The Beaufort House, 354 King’s Road,
London SW3 5UZ
10/10/2013
She said: I’ve regularly walked passed
this corner gastro-looking pub on the King’s Road and read good things so we
popped in for an early dinner before a movie. The service was prompt and when I
was served a gone-off juice they were quick to remove it and take the price off
the bill. The menu offered a decent range of gastro-pub food and I kicked off
with a fig and goats cheese salad which was good but a few too many lumps of
cheese for me. I was looking forward to the lobster and pea risotto and when a
big serving of it arrived I was glad I had ordered the starter portion.
Unfortunately the risotto was a big let down. The rice was overcooked to mush,
the lobster was clearly being rationed but more surprisingly so were the peas!
It was so lacking in flavour I quit halfway through. Shame really as this would
have been a nice spot for pre/post cinema dining. The movie wasn’t great either
so a bit of a washout of an evening (including the rain)!
He said: We had about an hour before a
movie, and Beaufort House was an impulsive choice: it was nearest, and we’d
been meaning to check it out. This being Chelsea I still called ahead; the
voicemail picked-up and I left a message (I’m an optimist). I was pleasantly
surprised that we were expected when we rolled-up a few minutes later. Beaufort
House ticks quite a lot of boxes: the room is pleasant, in a posh, former pub
kind of way, you don’t get charged for bread and olives (a bugbear of mine:
this is the hospitality industry, after all), service is efficient, the menu’s
fairly broad, prices fair. Where it does stumble is in the quality control: her
cranberry was off (they cancelled it with an apology), as was the risotto which
was way overdone. I started with the spicy carrot soup which tasted nice but
got boring halfway through – it needed texture or something to lift it (or
maybe just a smaller portion, it was pretty big). My fig salad was very good; I
was having the same thing as a main that she had as a start, and it was
surprising that mine was kinda light on the cheese. That and the rotten risotto
tells me that the kitchen’s not really paying as much attention as it should
for a restaurant that has a drink on the menu priced at £1111. To sum up,
ladies and gentlemen of the jury: this place is fine for the price, but
inconsistent: when you go it might be good, or it might be mildly
disappointing. Good luck!
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