12 Aug 2024
James Cameron visits a country pub with a familiar name, but probably not either of the ones you were expecting…
You might not be aware of Leverstock Green if you have no specific reason to be there. It sits in the badlands between St Albans and Hemel Hempstead, just past the Centurion Club if you’re travelling up from Gorehambury.
Our specific reason is that the nice lady who looks after our guinea pig when we go on holiday lives there, and every time we drop him off we admire the tempting array of pubs and think we should visit them some time. Now, our guinea pig has reached quite a venerable age so we thought we had better get around to it before our specific reason goes on to the overgrown lawn in the sky.
Based on a recommendation we decided to go to The Plough, tucked away off the main street (or as main as you get in these parts), and a lovely little hidden gem it is.
The overall mood is elegant and bright, and it all felt very light and airy even in the sweltering heat of our visit. The art is jolly without being twee, although the distressing on the chairs is just a touch too uniform to achieve eclecticism. The entrance is abloom with floral arrangements and there is a very shady and inviting beer garden.
They deal with all and any dietary requirements very well, with a separate vegan menu and the right level of knowledge of ingredients.
Most of what is on offer is pretty standard fare, but there are a few intriguing diversions that distinguish it. For example, we had a starter of caramel chicken bites, an odd concoction of chicken as sticky toffee pudding. This was something I’d never experienced before and I’m not sure I would ever choose it again, but it is always nice to have your tastes pushed outside their comfort zone.
The other shared starter of falafel and beetroot bites was a bit more restrained but had a good level of spicing and lack of uniformity in each bite, adding a bit of excitement to each one. The only off note was the texture, some of them being slightly soggy.
For the mains, I was not brave enough to go for the Henry VIII burger, despite being severely tempted. Whilst the founder of the Church of England might be able to take on beef, chicken, gammon, bacon, egg, three types of cheese and assorted other burger paraphernalia it was a bit too much for a midweek luncheon.
I was also not keen on the public shaming of making it onto their Facebook Wall of Fame if I was successful, unlikely as that might be.
Instead I retreated back into predictability and had a very fine fish and chips. The fish itself was lovely and fleshy, and the chips walked the tightrope between soggy and crunchy well, though the batter could perhaps have been a bit crispier.
The Tennessee platter was absolutely festooned with meat and would have certainly been enough for many of our more gluttonous kings (Edward VII maybe?). This was a half rack of ribs and half a chicken, of which the ribs were the favourite having a good integral flavour of their own. The chicken was reliant on the Tennessee glaze which was slightly tame, lacking any 4th of July fireworks.
From the vegan menu it was exciting to see bangers and mash, slightly more rare than the usual vegan burger.
Unfortunately there was no vegan mash to be had so this ended up being bangers and jacket, not quite as iconic. Said jacket potato had been done in the microwave so it had that slimy and fragmented texture so reminiscent of 1980s culinary experimentation.
This was a shame as the vegan sausages and gravy were first-rate, and with their intended accompaniment this would have been absolutely superb.
Elsewhere in the plant-based arena the Louisiana Chick’n burger was an odd experience. It tasted very authentically of meat, but specifically of meat that hadn’t been cooked properly and so still had that gamey aftertaste. We did end up mentioning this to our server and received a 50 per cent discount on the dish, so they did at least handle it all very well.
In fact our server was lovely throughout, attentive and chatty. It really made us feel at home.
The food itself took quite a long time to arrive, but as we were in no real rush and it was far too hot to think about doing anything at speed we were happy to have a leisurely meal which extended naturally into desserts.
There were a range of four different sundaes on offer, of which we landed on the toffee apple.
This had great big chunks of caramelised apple pieces under an oversized novelty hat of whipped cream. It took a fair amount of digging to excavate the ice cream layer between these two but it was very nice when we did uncover it.
They also managed a very impressive vegan key lime. They had experimented with the formula a bit here as well, with a marshmallowy element within the filling of the pie rather than meringue on top but this worked well. It was paired with some vegan ice cream, again of a high quality in line with most of their plant based ingredients.
As well as the menu, the building itself had some nice and unexpected touches. There was a display of salt lumps by the bar, and in the male toilets you are treated to some classic saucy pin-up art (females had to make do with a guide to being a woman which doesn’t quite seem fair).
In fact, the whole ambiance was so nice, and the menu had such interesting quirks, that I think my expectations had been set a bit too high.
I was really thinking that this would be a quality gastropub experience in line with for example The Cock in town, whereas from a culinary point of view it’s probably lower down the scale towards the Blacksmiths Arms.
The pricing reflects this, and for three courses and drinks for four of us it came to £114 which is in no ways excessive.
With a bit of polishing on the cooking, however, this could easily become a destination country pub for dining.
