/20). Apple crumble (£7) had adequate apple puree but the crumble lacked texture and was not cooked long enough to brown; this is another dish that is easier to make well at home where the dish can be cooked in the oven in one go for 40 minutes or so (10/20). This could be served with custard but I opted for ice cream as I gather than the custard was not made from scratch. However not too many vanilla pods were harmed in the making of this ice cream. Coffee (£3.30) was made from ground beans from a company called Capriccio and was pretty basic. This could be easily improved by switching to a speciality coffee roaster. 

The bill came to £46 a head with lager to drink; service was fine. The atmosphere here was good, with friendly staff, genuinely historic premises and a large garden. The food could, to be honest, improved. It may be better in the evening when some Indian dishes are available given the background of the chef.